Maps of Music

Festivál (1976)

Where the lyrics of Festivál take you, and where it was really made.

This record marks the final full-studio album for two longtime Santana members, and it is the first album with a percussionist who would stay with the band until 2013.

Key places

Recording at Wally Heider Studios (1976)

Recording site Hyde Street Studios — The recording credit places the album at Wally Heider Studios. No exact session dates are given in the sources. Google Maps · Apple Maps

How to get there: See the map for directions.

Album story

Overview

• Festivál: eighth studio album by Santana
• Released in January 1977
• Eleven tracks: six on side one, five on side two
• Vocals on most tracks by Leon Patillo
• Production credited to Carlos Santana, David Rubinson and Tom Coster
• Peaked at number 27 on the Billboard Top LPs & Tape chart

Background

• Second and last album with Leon Patillo on vocals
• Last full-studio album for Tom Coster and José "Chepitó" Areas
• First album with percussionist Raul Rekow, who stayed with the band until 2013 except 1987–1990
• Drummer Leon Ndugu Chancler left the band
• Studio musician Gaylord Birch replaced Chancler on this album
• Birch was replaced on the following album, Moonflower, by Graham Lear
• Leon Patillo later recorded "The River" in 1982 under the retitled name "River"

Recording

• Engineers: Fred Catero and David Rubinson
• Rubinson is credited as both engineer and producer
• Recording credit places the album at Wally Heider Studios
• Session dates are not given in the sources

Sources: www.discogs.com · en.wikipedia.org · fr.wikipedia.org

Tracklist

Sources: musicbrainz.org

Artist

Formation

• Formed in San Francisco, California, in 1966 by Mexican-American guitarist Carlos Santana.
• Named the Santana Blues Band at a January 1967 Fillmore audition; shortened to Santana by the end of 1967.
• Signed with Columbia Records in late 1968.
• The "classic" line-up stabilised in May 1969: Carlos Santana, Gregg Rolie, Michael Carabello, David Brown, Michael Shrieve and Jose "Chepito" Areas.

Members

• Carlos Santana is the only consistent member across the band's history.
• Classic line-up: Santana, Gregg Rolie (organ, lead vocals), Michael Carabello and Jose "Chepito" Areas (percussion), Michael Shrieve (drums), David Brown (bass).
• Brown died in 2000; Areas was not invited to the 2014 reunion.
• Classic line-up members were inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1998.

Career

• Breakthrough at the 1969 Woodstock Festival; the debut album Santana peaked at No. 4 on the US Billboard 200.
• Abraxas (1970) and Santana III (1971) both reached No. 1 on the US Billboard 200.
• Early 1970s experiments with jazz fusion on Caravanserai (1972), Welcome (1973) and Borboletta (1974).
• Amigos (1976) returned the band to commercial success; Moonflower (1977) was its most successful album since Santana III.
• Commercial decline in the 1980s, followed by a seven-year recording hiatus.
• Supernatural (1999) won eight Grammy Awards and sold an estimated 30 million copies worldwide.
• Santana IV (2016) reunited the classic line-up, the first recording together in 45 years.
• Estimated 100 million records sold worldwide.

Sources: en.wikipedia.org

Reception

At release

• Rolling Stone wrote that the album is far stronger on the whole than Amigos
• The review says it lacks Amigos' memorable chordal quirks and peaks of intensity
• Rolling Stone said it sometimes sounds like a prisoner of its own commercial aspirations
• The Amigos comparison is the basis of the review's praise and criticism
• The album is the eighth studio album by Santana, released in January 1977
• The review weighs the record's overall strength against its lower sense of intensity

Records

• Billboard Top LPs & Tape chart: number 27
• Soul LPs chart: number 29
• Billboard 200 peak: number 27; R&B chart: number 29

Sources: en.wikipedia.org · fr.wikipedia.org

Trivia

• Leon Patillo later recorded "The River" for his 1982 album I'll Never Stop Lovin' You, retitled just "River"
• The song "Verão Vermelho" was originally sung by Elis Regina, and this version is played in tribute to her
• The credit for "María Caracóles" lists the writer as "P African"

Sources: en.wikipedia.org · pt.wikipedia.org · fr.wikipedia.org

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