Friday, January 14, 2011

Santana: Samba Pa Ti

Our second Friday Flipside feature brings back a Santana tune from their quintuple platinum second LP “Abraxas.” “Samba Pa Ti,” which is translated as “samba for you,” was featured as the flipside for the album’s second single “Oye Como Va.” I became familiar with this piece shortly after the single was released which was a full year before I owned the album.

While the A-side charted at 13 in the US in 1971, the flip did not. “Samba Pa Ti” is a wonderful instrumental that features the guitar wizardry of Carlos Santana. Towards the middle of the song, keyboardist Greg Rolie kicked his Hammond B-3 organ into overdrive and overloaded the amplifier giving its sound a distinct growl. Later the song’s tempo switches into double time and plays at this increased speed until the end of the piece.




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