Celebrating both the 50th anniversary of Santana’s iconic 1969 self titled debut album as well as their historic career launching 45 minute set on the afternoon of August 16, 1969 at the Woodstock Music & Art Fair in Bethel, New York, famed Mexican-American guitar legend Carlos Santana fittingly offers up a full on psychedelicized eleven track sixty four minute jam of African flavoured acid rock world beat freak out with Africa Speaks.
Santana’s twenty-fifth studio album in fifty years, Africa Speaks was produced by storied Grammy Award winning California based record producer Rick Ruben (Public Enemy, Beastie Boys, Run-DMC, Slayer, The Cult, ZZ Top, Dixie Chicks, Red Hot Chili Peppers, U2, Green Day, Johnny Cash, Metallica, Neil Diamond, Weezer, Adele, Donovan) at his own Shangri La Studios in Malibu, California. Reportedly recorded over a period of just ten days, Santana enlisted the help of Spanish born Grammy nominated recording artist Concha Buika to write most of the album’s lyrics and handle the lions share of lead vocals (along with Mercury Prize nominated singer Laura Mvula).
The album opens to the familiar strains of Santana’s signature solo percussion courtesy of wife and drummer Cindy Blackman (Pharoah Sanders, Ron Carter, Cassandra Wilson, Angela Bofill, Bill Laswell, Lenny Kravitz, Joe Henderson) followed by Santana’s tone setting spoken word introduction:
Deep in the jungle
Beyond the reach of greed
You hear the voices of spirits
With their frequency of light
Making sounds like the crackling of stars at night
Communicating with plants, animals, and mankind
Affirming the universal truth
All and everything was conceived here in Africa
The cradle of civilization
What follows is a joyous flurry of percussion, rhythm, impassioned vocal stylings and the unmistakable guitar sound of Carlos Santana only he can conjure, the one true last man standing in the realm of shape shifting psychedelic guitar gods Jimi Hendrix (1942-1970) Jerry Garcia (1942-1995) Randy California (1951-1997) Prince (1958-2016).
Rating: 8/10
Star Rating: 4/5
2019 Song Of The Day Club 18/52
Song Of The Day Club 