“Shaman” is sin on a CD. Tweaking the multi-cultural formula of “Supernatural”, this second album by Santana is a crucible of music categories rarely realised on common ground. Girdled to an essentially Latin mainstay, artists, both medieval and modern, have infused their various styles into a single album. Seldom has adulterated art hit it so big.
Macy Grey (“Amore”), Michelle Branch (“The Game Of Love”), Seal (“You Are My Kind”), Dido (“Feels Like Fire”), P.O.D (“America”) and Placido Domingo (“Novus”) are among those at the party. Sequencing the slow with the fast, the album doesn’t slacken once; even when the music is steady, it is heady.
This article was first published on 13 Feb 2003.