ORIGINA ALBUM CLASSICS (CARAVANSERAI...)

This boxset offers a good low-cost way to acquire five of Santana's best albums. Some of the boxsets in this series leave a bit to be desired in terms of album selection, but this one is stellar. It includes in order of original release the core albums from Santana's jazz fusion phase: Caravanserai, Love Devotion Surrender (w/John McLaughlin), Welcome, Borboletta, and Amigos. Granted, Amigos is not a full-on fusion album, and bridged Santana back into Latin rock, but it has fusion elements and is a better album than many subsequent ones by Santana. Also, Amigos produced the tunes Baila Mi Hermana and Europa, which became part of the band's live repertoire. The CDs are packaged in LP-style slipcases, but with minimal information, though the box says to consult Sony's webpage for more information. However, the sound quality is excellent, using the latest 2003 remasters where available, for the first three albums, including bonus tracks. So this boxset is definitely a good deal. Now, if Columbia would release a similar boxset for Santana's first phase of Latin rock, including the first three studio albums, plus the Live At The Fillmore 1968 album, that would be nice.