Santana - Abraxas

Abraxas is the second studio album by American (Latin) rock band Santana, originally released in September 1970 via Columbia Records.

Abraxas showed a musical maturation and consolidated on the interest generated by their first album, Santana (1969), and their highly acclaimed live performance at Woodstock in August 1969.

The band’s blues-rock-salsa-soul-fusion is surprisingly heavy, but the band also excels on the mellower moments of “Incident At Neshabur”, which hints towards their future fusion oriented direction, as well as on “Samba Pa Ti”, where Carlos’ soulful guitar playing complements a slow, seductive rhythm.

Abraxas contains more discernible individual songs than the debut, with high points including their definitive takes on Fleetwood Mac’s “Black Magic Woman” and Tito Puente’s “Oye Como Va”, two soulful songs that remain radio favourites to this day.

“Samba Pa Ti” along with “Black Magic Woman” helped underpin the truly unique blend of Latin American / Blues / Rock style created by the band.

Abraxas was deemed "culturally, historically, or artistically significant" by the US Library Of Congress and was selected for preservation in their National Recording Registry in 2016.

This album is a 2022 repress on 180 gram black vinyl housed in a gatefold sleeve with a printed insert, pressed in Europe via Columbia Records.