Santana - Amigos (Speaker Corners)
Carlos Santana – guitars, background vocals, percussion, congas, güiro [click here to see more vinyl featuring Carlos Santana]
Greg Walker – vocals
Tom Coster – acoustic piano, Fender Rhodes electric piano, Hammond organ, Moog synthesizer, ARP Pro Soloist, ARP Odyssey, ARP String Ensemble, Hohner Clavinet D6, background vocals
David Brown – bass guitar
Leon "Ndugu" Chancler – drums, timbales, Remo Rototoms, percussion, congas, background vocals
Armando Peraza – congas, bongos, background vocals, vocal on "Gitano"
Ivory Stone – background vocals
Julia Tillman Waters – background vocals
Maxine Willard Waters – background vocals
Written by David Rubinson (A1), Leon Ndugu Chancler (A1, A2, B2), Tom Coster (A1, A2, A3, B2, B3), Carlos Santana (A3, B3), Armando Peraza (B1), David Brown (B4), Ray Gardner (B4)
1 LP, gatefold sleeve
Original analog Master tape : YES
Heavy Press : 180g
Record color : black
Speed : 33 RPM
Size : 12'’
Stereo
Studio
Record Press : Pallas
Label : Speakers Corner
Original Label : Columbia
Recording: 1976 at Wally Heider Recording Studios, San Francisco, by Fred Catero and David Rubinson
Production: David Rubinson & Friends, Inc.
Originally released in 1976
Reissued in 2013
Tracks :
Side A :
- Dance Sister Dance
- Take Me With You
- Let Me
Side B :
- Gitano
- Tell Me Are You Tired
- Europa
- Let It Shine
Reviews :
"By the release of Amigos, the Santana band's seventh album, only Carlos Santana and David Brown remained from the band that conquered Woodstock, and only Carlos had been in the band continuously since. Meanwhile, the group had made some effort to arrest its commercial slide, hiring an outside producer, David Rubinson, and taking a tighter, more up-tempo, and more vocal approach to its music. The overt jazz influences were replaced by strains of R&B/funk and Mexican folk music. The result was an album more dynamic than any since Santana III in 1971. "Let It Shine" (number 77), an R&B-tinged tune, became the group's first chart single in four years, and the album returned Santana to Top Ten status." AllMusic Review by William Ruhlmann
Santana’s music is like the game of Mikado – a tight bundle of pieces in various styles that is difficult to handle, even for experienced musicians. No whether the sticks are labelled funk, jazz, rock, R & B, or folk: when you try to pick out just one of these, the whole lot vibrates alongside.
It seems relatively simple (and is often attempted) to try and sort out track lists according to more or less commercially oriented compilations. And having fastidiously set up the ranking and astutely discussed it in your circle of friends, you can sit back and enjoy the brilliant guitar sound of such blockbusters as "Caravanserai" (Columbia KC 31610) or "Welcome" (Columbia PC 32455) – quality rules the day!
In his seventh album the guitar guru is once again surrounded by numerous freshly recruited supporting musicians and the star producer David Rubinson. The latter watches carefully over the development of this project, which is highly reminiscent of the early Santana sound. A perceptible infatuation with the vocals, or the wealth of buzzing, pulsating, clattering, clicking rhythms, or yet again the inimitable bubbling, frothy guitar solos: a Santana LP is simply unthinkable without all this. Why then should one try to pick out the various styles, genres or consumer groups when this record belongs to his best and most important six, seven – or maybe even eight? At the end of the day, we all remain amigos with Santana.
Ratings :
Allmusic : 4 / 5 , Discogs : Rate Your Music :