Abraxas is the second studio album by latin rock band Santana. Consolidating the interest generated by their first album, Santana (released in May 1969), and their highly acclaimed live performance at the Woodstock Festival in August 1969, the band followed-up with Abraxas in September 1970. The album's mix of rock, blues, jazz, salsa and other influences was very well received, showing a musical maturation from their first album and refining the band's early sound. The title of the album, which features Mati Klarwein's 1961 painting, Annunciation, on the cover, comes from a line in Hermann Hesse's book, Demian, quoted on the album's back cover: "We stood before it and began to freeze inside from the exertion. We questioned the painting, berated it, made love to it, prayed to it: We called it mother, called it whore and slut, called it our beloved, called it Abraxas...." The word "Abraxas" has use within Gnostic cosmology. Abraxas features a mixture of Latin influences with familiar ro...