Album 935
Santana - Caravanserai
Year: 1972
Career suicide has never ever sounded so damn good. This album killed Santana as a hit maker and radio sensation, but what a way to go! Now regarded as possibly their finest moment. Santana was never one for fixed line-ups, but there is such a sense of chemistry within the "band" as this is very much a studio album in the sense of the complexity and instrumental work load. I almost chose III simply because of how straight up it hits you, but this is a far more sutble album, it's so layered and while it might take a few listens. It will definitely sink in. From Canterbury Prog style vocals into the latin-jazz guitar stylings of Santana this is certainly an interesting fusion. I feel at times it sometimes misses the beat and fails to understand what exactly it's trying to do, but at those points the sheer brilliance of what's being attempted really saves the atmosphere. This is worth it for the guitar work alone, but the concepts being explored here go much deeper and it's a good starter album into the world of jazz fusion, and strangely enough Canterbury scene progressive rock. If you had no idea who was doing this album, it would be easy to mistake it for a Canterbury band experimenting with a Latin jazz sound.
3 Choice Tracks: Just In Time To See The Sun, Song of The Wind, All the Love of the Universe