Santana Sacred Fire: Live In South America CD

Recorded live in Bueno Aires, Argentina; Caracas, Venezuela; Mexico City, Mexico in April, 1993.

For their third live album, Santana introduced a new bass player, Myron Dove, and added guitarist Jorge Santana (Carlos Santana's brother), and singer Vorriece Cooper to bring the band up to nine members. Adopting the mantle of Bob Marley, the band played "Esperando," which borrowed Marley's characteristic audience chant. Much of the album is given over to repeating Santana's earliest hits -- "No One to Depend On," "Black Magic Woman," "Soul Sacrifice," -- which should please the band's new record label (it's always good to have versions of the hits in your catalog). ~ William Ruhlmann

For their third live album, Santana introduced a new bass player, Myron Dove, and added guitarist Jorge Santana (Carlos Santana's brother), and singer Vorriece Cooper to bring the band up to nine members. Adopting the mantle of Bob Marley, the band played "Esperando," which borrowed Marley's characteristic audience chant. Much of the album, however, is given over to repeating Santana's earliest hits -- "No One to Depend On," "Black Magic Woman," "Soul Sacrifice," -- which should please the band's new record label (it's always good to have versions of the hits in your catalog), but which makes the album inessential for fans. Sacred Fire spent one week at number 181 in the charts, the worst performance ever for a Santana album. ~ William Ruhlman

Live In South America

Santana: Carlos Santana (vocals, guitar, percussion); Alex Ligertwood, Vorriece Cooper (vocals); Jorge Santana (guitar); Chester Thompson (keyboards, background vocals); Myron Dove (bass, background vocals); Walfredo Reyes (drums, percussion); Raul Rekow (congas, percussion, background vocals); Karl Perazzo (timbales, congas).

Producers: Chester Thompson, Carlos Santana.