1971's Santana 3 is Santana's equivalent of the Beatles' sprawling and diverse White Album. As with that album, friction within the band caused a precipitous decrease in collaborative songwriting and a massive increase in wasted studio time during its recording. Also similarly, the final product lacks the cohesiveness of their previous efforts, but each song is a jewel. Its instrumental tracks--"Baktuka", "Jungle Strut" and "Toussaint L'Overture", which became a staple of all the band's subsequent live shows--helped to shift the record-buying public's interest from the primarily riff-based rock & roll of the late 60s to the jazz/rock fusion of the early 70s. Carlos Santana still regularly performs two of the other tracks: the slinky samba "Guajira" and "No One To Depend On"; the latter he repudiated when he finally turned his back on the fame and drugs which fractured his band during the recording of Santana 3 and came to embrace religion. Perhaps most importantly, the entire album is saturated by the best Latin rhythm section in popular music, as well as Carlos Santana's own uniquely intense guitar sound. --James Swift
