Whatever image you had of Santana in 2019, Africa Speaks was ready to shatter it. Recorded in 10 days with producer Rick Rubin, the album features Carlos Santana’s wife, Cindy Blackman Santana, on drums, and Spanish singer Buika on lead vocals throughout, singing primarily in Spanish but also in Yoruba. The songs are hard jams rooted in jazz-rock fusion and African rhythms, recorded hot (most tracks were one take) and mixed so tightly it’s practically in mono. Santana’s guitar sound is as filthy as it’s ever been — at times, he sounds like ZZ Top’s Billy Gibbons, and Blackman Santana drives him (and the percussionists) hard, but the music is always organic, flowing with the pulses of its creators without being locked to a click track. Tempos are fluid, and the arrangements are complex but airy like ’70s Afro-funk. This album feels like a passion project from an artist who’s been on the scene too long to care about hits.