Santana — Casino de Montreux, 1971

Rare live capture of Santana at the Casino de Montreux, Switzerland, on 1 May 1971, during the Golden Rose Festival (Rose d’Or). Recorded a few months before the fire that destroyed the casino in December 1971 — the event that inspired Deep Purple’s « Smoke on the Water » — this historic concert immortalises Santana’s classic line-up at its peak. Carlos Santana on guitar, Gregg Rolie on keyboards, a young Neal Schon as second guitarist, Michael Shrieve on drums and a seething Latin percussion section deliver eleven tracks, including « Evil Ways », « Oye Como Va », « Jingo » and the incandescent « Soul Sacrifice ». This full concert illustrates the unique fusion of rock, blues and Afro-Cuban rhythms that made the band’s name in the wake of Woodstock. For the connoisseur, an exceptional live document, witness to an era and a chemistry that cannot be replaced, straight from the Montreux archives.