Santana Caravanserai

TAS Rated 5/5 Music, 4/5 Sonics in the October 2011 Issue of The Absolute Sound!
To attempt to categorise Carlos Santana's music is, for the prophets of rock music, rather like dancing on the edge of a volcano. While the New York Times acclaimed the band as a reincarnation of Dizzy Gillespie's Cuban-jazz bigband from the end of the Forties, the specialist magazine Rolling Stone spoke of a "methadrine trip without visions". Organ-player Gregg Rolie offered a very simple explanation of the origins of the highly differentiated sound colouring and the throb and chirp of the Afro-Cuban polyrhythms: he succinctly remarked that each member of the multi-cultural band »just played the music which he had grown up with.
"Speakers Corner's remastered Caravanserai sounds cleaner and sharper than the original. The incidental percussion on "Eternal Caravan of Reincarnation" is more audible and well-defined, and Michael Shrieve's cymbals much more crisp on "Song of the Wind." - Jeff Wilson, The Absolute Sound, October 2011
Just how thrilling this sounds is already evident from the first number on the LP, with its sounds of nature, twisted rhythms, and little snatches of melody, which as in several other titles remains spellbinding even without the fascinating drive of Santana's lead-sound. Of course there is plenty of solo material on the guitar which manifests itself in exuberant improvisations with a fusion of rock, salsa and jazz elements. When listening to this well-oiled rhythm machine, one quite rightly gets the impression that this unique band has stretched itself to its limits, and it is not by mere coincidence that they split up shortly afterwards. What has remained is one of the most powerful Santana records ever made.

This Speakers Corner production was manufactured using analog masterband and mastering 100% purely analog. 

Features:

• 180g Virgin Vinyl
• Audiophile Mastering
• Gatefold jacket
• Recording: February and May 1972
• Production: Carlos Santana and Michael Shrieve

Musicians:

• Carlos Santana (g, perc)
• Hadley Caliman (sax)
• Gregg Rolie (org, p)
• Wendy Haas (p)
• Tom Coster (el-p)
• Neal Schon (g)
• Douglas Rauch (g,b)
• Tom Rutley (b)
• Mike Shrieve (dr)
• Jose Chepito Areas, Armando Peraza (perc)

Selections:

Side A
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
Side B
1. Future Primitive
2. Stone Flower
3. La Fuente Del Ritmo
4. Every step of the way