The Culture Corner: Santana’s ‘Abraxas’ was a blend of musical traditions

Fifty-five years ago, Santana released an album called Abraxas. It was a rich, eclectic record that sounded like nothing else in coming out of San Francisco’s Haight Ashbury scene.

Today, World Cafe correspondent John Morrison digs into Santana’s chart-topping sophomore album and how it brought together a whole world of influences.

“These traditional rhythms and musical styles have traveled around the world, and they’re all interrelated,” Morrison says. “If you want to hear how the rhythm and the musical traditions of different people play together nicely, you just listen to [‘Se a Cabó’].”

This episode of World Cafe was produced and edited by Kimberly Junod. The web story was created by Miguel Perez. Our engineer is Chris Williams. Our programming and booking coordinator is Chelsea Johnson and our line producer is Will Loftus.