Soul Sacrifice: The Santana Story

I pretty much lost track of Santana after the third album, Santana III, until his resurgence a few years back. This book nicely fills in the gaps and makes the band's somewhat long and complicated discography finally clear as to where one should look back for lost gems. Mostly, way back. But no matter. Santana's music was always a cut above, going back to the early days in San Fran, no small thanks to the use of Latin percussion on many of the classic cuts. You won't find out much dirt from this tome, written by a former fan mag editor. But you will be taken back to a time when music making was slightly less corporate, though this was one of the bands that helped corporatize rock after Woodstock. This is a better written band bio than one would expect, though too light on previously unseen photos.

First, I am a professional guitarist of 25 years who believes Carlos Santana has only four guitar peers: Jimi Hendrix, Eric Clapton, George Benson, and John McLaughlin. So this is a biased review. And now the review:It's about time a book attempts to document the history and significance of this important musician and band. Mr. Leng, a first-time author, has done a fine job. Here are six challenges that Mr. Leng met with impressive success:(1) Explaining how a very specific aspect of Mexican music - playing melodies expressively - influenced Carlos's style.(2) Explaining how each individual member influenced the band's sound.(3) Explaining the difficulties of keeping everyone - from pop fans to jazz fans to record companies to managers to musicians - happy.(4) Explaining Carlos's conscious recording of "corny" commercial music to finance the recording of his more adventuresome music.(5) Explaining how Carlos is trapped (for better and for worse) in the "Santana Band."(6) Explaining the true weight / quality / genius / level / importance / influence of Carlos and the band.(7) Explaining the greatness (and that's an understatement) of the percussionists which have played in the band, particularly Armando Peraza.(8) Documenting the long list of non-Santana band artists with whom Carlos has recorded.Sooner or later a professional music historian will publish a more comprehensive book - say 1,000 pages. This book will be aimed at more serious students of music history.The book will expand as follows:(a) It will discuss Carlos's equipment. Carlos has influenced electric guitar and amplifier design more than any other modern guitarist except Jimi Hendrix. (b) It will explain in musical terms why Carlos's playing has so much "feeling." Put simply, Carlos uses a large variety of subtle nuances to make every note count. Like Pavarotti and Isaac Stern.(c) It will contain hundreds of photos.I wish I could be the author of this great book. I would title it "Espiritu - Carlos Santana."

This biography does an excellant job in covering the early life of Carlos Santana and his entire career in his band. The information is based mostly on facts, and doesn't offer enough emotional insight from Carlos and his other band members. This book also didn't have enough about Carlos Santana's spiritual and political views. Basically, this book does an amazing job at covering the chronology of the band,information about each album, and information about the different guys who played with the band at one time or another. Look mainly to this book for straight facts and an excellant biography of Carlos' early life and the beginning of the first Santana band. Don't be surprised if there isn't much emotional insight or highly detailed information about the Santana band past 1974. The only thing better than this book would be if Carlos wrote his own biography.

This is THE definitive book on a great artist whose contributions to cultural expression through music is under-appreciated today. Leng aptly describes Carlos Santana's early years, the struggles toward and accompanying fame, and the challenges he had to overcome along the way (cultural and professional). If you love music of any kind, you will enjoy this taste of history; if you appreciate Santana especially, you will savor this biographical feast.

Simon Leng the author is to be commended for writing this comprehensive volume so crammed with facts, that it demands a second or third read to fully digest the plethora of information.The Author starts off by giving us a sufficiently detailed description of Mexican culture and customs, detailing Jose Santana's (Carlos' father) life as a Mariachi violinist, tutoring his son in the art of Mexican street music. Moving on to details of Carlos' early days right up to the formation of the early Santana bands. From then on the story of Carlos and the Santana bands is told in a collective manner that takes in the making of each album from the very first one right through to "Supernatural".The reader is perfumed with inside information, the politicking, the rationale and other events behind each of Santana's releases. The lives of other musicians, key figures or otherwise, are also touched upon, bringing meaning and life to such well known names as "Chepito" Areas, Wayne shorter, as well as the lesser known ones that most fans of Santana would know little or nothing about.To this end Leng is to be commended for a job well done, but falls short of expectations in the pictures department. Considering that Santana is such a colorful entity, giving us black and white shots is a disappointment. Still the pictures are good ones just the same but a poor effort for a book of this kind, and for this it misses out on the fifth star rating. Thirteen photos are provided grouped together on glossy paper, plus one on the back cover.One annoying aspect is Leng's persistence in referring to Carlos as "the Mexican", and other musicians as well by their nationality. Although this descriptive tool can be effective within context, its persistence to the very end is rather banal.The book also provides us with two surprises, a description of the night Jaco Pastorious got killed, and the fact that Carlos Santana cannot read music. At the very end is a treasure trove of information in the form of two discographies-- original releases, and guest appearances. Santana devotees will find this an invaluable tool for tracking down recordings of Carlos playing on other artists' albums. A real bonus for any musicologist or interested person, is a compilation of all musicians that have ever been involved with the Santana band, as well as offshoot bands, all with micro-biographies attached. Definitely value for money, this book not only furnishes historical facts but makes for a useful source of reference as well. Highly recommended.