Taking the stage at Woodstock, Santana was a little-known Latin rock group from San Francisco. When they walked off, they were an undeniable legend. The appearance was a perfect prologue to the debut, self-titled album that followed just weeks later. 1969 was an epic year Santana - their groundbreaking album and the performance at Woodstock would define them and their virtuosic guitarist, Carlos Santana, for years to come.

2009-07-02 -- 5/5:: Santana @ Woodstock a career defining performance.
When I first picked up the 40th anniversary directors cut edition of the Woodstock film I was once again excited to hear some truly great music. Then a few days later I found out they were releasing double disc sets from Woodstock I was very excited.

Dubbed The Woodstock Experience, the double-CD set from Santana comes with their classic 1969 debut album along side their full length set from August 16th, 1969

It may be hard to believe now, but Santana was pretty much unknown outside of the San Francisco area when they performed at the 1969 Woodstock Festival.

With only a single album released at the time, Santana was one of a handful of promising, but lesser-known acts chosen by promoters to perform at the three-day rock festival alongside such well known acts as The Who, Jimi Hendrix, Jefferson Airplane and Janis Joplin.

Santana's didn't stay unknown for long and it seemed to change overnight with the band's historic performance. Along with bands like Sly And The Family Stone and Ten Years After, Santana in fact proved to be one of the true breakout acts of the festival.

Their roughly forty five-minute set proved to be a career changer, particularly once the Woodstock film captured their electrifying version of "Soul Sacrifice" a year later.

Santana's historic Woodstock performance is captured in its entirety for the very first time.

The most striking thing about hearing these two discs together is how close they actually played it. Make no mistake, this is a great performance. It's every bit as electrifying as the version of "Soul Sacrifice" that's become permanently etched into the memories of anyone who has seen the film. It's also has just the right touch of a bit more raw sounding.

The fact is, outside of a few sound glitches in the vocal mix, in hearing the two discs back to back, there just isn't that much difference between them. Well, at least outside of the occasional onstage banter ("we're in New York, right?").

Every band seems to have the one album or concert that puts a stamp and says we have arrived. This is the one for Santana.

With that said, the band scorches its way through their allotted forty five minutes here. The percussion unit, led by drummer Michael Shrieve and also featuring the congas and timbales of Jose Chepito Areas and Micheal Carabello, in particular is quite remarkable.

There really has never been anything quite like these guys either before or since, a fact all the more amazing when you consider Shrieve was just a teenager at the time.

As on the original album, the song "Evil Ways" merely serves as a sort of pop tune bridge between the furious sounding stew of percolating Latin rhythms heard here. Above all of this, keyboardist Gregg Rolie and bassist Dave Brown, get in their share of tasty licks. But for the most part this is pretty much Carlos Santana's show, and the great guitarist proves why he is and always will be considered one of the best ever.
Michaels Shrieve's drum solo on "Soul Sacrifice," however, remains the real show stopper.

I was amazed to find out that he was just16yrs old at the time. He is just amazing and should be considered one the great drummers of all time.

Carlos aside, that one solo probably did as much as anything else they did at Woodstock to put Santana on the map for good. To this day, it's a defining moment of the Woodstock Experience, and of its time.

If you're a fan of the Woodstock era of music then this is for you, but if you're a fan of Santana then this is the release you've been waiting for.