Santana Corazon (2014)

From pop-mag.com

Legendary virtuoso Carlos Santana has released his next major album, Corazón, a fifteen track joint labor of love featuring collaborations with some of the biggest Latin music icons in the world. Almost 15 years ago, Santana’s Supernatural went super platinum and won nine Grammys, including Album of the Year. In the same vein, Corazón purposely invokes Supernatural’s vibe with soulful guest artists rounding out Santana’s first Spanish-language record of his career.

International pop star Gloria Estefan performs passionate renditions of ‘Bejos de Lejos / Beijo de Longe’ in Spanish and in Portuguese with Santana’s guitar solo complementing the tune’s sultry Samba-inspired bass rhythm. Jazz elder statesman Wayne Shorter and jazz/rock drummer Cindy Blackman, Santana’s wife, weave together a meditational Love Supreme-esque movement with ‘Yo Soy La Luz (I am the light)’.

Higher octane tracks on the album are entertaining remakes like Jarabe de Palo’s 1996 hit ‘La Flaca’, featuring Colombian sensation Juanes, a rendition poised to be a multiplatinum single similar to 1999’s ‘Smooth’ featuring Rob Thomas. A club mix remake of Santana’s own ‘Oye Como Va’ with Miami-based rapper Pitbull, and the Bob Marley classic ‘Iron Lion Zion’ featuring reggae superstar Ziggy Marley with hip hop group ChocQuibTown are well-preserved and favorable mashup moments on the album produced by Lester Mendez.

The concept and design of Corazón’s artwork is created by Madrid-based art collective Boa Mistura and illustrates a fiery psychedelic image of Carlos Santana detailed with a vivid layering of birds, flowers, ubiquitous eyes and colorful hearts. The album’s guest artists hail from Mexico, Argentina, Venezuela, Spain, Brazil, and the U.S. adding to the love of all things historically and culturally Latin represented on the record.

With Corazón being Santana’s first Spanish-language, distinctively Latin album, there is a certain completeness and circle of energy with the artists that will make this project most memorable for fans around the world. Another great thing to note is that Santana’s Corazón Tour is currently taking place throughout the US and Canada, but for fans who won’t make it, be sure to watch the airing of his recent concert in Guadalajara, ‘Corazón, Live from Mexico: Live It To Believe It’.

From allmusic.com

Corazón is Carlos Santana’s first album for a major label since 2002’s Shaman. It marks his reunion with executive producer Clive Davis, who masterminded 1999’s multi-platinum Supernatural. Billed by RCA as his “first Latin album,” Corazón is the studio counterpart to the guitarist’s HBO Latino concert special that featured his band performing with a host of Latin music superstars in his native Mexico. The singing was (as it is here) mostly in Spanish.

For the most part, Santana actually sounds hungry again. His studio band is filled with killers, including drummer Dennis Chambers, timbalero Karl Perazza, and conguero Raul Rekow. Opener “Saideira” features his trademark tone in a passionate, stinging, gritty exchange with vocalist Samuel Rosa, from the Brazilian rock and reggae band Skank.

Jittering, insistent horns and layers of percussion push both men to escalate the battle. Juanes lends his soulful croon to first single “La Flaca.” It’s got an anthemic hook with layers of backing vocals framing Santana’s tight and tasty solos. Los Fabulosos Cadillacs back the guitarist on “Mal Bicho,” an aggressive, careening cumbia. “Oye 2014” is a Latin hip-hop reprise of “Oye Como Va” with the now ubiquitous Pitbull. Though interesting, it falls flat. Bob Marley’s “Iron Lion Zion” features Ziggy Marley and Colombian rappers ChocQuibTown in a fusion that works, melding cumbia, reggae, and hip-hop.

In “Una Noche en Napoles” — a cover of Pink Martini’s “Una Notte a Napoli” — Mexican-American singer Lila Downs, Spanish cantaora Niña Pastori, and Argentine folksinger Soledad meet Santana’s nylon-string guitar in a steamy buleria that weaves their voices yet retains their distinctive individual styles. Gloria Estefan appears on the lilting pop son “Besos de Lejos” and gives Santana a chance to showcase his rumba chops. Romeo Santos turns in a non-bachata performance on “Margarita.”

His bilingual lyrics and lilting high tenor are wed to airy soulful Caribbean R&B. Santana ties it to the earth with taut phrasing through a biting solo. Miguel’s “Indy” is babymaker pop-soul with a spiritual lyric. The composer sings and plays guitar accompanied only by Santana and Perazza. The jazzy salsa of “Yo Soy la Luz” was composed by Santana and features not only wife Cindy Blackman on drums, but also saxophonist Wayne Shorter playing sweltering fills and a gorgeous solo.

While it’s true that this is another attempt to repackage Santana for a new audience, to dismiss Corazón for that reason would discount the creativity and innovation currently at work in the diverse world of Latin popular music. In addition, Santana himself shows renewed vitality as a musician. While some cuts are forgettable, the guitarist’s engagement with Latin pop is quite satisfying.

Santana Corazon (2014)

From listherereviews.com

Santana’s latest album Corazon, is the guitar legends 22nd album. Santana has always been known for being a colorful guitarist and Corazon is no different. While Santana’s playing style has remained largely the same throughout his career, the biggest change on Corazon is that the album is almost entirely sung in Spanish, something Santana and his band have never attempted in over forty years of playing music together.

Carlos Santana, the bands front man was born in Autlan de Navarro, Jalisco, Mexico. He began playing guitar at the age of eight, and has named Ritchie Valens as one of his earliest influences, as Valens was one of the few Latino guitarists to make an impact in rock music in the 1950’s.

After Carlos moved to Tijuana, Mexico as a child, his family eventually moved to California and settled in San Francisco, and after discovering the cities booming music scene in the 1960’s Carlos decided to pursue a career in music after several years of working odd jobs. The band would go to receive international fame and critical acclaim after their performance at Woodstock in 1969.

The album’s first song “Saideria” features Samuel Rosa, and kicks off the album which bursts with Latin flavor from the very first note. On first listen the track is incredibly colorful and vibrant, setting the stage perfectly for the rest of the album. Over the course of Corazon, Carlos teams up with various Latin music musicians such as Gloria Estefan, Nina Pastori, and even Ziggy Marley, the famous son of reggae musician Bob Marley, leading Santana to stray slightly out of the box, while keeping up the vibrancy that makes the album stand out. “Oye 2014” shows the relevence that Carlos wants to keep as he features Pitbull, a Mexican rapper, who intersperses Spanish with English as he raps on the track.

Over the years, Santana has done some great collaborations, particularly with Michelle Branch and Rob Thomas, but the Pitbull collaboration can join the long list of interesting musical pairings that Santana has participated in. While the two genres are very different from each other, on “Oye 2014” both musicians complement each other, while proving that Carlos hasn’t gone creatively dry, much like his older industry peers, such as Bruce Springsteen. “Besos de Lejos” features Latin singer Gloria Estefan, and while she hasn’t released any new music of her own in several years, on “Besos” she has smooth vocals, that compliments Santana’s “talking” guitar.

The Latin influence on the song is right in your face on this track, and it will take several listens in order to hear all of the instruments. While some fans might be frustrated with Spanish being the album’s dominant language, Santana has crafted an album where language barriers do not matter, as the entire album is enjoyable regardless of whether you are fluent in Spanish.

The last song on the album “Amor Correspondido” featuring Diego Torres is slightly more pop sounding than the rest of the record. Diego’s vocals are the main focus of the song and his soulful voice makes the track a beautiful one. On Corazon, it is clear that Carlos has not missed a beat, and while he is considered a veteran in the music business, he still plays like he hasn’t aged a day since the bands early years. Still exuberant and descriptive in his playing, Corazon proves that Santana will never lose his legendary status.