Santana – Abraxas

The second album of Santana group has been released in September 1970, a little bit more than a year after their debut album. On the new album Abraxas, group still presented quite new face. Their sound, rhythm and style were real groundbreaking combination so shortly it has been named just „Santana style” and copied by many other groups. The beginnings of the style came from San Francisco fusion joining the psychedelic rock of the sixties with some idiomatic motives of latin jazz and rhythmic patterns of salsa, blues and gospel. A lots of inspirations gave this music great variety of meanings and the tittle „Abraxas” shines a light  for connections to esoteric, even some sort of Gnostic ideas.
Literary inspiration of the title came from Hermann Hesse’s novel Demian and short fragment is cited on the back side of the cover: „We stood before it and began to freeze inside from the exertion. We questioned the painting, berated it, made love to it, prayed to it: We called it mother, called it whore and slut, called it our beloved, called it Abraxas...”. Directly related to this inspiration is cover art featuring Mati Klarwein’s 1961 painting Annunciation. This cover design and Hesse’s works became inspiration for whole generation.
Sound profile of the group in Woodstock era was presented on first two albums. It can be considered in four main aspects – rich and tense guitar solos by Carlos Santana, rhythm and blues Hammond B-3 organ played by Gregg Rolie, vocals in San Francisco psychedelic style and huge rhythm section of bassist Dave Brown, drummer Mike Shrieve plus two conga and percussion players Mike Carrabello and José Chepito Areas.

Santana – Abraxas (1970)

Characteristic feature of first Santana line-up’s music is that nothing is fully obvious. Rhythm section based on sharp, energetic percussion drive by Shrieve’s drums and steady, sometimes even lazy Brown’s bas guitar makes a lots of crossing and syncopated structures but isn’t apparently Latin kind of rock or all the more jazz-rock. It would be enough interesting if it was attempt of being somewhere between styles and cultures. The same with the harmonic structures which sound quite progressive yet they are predominantly blues with some straight adds.
Guitar solos by Carlos Santana were unprecedented in rock music contribution to the style of the group and its true hallmark. His precise and bright sound was counterbalance for dark vibrating Rolie’s Hommond. Clear and very precise guitar phrases became the center of musical narration. Although guitar was in center of rock since it’s very beginning, this kind of playing was something new and original. Great hits of this album were Black Magic Woman / Gypsy Queen by Peter Green and Gabor Szabo or Oye Como Va by Tito Puente but revolutionary number one hit for decade occured Carlos Santana’s Samba Pa Ti – nice and easy piece with charming phrases and carefully slow and mild accompaniment. It is one of most beautiful melodies in history of rock music, used in endless repetitions and covers. José Feliciano even sung this theme with his own words. In a short time this tune became obligatory for young guitar players and every high school party. On the opposite side of the Santana group’s style was situated Gregg Rolie’s Hope You’re Feeling Better with fiercely intensive rhythm section and one more great guitar solo.

Miles Davis – Bitches Brew

★★★★★

When we meet great artist we always have problem with comprehending his work – the bigger he or she is, the worst problem have anyone who tries to capture in words his individual experience. When Miles Davis (1926-1991) was active musician and artist, standard procedure in writing about his music was to observe small range of his work, for example any of his records or concerts and asking why this comes after another or what can it means in context of something he did before. And it was quite satisfied job because every record of this artist was full, uncompromised statement of artist’s will. Critics had a lot of work to do. But after artist is gone in uproar of eternal jam session, we have different standpoint on his work. It’s complete in new meaning, now in every element of his output we see a piece of the whole and now we can fully understand how great musician he was.
Month after In a Silent Way has been released, in the end of August 1969, Davis back to the same CBS 30th Street Studio in New York. And while in previous album base was still quintet from Filles de Kilimanjaro augmented occasionally with few more pianists and guitarist, the Bitches Brew ultimately ends Davis' quintets era. All instruments except trumpet were multiplied, on reeds played Wayne Shorter (soprano sax) and Bennie Maupin (bass clarinet). The rest was huge rhythmic section with three drummers Lenny White, Jack de Johnette, Charles Alias playing congas and drums (only in Miles Runs the Voodoo Down) and percussionist Jim Riley playing shaker and congas, bass player Dave Holland with Harvey Brooks on Fender bass, Chick Corea, Joe Zawinul and Larry Young on electric piano and John McLaughlin on electric guitar – in many parts all of them playing simultaneously. John McLaughling is playing rhythmic passages, but in some parts he is folowing also modal improvisations and melodic patterns. In many fragments his guitar is standalone as much as Wayne Shorter’s soprano. Thus these two artists play the role of counterpointing Davis' phrases, almost the same way as John Coltrane and Julian Adderly did in the Kind of Blue sextett.

Miles Davis – Bitches Brew

Such setting allowed this section to found the new kind of sound and rhythmic intensity, clearly different from mainstream, cool jazz or hard bop. It was closer to psychedelic funk-rock, sometimes called acid-rock which is suitable especially for its trance elements adopted by Davis in 1969. With loosely constructed wide phrases he was building emotional tension without dividing improvisations into traditional choruses. In fact some compositions still preserve traditional model – for example in Spanish Key – but even close up with traditional forms can't change the general aspect of motif and phrase repeatability. This way he gave pre-ambient sensation of time and space continuance. But internally this music is diverse and highly expressive. In short piece on the 3rd side titled John McLaughlin Miles Davis even did not appear. Next side trumpet is predominating and in end piece of the album, Wayne Shorter’s Sanctuary, Davis played one of greatest cool solo ever.
The lineup recorded in studio was filled out by producer Teo Macero, and once more, just like proceeding In a Silent Way, recorded material was mixed and dubbed, using multi-tracking and tape loops. Inspired by works of studio composers from Experimental Music Center Columbia-Princeton and many other experiments of 1940s and 1950s, using fragments of recorded music, sometimes in very small particles, Macero created construction of whole pieces, building them in the way, musicians never heard while playing. This innovative approach decided Bitches Brew is one of turning points in history of XX-century music. Released in April 1970 and sold in more than half million copies, Bitches Brew became one of greatest Davis’ successes. It was also great achievement of musicians involved in this project, deciding for what they were doing in next dacade.
Not only music has changed, gatefold sleeve designed by Mati Klarwein clearly indicates counterculture of late sixties as reference for intellectual attitude. Headline on the sleeve, over main tittle says: „Directions in Music by Miles Davis”. Literally the same as it was in released January 1969 Filles de Kilimanjaro. And connection between these records is clear. The process of revolutionary transition from opposed modal and cool jazz into fusion of these traditions which started in 1968 when he recorded the Filles de Kilimanjaro in Bitches Brew had fulfilled. Modern jazz of 1960s gone away and future never looked as cool or modern as it once happened. Some modern jazz lovers did not accept these changes and criticized records from electric period of Miles Davis, but the fact is, society has changed and shortly nothing was the same as usual.