Schon = ABRAXAS POOL

[Thomas Mehren]

Original Santana members Gregg Rolie, Michael Shrieve, Chepito, Neal Schon
and Michael Carabello team up with Alphonso Johnson to form Abraxas Pool.
The album has just come out, is getting great reviews in the press and
airplay at Rock, Adult, Smooth Jazz, Public and Classic stations. The
record is reminiscent of the original
Santana work, sans Carlos and sounds great. If you are a music reviewer
or radio station and need a copy fax a request to me on your letterhead at
206-286-4433.

[Not A Speck of Cereal.]

"Thomas Mehren" <tme...@earthlink.net> wrote:
[] Original Santana members Gregg Rolie, Michael Shrieve, Chepito, Neal Schon

I think it's a great CD--here's a mini-review I posted locally:

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Did'ja catch these guys at Bumbershoot [Seattle based festival] last year?
They were playing at the Hendrix exhibit and sounded great -- now they've
got a CD out. It's a good release and I give it about 3 1/2 stars of 5.

This is basically the Santana band of the Abraxas era (first few Santana
releases), sans Carlos. We have Greg Rollie on lead vocals and keys -- he
sings well and plays his mean trademark B3. The piano chops are okay.
It's good to hear Michael Shrieve again (on drums) and Alphonsa Johnson
on bass -- both have had diverse careers since the old days.

I didn't think I was going to like Neal Schon's contribution on guitar so much
because I've never been much of a Journey fan, but I'm pleasantly surprised!
He's a very good guitar player, [plays] some smokin' leads, and on one
song even cops a very David Gilmour-ish (of Pink Floyd) tone, at least the
cleaner, bluesier tones that Gilmour sometimes gives us.

The rest of the band is rounded out by some classic Abraxas percussion
sounds from Michael Carabello on congas and Jose "Chepito" Areas
on timbales.

The publishing notes are slim on the CD, but it seems like the entire disc
is of new material with the one exception of Jingo, which is a song from
the first Santana release in 1969. They played this at the show last year
and I felt it was a special treat to hear it live -- this CD version is very nice
as well.

Chris

----
"That's the trouble with you guys who are players. You don't write
anything that you can't play." -- Jerry Goldsmith to Pat Metheny
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[These opinions are personal views only and only my personal views]