So-so Santana, Phish Out of Water July 17, 1992 - The Washington Post by Geoffrey Himes "MILAGRO," Santana's first album for Polydor after 22 years with Columbia, is dedicated to the memory of Bill Graham and Miles Davis. It opens with a soundbite of Graham, the influential rock promoter, introducing the band at a 1986 concert, and ends with a sample of a mid-'50s trumpet solo by Davis. The influences of Graham, who was Santana's longtime manager, and Davis, the band's most vocal admirer in the jazz community, continue to pull the group in different directions. Graham's business pragmatism is obvious in the album's several attempts at a hit single, but tunes like "Somewhere in Heaven," "Make Somebody Happy" and "Free All the People" are doomed by their sappy sentimentality and by the mediocre lead vocals turned in by Alex Ligertwood and Tony Lindsay. Davis's quest to combine jazz improvisation with compelling dance grooves is reflected in the album's Latinesque numbers like "Saja," "Agua que Va Caer" and "Gypsy/Grajonca," which feature Carlos Santana's soaring guitar solos against polyrhythmic percussion. With the programming function on your CD player, you can skip over the bland vocal numbers and just listen to the exhilarating instrumentals. The Vermont quartet Phish has won comparisons to Santana, the Grateful Dead and Steely Dan for its ambitious mix of improvisatory jazz and danceable rock 'n' roll. On its major-label debut, "A Picture of Nectar," Phish does bring some harmonic and rhythmic sophistication to its revival of '70s-style rock jamming, and keyboardist Page McConnell does prove an impressive soloist. Unfortunately, the band's lyrics are hippie sci-fi nonsense ("Zipping through the forest with the curdling fleas, to grow with them spindles, the mutant I seize"); the vocals are mediocre, and the music communicates the band's pleasure with its own cleverness more than any passion or conviction. As such, Phish has far more in common with Frank Zappa than Steely Dan. Appearing together Friday at the Merriweather Post Pavilion.