Blues Bash Music DVD Review: Carlos Santana Presents Blues Live At Montreux 2004

Despite the way this DVD is billed, Carlos Santana is not the real star here.

Part of Eagle Vision's awesome series of concerts recorded live at the Montreux Jazz Festival through the years (featuring everyone from Eric Clapton to Alice Cooper), it is rather something of a showcase for the blues. Over the course of three flat-out amazing DVDs, you get complete sets by three great bluesmen: Bobby Parker, Clarence "Gatemouth" Brown, and the legendary Buddy Guy.

Santana, besides being the guy whose name is featured most prominently on the DVD, serves as the common link between all three performances. Each of them climax with a jam between the principals and Santana himself.

I'm just going to cut to the chase here. What you've got is three DVDs, each featuring a great blues performance. I have to be honest and say I jumped on board here because Santana is one of my all-time favorite guitarists. And the chance to see him step away from the poppier stuff he's been doing lately to get down and dirty with some blues cats was just too much to resist.

And down and dirty he gets. What's most surprising is the way these blues cats hold their own with a master guitarist like Santana. I'd never heard Bobby Parker prior to this, for example. But after the way he tore through a free-form jam with Santana on cuts like "Chill Out," "Mellow Down Easy," and "Watch Your Step," I can guarantee you I'll be picking up some of his albums. Parker matches Santana pretty much note for note in what amounts to a guitar duel between two first class gunslingers to close the first DVD.

The Gatemouth Brown set is a little more subdued — at least at first. But about midway through, it gets so funky you can almost smell the chitlins on the grill. When Santana and Buddy Guy step into the spotlight with Brown for a workout on the standard "Got My Mojo Workin," you can start to feel the electricity rise. But the rock solid band backing them never loses track of the decidedly New Orleans groove they've locked into. If you appreciate great musicians showing off their chops — without getting too showy — as much as I do, it just doesn't get much better than this.

Article Author: Glen Boyd

You'll find Blogcritics assistant music editor Glen Boyd sharing his Thoughtmares on his personal blogs The World Wide Glen, and The Rockologist. In a previous life, Glen was a music professional and journalist whose work has appeared in The Rocket, SPIN, Pulse!, and The Source. …

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