CARLOS SANTANA — Havana Moon (review)

CARLOS SANTANA — Havana Moon album cover Album · 1983 · RnB Buy this album from MMA partners
2.5/5 ·
Sean Trane
Guesting are the Fabulous Thunderbirds, Booker T Jones, Greg Walker, the Santana percussion members, the Tower Of Power horns, Leonardo Jiminez, Jose Santana, Willie Nelson and The Santana band.

Well I must say that I sort of avoided this album because of its suspicious title (little did I know it was named on a Chuck Berry tune) and a no-less suspicious artwork hinting at romantic Latino dance music. But having come to my sense with the introduction of Santana in our beloved Archives, I had to rent this album especially sionce Carlos Santana is on the whole more progressively-inclined than the group bearing his name. However, this album is probably the least prog of his solo azlbum, being more of a blues rock rather than a jazz-)rock. Actually this album is a bit like many 80’s blues record with a myriad of guests (Santana returning the favour on many other such albums) but the general results being a pot-pourri of influences making rather uneven and unfocused album. And Havana moon is no exception. Don’t get me wrong here, there are many excellent Blues tracks on here, but this has too much of of slick sound to sound authentic. Be it the Fab Thunderbirds or Booker T, playing with Carlos on Bo Diddley or Chuck Berry tracks, or having the Tower of Power horns might have some kind of commercial impact, artistically speaking, this does not do much; but at least we only have to suffer through only one track with Willie Nelson singing. Let’s just say that Carlos and Country rock do not mix. Què alegria!!

Not really an essential album, to say the least, but hardly a bad one either. Just an 80’s blues album, neither excellent and certainly not bad, but pointless for a proghead, much more so in regards to his otherwise excellent solo career. A way, this album prefigures the famous John Lee Hooker album, The Healer, where Carlos’ guitars will revive the grand old master’s career.

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