Santana reunites lineup after 45 years
NEW YORK: Carlos Santana, one of the pioneering Latin rockers in the United States, has reunited with his early band for its first album together in 45 years.
The band announced late Thursday that it would release Santana IV, which features 16 original songs, on April 15.
The album is the first with the band's classic lineup since 1971's Santana III, which topped the US chart with its psychedelic rock feel and prominent guitar solos.
Santana IV will notably mark the return to the band of Neal Schon, who debuted on Santana III as a teenage guitar prodigy and later became famous as the frontman of Journey.
The album will also feature vocals on two songs by Ronald Isley, the lead singer of R&B legends The Isley Brothers.
A first single, Anywhere You Want to Go, will come out on February 5.
The band emerged in San Francisco in the countercultural heyday of the late 1960s, with Mexican-born guitarist Carlos Santana combining Latin elements with blues rock.
The band's Latin rock fusion won a major new audience in 1969 when Santana played the historic Woodstock festival, with the crowd especially electrified by Michael Shrieve's drum solo on Soul Sacrifice.
Shrieve will return for Santana IV along with keyboardist Gregg Rolie and percussionist Michael Carabello.
The classic lineup's bassist, David Brown, died in 2000, with the new album featuring Dutch-born longtime band member Benny Rietveld on bass.
The new album also will not include Jose Octavio "Chepito" Areas, the Nicaraguan-born percussionist who played Cuban-style timbal drums with the band at Woodstock and was inducted with the rest of the classic Santana lineup at the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1998.
The late 1990s marked a career revival for the band, which had remained active with various lineups.
Santana went to number one on the US album chart after a gap of nearly three decades with 1999's Supernatural which brought a more contemporary pop feel on hits Smooth and Maria Maria.
Santana's last album, 2014's Corazon, featured covers and collaborations with stars including Gloria Estefan. – AFP