Legendary Port Chester: Santana, Oct. 14, 1970

When Legendary Port Chester last revisited a 1970s classic at the Capitol Theater, we profiled a band on the edge of greatness.

While the members of Pink Floyd weren't yet legends when they visited Port Chester, Santana was at the height of its output. The band arrived at the Capitol a year removed from Woodstock, and less than four weeks after releasing its second studio effort.

It was a busy year for Santana between Woodstock in 1969 and Port Chester in 1970. At the legendary festival, Santana's members were young upstarts among giants; at Port Chester, they were confident enough in their newfound fame to take their music in new directions.

Still considered the group's greatest album, 1970's Abraxas signaled a progression in Santana's sound, with distortion knobs turned up and blues progressions competing for space with more traditional Latin sounds.

Several different recordings of the Capitol Theater performance live on in blog posts and uploads by collectors and fans. Most are taken directly from the Capitol's mixing board.

The concert opens with Carlos Santana striking muted chords over a tribal beat, which yields to a jazzy time signature about a minute later. It isn't until the three minute mark that the first vocals come in, and they're used for a percussive effect. The song ends abruptly, with the band easing into a cover of Fleetwood Mac's 'Black Magic Woman.'

Carlos Santana and his band already had star power when they visited Port Chester, but the band was still young and their sound still raw. With its focused track list, the Capitol performance reveals a guitarist with lots of music ahead of him. Carlos Santana was still experimenting and still finding his sound, a developmental period as a guitarist that can be appreciated by fans as well as instrumentalists.

Twenty-nine years later, Santana would revive his career -- and enjoy newfound mainstream appeal -- with Supernatural. That album is best known for the guitarist's collaboration with singer Rob Thomas, which puts an extra layer of sonic dust on the Port Chester recordings -- when Santana rocked the Capitol, Thomas hadn't even been born yet.

To view the set list and links to individual songs from Santana's 1970 Capitol Theater performance, click here. To listen to the performance, click here.

Legendary Port Chester runs every Tuesday and profiles historic performances in the village's history. Got an old recording from a seminal concert at The Capitol or the old 7 Willow Street? Tell us about it, and don't forget to share your favorite memories of the show. Were you at a concert we've already profiled? Write in and tell us about your experience in Port Chester's sonic history.