Santana-Festival,Moonflower,Amigos Anyone?

[KELLY WELSH]

I know there is real love for Santana and his first three highly acclaimed albums,and rightly so,but nearly as good are his trio of mid seventies albums,starting with Amigos (76),continuing with Festival (77),and ending with studio/live double CD Moonflower (77).All three albums are magical,and feature Carlos Santana playing some wonderful guitar,but Moonflower is just a class apart.Great studio tracks including She's Not There,I'll Be Waiting,Flor D'Luna,and the brilliant Transcendence,and then the live cuts which feature the brilliant percussion of Raul Rekow and Jose "Chepito" Areas.Favourites including Dance Sister Dance,Europa ,Black Magic Woman/Gypsy Queen and Soul Sacrifice just leave you breathless! Carlos is on fire during these recordings! Three great albums!
Any love out there for these records?

[Guitarplyrjvb]

I like Moonflower better than Lotus! Good stuff!

[Paulrus]

There are plenty of gems scattered throughout these albums, but they're more of a hodgepodge of styles than those early albums. You almost have to enjoy them as a time capsule of popular American music circa 1976-77 as much as anything else. As a kid growing up in southern California these albums certainly got plenty of airtime on FM radio, though I'm sure there are some who are put off by the disco or funk elements in some tracks. Still, these are outweighed by the many juicy songs and great playing throughout IMO.

I'll also add a shout out to Tom Coster's keyboard work. I think he does a great job bridging the early Hammond-driven sound with a more fusion-y Jan Hammer-ish style.

[calyx]

Some fine stuff on those albums still...

btw, not to hijack this thread, but I'm going to see Santana next summer in the South of France. I'm confused about who's in the band right now, but the talk of a "classic Santana band" reunion with Shrieve et al. This wouldn't be the line-up for this summer, would it ?

[KELLY WELSH]

I like Moonflower better than Lotus! Good stuff!

Sure are two great albums though!

[flowerking]

I love Moonflower. Carnival/Let the Children Play is a great piece and Europa is a wonderfully emotive song. But my all-time favorite Santana song is Dance Sister Dance.

[profusion]

I love all those albums and would add Inner Secrets from 1978, which is basically the same band. Probably the most R&B-oriented version of Santana, but that's a good thing in my book.

[happytheman]

I like Moonflower a lot as well.. Some mighty fine playing from Carlos.. like above not to hijack this thread but Carlos will coming to our area this fall to play at LOCKN' festival... Should be nice.. Last saw Carlos on the Welcome album tour..

[nosebone]

Always loved Moonflower.

Carlos never sounded better imo.

[Hobo Chang Ba]

Moonflower only (of the trio above).

[MYSTERIOUS TRAVELLER]

Moonflower is the standout... but I'm not really a fan of the mixing of studio and live recordings on the same side of an LP, let alone a CD. So Lotus wins for live albums by Santana

[Trane]

I like Moonflower better than Lotus! Good stuff!

i'd also tend to think so, because She's Not There and El Morrocco are really stand out tracks

I love all those albums and would add Inner Secrets from 1978, which is basically the same band. Probably the most R&B-oriented version of Santana, but that's a good thing in my book.

Yup, Secrets definitely belongs on that group... I even prefer it to Festival, which I find rather spotty.

Moonflower is the standout... but I'm not really a fan of the mixing of studio and live recordings on the same side of an LP, let alone a CD. So Lotus wins for live albums by Santana

I know what you mean... this mix of studio/live gives it an appearance of "scraping the botttom of the drawer assemblage", but it's definitely not the case.

[Halmyre]

Moonflower is the standout... but I'm not really a fan of the mixing of studio and live recordings on the same side of an LP, let alone a CD. So Lotus wins for live albums by Santana

Never understood why they did that, unless they had difficulty sequencing the live and studio tracks separately.

[BobM]

The original vinyl pressing of Moonflower had great music, but it hurt my ears. I picked up the reissue and am loving it. Much smoother.

[Trane]

A main reason why Moonflower is also not as good as Lotus, is that it features a fair amount of Festival (a sizeable part of side A, if memory serves) and that's the weaker one in the 70's.

Never understood why they did that, unless they had difficulty sequencing the live and studio tracks separately.

I'd have rather seen She's Not there and El Morrocco on either Festival or Inner Secrets, in place of a few duds on either one of those.

[nosebone]

Dance Sister Dance and Europa are stellar on Moonflower

[jkelman]

It's funny, but I'm not a huge Santana fan, despite having most everything through to Moonflower. But one album that seems to be dissed a lot that I really like is Festival - yeah, it's absolutely a song-based, dance album. But there's something about it that I really enjoy...perhaps just the overt positivism. But that, Amigos and Moonflower are, for me, fine recordings, though I tend to like Caravanserai the most of all.

[tallliman]

Europa on Moonflower just drips with emotion. Might have to put that on in a bit. Amigos is a solid album too, almost a more commercial version of the first few albums.

[Vic2012]

I have Amigos. Not a bad album. It's got 3 or 4 good songs. it's not the first 3 or Caravanserai, or even Borboletta.

[wideopenears]

Moonflower gets my love, and the other studio albums from that period I like a lot as well. Lotus is still my fave live Santana document, though...it's raw, and wooly, and has a certain transcendence.....

Actually, I think there's no duds until Zebop, which I thought was a noticable step down for Santana.

[Trane]

Dance Sister Dance and Europa are stellar on Moonflower

which is why I've neer bothered buying Amigos on CD... It's all i really need on that album (with maybe Gitano)

I have Amigos. Not a bad album. It's got 3 or 4 good songs. it's not the first 3 or Caravanserai, or even Borboletta.

Yup, it's not a strong album either, but the highlights are really stellar

[Onomatopoeic]

Actually, I think there's no duds until Zebop...

I'm guessing you don't recall Santana's album "Oneness" from about 1978/79, or haven't heard it.

A major dud for Santana, if there ever was a dud for Santana. Gawd awful *boring* album. Went into the cutout bins a year after release. Was out of print for years.

[Trane]

I'm guessing you don't recall Santana's album "Oneness" from about 1978/79, or haven't heard it.

A major dud for Santana, if there ever was a dud for Santana. Gawd awful *boring* album. Went into the cutout bins a year after release. Was out of print for years.

sorrrrrrryyyy, but that a Carlos solo album, not a Santana band thing...

And it's often brilliant, as is Swing Of Delight, Carlos solo album follow-up

[MYSTERIOUS TRAVELLER]

it's often brilliant, as is Swing Of Delight, Carlos solo album follow-up

QFT... two very good albums there, even if they are a complete departure from the "Santana" sound

[bRETT]

sorrrrrrryyyy, but that a Carlos solo album, not a Santana band thing...

And it's often brilliant, as is Swing Of Delight, Carlos solo album follow-up

I'd say Swing of Delight is way better. A full fledged jazz album with an amazing support cast (Hancock, Shorter, etc). Oneness is more a mishmosh, though the opening instrumental suite is great.