The San Francisco Bay Area rock scene of the late '60s was one that encouraged radical experimentation and discouraged the type of mindless conformity that's often plagued corporate rock. When one considers just how different
Santana,
Jefferson Airplane,
Moby Grape, and
the Grateful Dead sounded, it becomes obvious just how much it was encouraged. In the mid-'90s, an album as eclectic as
Abraxas would be considered a marketing exec's worst nightmare. But at the dawn of the 1970s, this unorthodox mix of rock, jazz, salsa, and blues proved quite successful. Whether adding rock elements to salsa king
Tito Puente's "Oye Como Va," embracing instrumental jazz-rock on "Incident at Neshabur" and "Samba Pa Ti," or tackling moody blues-rock on
Fleetwood Mac's "Black Magic Woman," the band keeps things unpredictable yet cohesive. Many of the
Santana albums that came out in the '70s are worth acquiring, but for novices,
Abraxas is an excellent place to start. ~ Alex Henderson