Product Description

Though there were hints of jazz fusion on Santana's first three albums, 1972's CARAVANSERAI introduced a dramatic shiftin the band's sound, away from essentially pop-based music to a freer, more harmonically complex jazz/rock hybrid. In addition, the record marked a splintering of the original Santana lineup (soon to splinter further still with the departure of organist Gregg Rolie and guitarist Neal Schon, who then formed Journey).
Seemingly unconcerned with the pursuitof hit singles, guitarist Carlos Santana and crew here turnin an exquisitely moody disc of mostly instrumental jammingwith a brooding intensity akin to Miles Davis's classic BITCHES BREW, underscored by the San Francisco-based ensemble'strademark propulsive rhythms. The new approach reaches its apex on the fiery, Chick Corea-like "La Fuente Del Ritmo", which features future key Santana musicians Armando Pereza (percussion) and Tom Coster (piano). Also of note is bassist Doug Raunch, who replaces David Brown's meat-and-potatoes R&Bplaying with a more technically accomplished style that edges the group closer to Tower of Power territory. A dark and perhaps intentionally non-radio-friendly album that likely shocked many fans upon its release, CARAVANSERAI is an underrated, but important and fascinating, chapter in Santana's history.

Track Listing

1. Eternal Caravan Of Reincarnation
2. Waves Within
3. Look Up (To See What's Coming Down)
4. Just In Time To See The Sun
5. Song Of The Wind
6. All The Love Of The Universe
7. Future Primitive
8. Stone Flower
9. La Fuente Del Ritmo
10. Every Step Of The Way

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #5021 in Music
• Released on: 2003-10-06
• Number of discs: 1

Customer Reviews

Re-issue not remaster?
This is a great album, my personal Santana favourite. However, there is nothing to suggest on the box that this album has actually been remastered, or that anything has been done to 'buff up' the sound, despite another reviewer's praise for the improved sound quality on this release. Maybe this is just a reissue rather than a remaster. If it were the latter surely that fact would be advertised on the packaging.

Not actually re-mastered.
The CD I received was not actually re-mastered. It was the same edition as the indifferent cd pressing I bought 4 years ago. If ever there was an album deserving a good re-master, this is it. It's going back. I believe it is mis-advertised.

Masterpiece
I heard "Caravanserai" for the first time in 1973 (the year after it was released), and it immediately became one of my favourite records. Later, I used it as a jumping-off point to go back and forth through the rest of Santana's catalogue, but found that none of their other albums (though pleasant enough) have had the continuous appeal of this one.

With vocals being kept to a minimum, you can appreciate all the details of the breadth of supporting instrumentation on display - Wendy Haas' percussive piano on "La Fuente del Ritmo", Hadley Caliman's breathy sax on "Eternal Caravan of Reincarnation", the uncredited frantic flautist on "Every Step Of The Way": all these players weren't part of the regular band (indeed, were only used on these individual tracks), but make each piece sound like a window into worlds that are different - mysterious, exciting, intriguing - and yet linked together into a heterogeneous suite, building to the climax of Michael Shrieve's unbelievable "Every Step Of The Way".

I've probably listened to this track thousands of times, and am continually baffled by its beauty and excitement. Santana sounds as if he's barely channeling the flow of music coming out of his guitar. The gear change in the middle, and that perfect lick that's used to start the second section, must be one of my favourite moments in music. And the appearance of the orchestra (which has been kept quiet up until this point of the record) moves the whole thing expansively up to yet another level.

This album is the apex of Neil Schon's achievements with the band, since he and Greg Rolie left immediately afterwards to form Journey. And I think that having a strong second lead player inspired Santana to greater heights of technique and inventiveness; certainly, in the subsequent history of the band, his overwhelming dominance seems to have been responsible for a lack of inspiration. All that was to be in the future however, and we can only be thankful that this band left this music behind.