Woodstock Experience

Personnel: Carlos Santana (vocals, guitar); Gregg Rolie (vocals, piano, organ); Michael Shrieve (drums); José Chepitó Areas (congas, timbales, percussion); Mike Carabello (congas, percussion).
Audio Mixer: Eddie Kramer.
Audio Remasterer: Vic Anesini.
Recording information: Pacific Recording, San Mateo, CA (05/??/1969-08/16/1969); Woodstock Music & Art Fair (05/??/1969-08/16/1969).
Photographers: Ken Regan; Jim Marshall ; Jason Lauré; Elliott Landy; Shelly Rusten.
Considering that Santana's epic instrumental jam, "Soul Sacrifice," is often counted among the highest high points of the classic rock movie WOODSTOCK and of the festival it documents, it's easy to forget that to nearly all the reported half-million people in attendance, the multi-racial San Francisco group was completely unknown. Inserted on the bill at the last minute by legendary promoter (and the band's manager) Bill Graham, the young group took full advantage of the tremendous opportunity, delivering its powerful, highly rhythmic mixture of psychedelic rock and Latin sounds with a vengeance, in the process upstaging many of the concert's headliners. THE WOODSTOCK EXPERIENCE captures the sextet's complete set (along with its first studio album, released just weeks after Woodstock), and despite a few tuning issues, Santana's percussion, organ, and lead guitar-driven fury on classic early tracks such as "Jingo" and "Persuasion" remains positively electrifying.