Welcome (album)

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Welcome
Studio album by Carlos Santana

Publication
(s)

November 9, 1973

Label (s) Columbia

Format (s)

LP, CD

Genre (s)

fusion

Title (number)

9 (LP) or 10 (CD)

running time

50:39 (LP) / 56:52 (CD)

occupation
  • Keyboards, percussion: Richard Kermode
  • Flute: Mel Martin (only [4, 5])
  • Guitar: Douglas Rodriguez (only [4])
  • Percussion, vocals: Armando Peraza ([1-3, 5-9])
  • Percussion: José Chepito Areas ([3, 5-7, 9])
  • Bass , guitar: Doug Rauch (except [6])
  • Drums: Tony Smith (only [3])
  • Flute: Bob Yance (only [4, 5])

production

Carlos Santana, Mike Shrieve, Tom Coster and Bob Irwin (CD edition)

chronology
Caravanserai
(1972) 		Welcome Borboletta
(1974)

Welcome (1973) is an album by the Latin rock band Santana .

history

It is the fifth studio album by the American band and the one in their career that tended most towards jazz . With the previous album Caravanserai (1972) an emancipation from the rock patterns of the band's early days had already begun. The band now included musicians who were open to fusion jazz, such as Tom Coster and Richard Kermode, who had previously played with Malo , the band around Jorge Santana. Carlos Santana himself had recorded the album Love Devotion Surrender under the impression of the Indian guru Sri Chinmoy with John McLaughlin during this time , the title of which refers to John Coltrane and his spiritual phase around 1965/66. The following year, Santana recorded the album Illuminations with Alice Coltrane .

With guest musicians such as the singers Leon Thomas and Flora Purim and again John McLaughlin, the band achieved a fusion of Latin rock with jazz sounds. This is particularly evident in the pieces that are dedicated to the memory of John Coltrane ( Love Devotion Surrender, Welcome ) and on which Alice Coltrane participated. The band went on a major international tour in 1973. The album itself was created on a tour break between April and June 1973; After the studio recordings were completed, Leon Thomas performed with the band in Japan (where one of the concerts was recorded and later released as Lotus ).

The album

Like its previous album, Welcome draws inspiration from the contemporary jazz rock productions of Airto ( Fingers ), Chick Coreas Light as a Feather and recordings by Leon Thomas, Alice Coltrane and Lonnie Liston Smith . The ambition of the album becomes clear in the introductory piece, an Afro-American folk song that is at the center of the symphony From the New World and was arranged here by Alice Coltrane: Both Coster and Kermode can be heard here on the organs and the Mellotron . While the group's percussionists can present themselves in more detail in Mother Africa , the aforementioned jazz musicians have guest appearances in other pieces.

Title of the album

  1. Going Home ( Dvořák ) - 4:11
  2. Love, Devotion, and Surrender (Kermode, Santana) - 3:38
  3. Samba de Sausalito (Areas) - 3:11
  4. When I Look into Your Eyes (Coster, Shrieve) - 5:52
  5. Yours Is the Light (Kermode, Shrieve) - 5:47
  6. Mother Africa (Coster, Mann, Santana) - 5:55
  7. Light of Life (Coster, Kermode, Santana) - 3:52
  8. Flame Sky (McLaughlin, Rauch, Santana) - 11:33
  9. Welcome (John Coltrane) - 6:35

In 2003 the album was re-released with an additional track called Mantra , which was part of a jam session by Tom Coster, Carlos Santana and Mike Shrieve.

Effect of the album

The album disappointed some of the old Santana fans with its jazz orientation: "The jazz voices of Leon Thomas and Flora Purim sometimes phrased the Santana pieces past the receptiveness of the rock audience." Welcome sold worse than its predecessors, achieved but in 1973 it was number 25 on the Billboard charts for albums and ultimately gold status .

Much of the criticism, such as Bob Palmer in Rolling Stone , praised the music: “Both of the qualities that set Santana's music apart from that of its competitors - Carlos' expression on the guitar and the talents of the band's various percussionists - are revived Welcome very obvious. ”In the opinion of Bob Palmer, the guitarist has never played better than with the titles Flame Sky and Welcome .

Critic Robert Christgau was also enthusiastic, as the album was “more sovereign and fun” than Santana's album Caravanserai : good themes, good play, good beats and good singers; he particularly praised Leon Thomas. Jeff Winbush from All About Jazz emphasizes that Santana has confidence in his fellow musicians on this album (unlike its predecessor) and can therefore hold back in the game, so that there are titles like Going Home where he can only be heard in the background be. The All Music Guide awarded 4 out of 5 stars; it is a jazz record with rock elements and not the other way around a rock record that flirts with jazz and Latin American forms of music. According to Thom Jurek, the album has a more lasting effect than most of Santana's other albums and is also more inspired than his other productions.

Remarks

  1. ^ A b Norman Weinstein Carlos Santana: A Biography Greenwood Publishing Group 2009, p. 52
  2. ↑ musicline.de ( Memento of the original dated February 9, 2005 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.musicline.de
  3. ↑ Bob Palmer, Rolling Stone 1974 .
  4. ↑ meeting
  5. ↑ Review (All About Jazz)

Web links