Santana - 1981 - Zebop 192

Devadip Carlos Santana(guitar, percussion, background vocals); Alexander J. Ligertwood(vocals); Richard Baker (piano, organ, synthesizers); David Margen(bass); Graham Lear (drums); Orestes Vilato (timbales, percussion,background vocals); Raul Rekow (congas, percussion, background vocals);Armando Peraza (bongos, percussion).Additional personnel: Alan Pasqua (keyboards, background vocals); ChrisSolberg (background vocals).Producers: Bill Graham, Devadip Carlos Santana, Keith Olsen.Recorded at the Automatt, San Francisco, California.Longtime friend and promoter Bill Graham joins Devadip Carlos in theproduction of 1981's zestily-titled opus, ZEBOP. The material makes aneven navigation between radio pop and Santana's signature brand of edgyLatin rock. While Carlos' playing reaches a keen clarity throughout,nothing lets the fire loose quite like the album's instrumentalnumbers. Found on the previous albums MARATHON and THE SWING OFDELIGHT, sessionman Alex Ligertwood is again the vocalist of the hour,turning in a strong and soulful performance.Santana is always associated with drawing inspiration from manycorners, and ZEBOP is surely no exception to that tradition. The bandturns Cat Stevens' "Changes" into a salubrious piece of radio-friendlyfolk-pop. The brief instrumental "Primera Invasion" certainly has thefeel of a mounting attack, with piercing stacks of Carlos' overdubbedguitar riffs that quickly segue into the rolling synth-pop of"Searchin'." The upbeat hand-clap rock of "Winning" makes it theshiniest outing on ZEBOP, with a hearty, harmonized vocal delivery byLigertwood as he proclaims, "I'm winningàand I don't intend on losingagain." Based on a Yiddish melody taught to him by Bill Graham, Carlosmakes mincemeat of "I Love You Much Too Much" with his bone-chillingguitar wails.