Santana - Ecuador (1978)

Some time ago a 2CD set appeared which purported to be sessions for a proposed late 70's album from Santana titled 'Ecuador', which would have been released around the same time as 'Amigos', 'Festival', 'Inner Secrets' and 'Marathon'. There is very little information available about this music, but the tracks ran the gamut from R&B to Latin to jazz, and two of the more jazz-influenced tracks, 'Oneness' and 'La Llave', later turned up in re-recorded form, with 'Oneness' becoming the title track of a 1979 Devadip album, while 'La Llave' appeared on the 'Swing Of Delight' album in 1980. The sound quality is excellent throughout, and Santana's playing is stellar, particularly on 'Love Is Here To Stay', while Greg Walker's vocals on 'I've Waited All My Life' are mesmerising. One of the best instrumentals on the disc was untitled, so I've named that 'Ecuador', as I felt that the album needed a title track, and I've removed a couple of tracks which had very little input from Santana. As 'Oneness', 'La Llave' and 'Angel Negro' were later included on official albums I've left them off as well, and that leaves a superb 46-minute album which would have fitted perfectly into the late 70's output of the band, all housed in a cover celebrating an example of Tigua art from Ecuador. 

Track listing

01 Together
02 I've Waited All My Life   
03 Cry Of The Wilderness   
04 Love Is Here To Stay   
05 Ecuador
06 God Made You (For Me)   
07 Hear My Song   
08 Life Is Just A Passing Parade   
09 I'll Be Waiting   

Santana with Eric Clapton - Jam At Wally's Place (1970)

In October 1970 Eric Clapton and the Dominoes arrived in Berkeley for some concerts at the Community Theatre, and while they were there Clapton decided to check out a young teenage kid called Neil Schon, who was creating quite a stir on the local scene. He was recording with Santana down at the Village Recorder in San Francisco, so Clapton and some of the Dominoes went down to check him out, and before long the Santana band and Eric and co were jamming away, although Santana himself has admitted that he was suffering from a particularly bad acid trip at the time and so was unable to participate. Eric was certainly impressed and invited Schon to play with him and the Dominoes at the Berkeley shows, and the results were so good that Clapton asked him to join the band. Schon declined the offer, going on to become a key member of Santana, and when he eventually left he formed the enormously successful Journey. The jam sessions at the recording studio were taped, and are made up of a few Santana songs with Clapton playing along, and a couple of loose jams, all of which feature some excellent playing from all participants, and so are well worth hearing.  

Track listing

01 Just Like You
02 Everything Is Coming Our Way
03 Batuka
04 Jamtana
05 Blues Shuffle Jam
06 Try To Make It Real Compared To What

Santana - Soul Sacrifice (1968)

When I discovered a double CD collection of 1968 demos from Santana I was surprised that I had never heard of it before, as I love the band and thought I'd heard just about everything that they'd recorded. The music itself is just what you would expect - raw, extended versions of some songs from their first album, long jam sessions, and a few covers, and all in excellent quality, but trying to track down any information about them was fraught with difficulties. It turns out that these tracks have been packaged and re-packaged many, many times, by many different labels and in many different forms, and every release has different information about them. Some claim they are all recorded in 1968, immediately before Santana signed to CBS in 1969. Other sources say that some of the tracks were from Neal Schon's audition, which would date them as 1970, and 'Jam In E' does sound like someone trying to impress with their guitar virtuosity. There are some that try to date a few of the recordings to Pacific Recording Studios, San Mateo, California in 1969, and then there are those 'experts' who claim that some of these tracks aren't even Santana at all, but a soundalike band who were signed up after Santana's first album was a hit, and were persuaded to record tracks with a similar sound in 1969. In the end I gave up trying to work out when they were recorded as the information was just so conflicting, and decided to just pick out the best of them and try to compile them into a more listenable form. Some of the jams went on for up to 10 minutes, while the shorter songs were generally more concise and focused, so for this album I've taken the extended demos of the four tracks that eventually ended up on 1969's 'Santana', and added a nice take on a blues classic and a few other previously unheard instrumentals, to make up an album which could have easily been released in 1968, a full year before their actual debut came out. Later on I'll be posting a second volume made up of the best of the longer tracks, but for now enjoy some great music from an emerging Santana. If anyone has a definitive explanation of where these recordings came from then I'd love to hear it.  

Track listing

01 Evil Ways
02 Acapulco Sunrise
03 Everyday I Have The Blues
04 Persuasion
05 Coconut Grove
06 Jingo
07 As The Years Go By
08 Soul Sacrifice

Santana - Hot Tamales (1969)

For this second volume of Santana demos I've picked the best of the extended jam sessions that actually sound like Santana to me. 'Jam In E' and 'Jammin' Home' don't have the Latin flavour of early Santana, and so I think that they really are Neal Schon's audition recordings from 1970, with a heavier rock guitar sound more to the fore, and while I'm sure 'Santana Jam' really is the band, it doesn't really go anywhere so I've omitted those three tracks. That leaves us with five recordings from the early 1969 version of the band, and with a few nips and tucks it's an excellent showcase for what the group could accomplish when they were left to stretch things out as long as was needed. As before, if anyone has a definitive history for these tracks then I'd love to hear it. 

Track listing

01 El Corazon Manda

02 Hot Tamales

03 Fried Neckbones And Home Fries

04 Jam In G Minor

05 Latin Tropical

Santana - Folsom Street (1971)

Between November 1970 and January 1971 Santana visited various studios to record tracks for their third album. The sessions were productive, and as well as the songs that appeared on the album, a number of tracks were recorded that never made it onto the eventually released 'Santana III'. The band recorded the songs differently at each studio, with flute more noticable on the Columbia Studios sessions, and the Wally Heider Studios sessions having a harder, dark edge to the recordings, which are the takes that I've used here. All of the tracks are instrumentals, including the versions of 'Gumbo' and 'Everybody's Everything', but they all include superb playing from the whole band, and from Carlos Santana and new recruit Neil Schon in particular. It's also rumoured that Eric Clapton sat in with the band for some jams, and 'Batuka (Jam With Blues)' is one of those. 

Track listing

01 Ballin'
02 Folsom Street
03 Everybody's Everything
04 Batuka (Jam With Blues)
05 Fried Neckbones And Home Fries
06 Gumbo
07 Banbeye