This One is a Keeper
4
By Wan Cesar
I’ve been a huge fan of Carlos in all his iterations since I was 16. I’m 71 now. With one listen, this album jumps up to one of my favorites and one of his best. DMC and Smokey are OK, but it’s the rest of the album where Carlos gets real serious. Moody, soulful in a Latino kind of way, funky, jazzy, and when needed, a screaming guitar. It doesn’t hurt that Carlos enlisted Miles, the incredible Cindy Blackman, and Paolo Rusticelli. The album sounds to me like a great cubist painting. Sounds are seemingly random and unexpected, but they all fit. I love Carlos’s more accessible music but we have some deep cuts here, and they make more sense than some of his other deep cuts. I rank it up there with Oneness, as one of his truly great albums. Only reason I didn’t give it five stars, is that iTunes cut out three pieces that are included in the Apple Radio version of the album. Two are wonderful pieces he already recorded elsewhere, and one is an OK Michael Jackson collaboration, but they fit in very well with the rest of the album. Apple, why did you cut out the other pieces? Gracias Maestro. Que Viva Carlos Santana!
