Perhaps a return to Santana had Neal Schon in a Mediterranean state of mind. Certainly, “El Matador” — our first taste of the Journey’s guitarist’s new solo album Vortex — begins in a place not dissimilar to the best parts of Schon’s early work on Santana III. Only turned up a notch, of course.
Actually, several. “El Matador” begins with a simply scalding intro, before diving into the soaring locutions we’ve come to associate with his time in Journey. Steve Smith, Schon’s drum partner during that band’s commercial peak, offers an endlessly aggressive, fusion-focused bed of rhythm for the guitarist to continue building upon.
And, they do. Neal Schon and Steve Smith brilliantly tangle onward in this breathless fashion, with Schon boiling while Smith bashes. That is, until the song’s last third, when something utterly unexpected happens: Neal Schon snatches up a Spanish guitar, for just a moment. And in that moment, “El Matador” exhales finally, like a bull just before winding up for another snorting charge. They then finish in a freefall of improvisation, on the way back toward an eruptive recapitulation of the song’s main figure.
All of it serves to underscore the lingering symbiosis Schon and Steve Smith still possess from their time in Journey, but also how confining their time in that pop-hit machine really could be. Smith, of course, has gone on to found his own highly respected jazz group, while albums like the June 23, 2015, release Vortex — Smith’s second solo collaboration with Journey’s guitarist since 2012 — showcase a rangy musical vision from Neal Schon that simply can’t be crammed into the solo space on hit songs like “Any Way You Want It” or “Don’t Stop Believin’.’
This sounds like the kind of record they both always wanted to make. And, certainly, a tasty appetizer as we await the joys of a long-awaited Santana reunion.
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