October 11, 1972 - Caravanserai

A year after "Santana III"  and just five days after my last release, Santana released their fourth album "Caravanserai" on October 11, 1972. This album is a turning point for Santana for a couple reasons. The first is the style of music, with Santana making a departure from the jazz and Latin influenced rock that made them famous, and moving towards mainly instrumental jazz compositions. The music is much more complex, much less radio-friendly and a lot more experimental. Several line-up changes occurred since "Santana III" as well with original members David Brown and Michael Carabello both leaving the band. Carlos Santana and Neal Schon remain as guitarists, Gregg Rolie is still on keyboards, but there isn't a whole lot of vocals on this album. Michael Shrieve is still on drums as well as percussionist José "Chepito" Areas. They replaced Brown with two bassists! Douglas Rauch would play the main bass guitar but half of the songs also feature Tom Rutley on acoustic bass. To replace Carabello, Santana also got two percussionists! James Mingo Lewis is the main replacement, featuring on every track, but they also add Armando Peraza who plays on a few songs. Santana keeps getting bigger and bigger, and what will this new direction sound like? Let's find out!

Side one begins with "Eternal Caravan Of Reincarnation" which starts with crickets chirping. There's a saxophone intro that is very King Crimson-esque! Acoustic bass riff by Rutley cues the rest of the band's entry into a slower songwith organ and guitar flourishes overtop. Not a really exciting song honestly, not bad just not really good either. The next song is another instrumental called "Waves Within" with some cool congas throughout by Areas and Lewis. It's a solid beat with Carlos playing overtop. He plays some really cool stuff, showing off his guitar skills but this song is also pretty tame for the most part, a huge contrast to the upbeat stuff that was all over their previous work. Track 3 is titled "Look Up (To See What's Coming Down)" and has a really cool bass riff by Rauch. Schon's guitar mixes with it to make a great funky riff and Rolie's organ sounds great as well. Carlos solos on top of everything else and it sounds pretty sweet! Little conga solo sounds cool, organ sounds great again! That's more like it Santana! This song was easily the best so far. The next song finally ends the instrumental start to the album, "Just In Time To See The Sun". It's got a slow cool beat, Rolie sings and his voice is good as usual. We hear some more great guitar by Carlos as well in a cool little song that is just over 2 minutes.

We're back to instrumental again with "Song Of The Wind" as slow organ opens the song. The guitar sounds pretty great, and the whole 6-minute song is basically an extended sweet solo over some congas and light organ. Santana and Schon play some great guitar, but the rest of the band is just alright, not anything to go on about. The final song on this side is "All The Love Of The Universe" led by a catchy guitar and Rutley's acoustic bass. We hear wordless vocals and percussionist Lewis and Rico Reyes (who also sung on "Guajira" last year), sing together on this one, but no Rolie. They're not very good honestly, Rolie would do way better! Alas he has to settle for playing cool keyboards while Rauch plays a great bass line. Santana plays an amazing guitar solo, followed by an awesome organ solo by Rolie! There's a bit more guitar, then they bring it back to the beginning to end the song and the side.

Side two kicks off with "Future Primitive" which has a very psychedelic opening with trippy organ. It turns into a percussion showcase for Areas and Lewis. They play congas, bongos and timbales and it sounds pretty great! This is more of the typical Santana you would expect, except for the trippy opening, and closing to the song. 

The next song is called "Stone Flower" and is an Antonio Carlos Jobin cover, with Santana adding his own lyrics. Congas and acoustic bass by Rutley carry the beat, and Carlos sings this whole song! His singing is not horrible but pretty average. Just let Rolie sing, like he's right fucking there! Stick to what you do best. He does play a short little solo on guitar, and there's some decent organs throughout. Peraza plays percussion on this song and the next one only and track 9 is another instrumental titled "La Fuente Del Ritmo".
Speedy congas sound great and Lewis plays piano that is repetitive but good. Santana and Schon play a synchronized guitar riff over top of the speedy beat in a cool part and then Carlos goes off for a solo. We hear an even better solo on electric piano by guest musician Tom Coster and it really is fantastic stuff. The percussion is just phenomenal throughout the song, it"s non-stop madness with three percussionists and this is definitely a cool song. The album ends with "Every Step Of The Way" which has a cool percussion and organ opening to this 9-minute instrumental. It's a bit slow and repetitive but around 3:00 it finally picks up with a faster riff. Guitar solo comes first, then an awesome conga bit. Hadley Caliman, the same guest musician who played the saxophone on the first song, does a flute solo that is pretty sweet and then we hear an even better guitar solo! Really great stuff with the multiple solos. An orchestra joins the craziness as well for a bit, and I can't tell what's Santana or Schon, but there's a ton of awesome guitar that goes on until the end of the album. It started slow, but definitely picked up and is a great way to end the album.

That is the end of "Caravanserai" and it was certainly in a different style than the one that brought them so much success. There is still awesome guitar a-plenty, but it seems like Gregg Rolie was very under-used on this album. I still enjoyed it and thought it had lots of different stuff to offer. But how does it compare to their other albums? Santana had been on an upward trajectory since their debut, but unfortunately that has come to an end. This is just nowhere near as good the album they released just last year, and I believe that even their debut album is better overall than this most recent album. Santana have started to go in a different direction, and while this is certainly not a bad album, it just doesn't have that wow factor that their first three albums all had. This is my final full album of the year, as there's just one song left to go!