CARAVANSERAI

It contains no hits like the previous three albums. It is largely instrumental, beautiful piece of work that shows great amount of talent, imagination and creativity of Carlos Devadip and his backing band. It sounds like a thematic piece, albeit not a "concept", about mysticism surrounding caravans, desert, sand, sun and moon, day and night, and the universal values of life in general. The music here performed is Santana's first real foray into jazz-rock. There are plenty of spacey and ambience keyboards (mostly Hammond and piano) and percussion. Bass is a forefront instrument in many moments on the album and it often sounds as played fretless, thus a wonderful melodic sound. Guitar is less dominant than on previous works, but in turn it fits nicely into the overall music journey, with effective and gentle solos right in proper places (Santana is sometimes prone to excessive "guitar hero" pyrotechnics and unnecessary soloing). The compositions are interconnected without pauses, so the listening process goes smoothly and uninterrupted. Musicianship, composing and production are all perfect. For my taste the only flaw of this album are weak vocals in "All the Love of the Universe", which are too sweetie and come close to easy pop sound. All the rest is perfect.

I would like to recommend "Caravanserai" especially to those people who are sceptic about Santana's "proginess" and who don't like his classic Latin-rock sound of early, more commercial albums.

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