Jorge Santana - 1979 - It's All About Love

Jorge Santana

1979

It's All About Love

01. Three Mile Island 5:19

02. Love Me Tonight 4:51

03. Ain't No 5:17

04. Feeling Good 4:37

05. New York, New York 4:24

06. My Inspiration 4:57

07. It's All About Love 3:10

Bass – John Thompson

Drums – Roger Reid

Guitar – Jorge Santana

Keyboards – Kincaid Miller

Lead Vocals – Jay McKinnon

Percussion – Yogi Newman

Vocals – John Thompson, Kincaid Miller, Roger Reid

Want to get one thing out of the way to start off with. It was always slightly awkward even with his uccess Mith Malo (whom I should really get into more) that Jorge was going to end up being compared to older brother Carlos. So when he started a low key solo career in the late 70's,not sure how it was really received. But all the same both Carlos and Jorge are immensely talented musicians and creative personalities. They both seem to have an intuitive sense of the best musicians to play with,both live and in the studio. And both have a very strong sense of their vision. One thing to be said also is that Jorge never went out of his way to copy what his brother was doing. And that's one thing this 1979 album shows more than anything.

This is the work of a sextet including Jay McKinon,whose Alex Ligertwood sounding voice is the only element that could be compared to his brother. The sound is very stripped down in comparison,without the heavy latin rock element of Carlos preferring stomping and heavy funk such as the title song and "Ain't No",which along with the bouncy pop/soul closer of "It's All About Love" showcase Jorge's understated,bluesy jazz style guitar leads. "Feeling Good" and "New York New York" get into something of a disco-dance frame of mind and do so in a very funky,tasteful manner. The slower tunes "My Inspiration" and "Love Me Tonight" are sexy,midtempo numbers I suppose some might call "disco ballads". They are very soulful and jazzy though too.

Overall this is very impressive music. It has high pop and groove potential and functions as a great example of late 70's dance funk. It's a short album. But you feel as if you've really had a great experience after listening to it. The funk is sharp,blively and well produced and the more dance oriented numbers are done with a lot of class and soul. I don't really know much else about the Tomato record label (and it does have a cartoon Tomato on the record label by the way) but you do get a sense listening to this that the quality the two Santana brothers share,bdifferent as their ways of making music is,brevolves around their ability to stay inside the groove and ride it as far as it can take them. Not to mention their ability to derive melodic ideas from the same place. Highly recommended.