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Santana - Caravanserai CD (album) cover

CARAVANSERAI

Santana

 

Jazz Rock/Fusion

4.22 | 780 ratings

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Gatot
Special Collaborator
Honorary Collaborator
2 stars "Originally released in 1973, Caravanserai marked a creative turning point for Santana. Six years of phenomenal success over three albums and extensive tours, this album would represent an expanding of the band's musical scope. Caravanserai takes fans on a harmonic and spiritual odyssey through jazz. A true document of crystalline imaginative vision, Caravanserai is a milestone in the history of Santana". [CD back cover notes].

With that sentences, if you are an adventurer of prog music - who would not want to buy the CD? I was one of you. Having read the notes PLUS some recommendations from local friends as well as reviews at this site I purchased this CD without any hesitation at all. Problem with me was - I could not digest the music easily. Why? I was not able to grab the idea of where Santana was leading their music to. Going prog? Doing something different than what they had done before? Whatever the reason was I don't get the idea of this album.

First, I have to admit that every band has their own musical characteristic that sometimes , subconsciously, becomes my expectation on how they would play their music in every release of their album. Santana's music has unique texture of latin music combined with electric guitar solo by Carlos Santana and soaring Hammond B3 organ by Gregg Rolie. Santana is basically a partnership of Carlos Santana and Gregg Rolie. Their previous three albums were obviously under this banner. When I happened to know Caravanserai later, I felt something funny that the band explored into this music horizon.

Second, putting off al expectations on the kind of music that Santana typically play, I don't even digest the music as usually I could do. Why? Was it due to the first point? No! I tried to forget the fact that this is a Santana album, but still the music itself is not so compelling enough to stir my emotion. Remember, for me music is emotion. Yes, I can hear excellent (no . even "great") guitar work by Carlos Santana and Neal Schon here and there from tracks featured in this album but still I can not grab good quality of the music than the sounds of music jamming. Almost each song has repetitive and boring rhythm section characterized by combination of percussion, drums and bass guitar plus organ. But again they are mostly repetitive in nature.

Based on the above, I have to be honest to say that this is not something so compelling for me as a good prog album to recommend even though this is not a bad one either. I leave it up to you on the decision to purchase. As you know many reviewers praise this album. Sorry, if I have different views because I cannot lie. It's an album for collector / completionist. Keep on proggin' ..!

"Never confuse movement with progress."

Gatot | 2/5 |

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