Rock On! Wednesday, 20 August 2025 – Santana, Cobham, Chicago, Atmospheres, Tippet & Al Di Meola

Psychedelic, heavy, prog and more innovating sounds spanning the late 60s and the early 70s – Dan’s pick of the week: Santana (Caravanserai), Billy Cobham (Spectrum), Chicago (Chicago X), Atmospheres (Voyage to Uranus), The Keith Tippett Group (Dedicated to You, but You Weren’t Listening) & Al Di Meola (Land of the Midnight Sun).

In 1972 werd Santana steeds meer beïnvloed door de muziek van Miles Davis, John Coltrane en Joe Zawinul, die tegen die tijd jazzfusion hadden verkend Het vierde album, Caravanserai, markeerde een aantal line-upwisselingen; bassist David Brown vertrok in 1971 voordat de opnames begonnen en werd vervangen door Doug Rauch en Tom Rutley. Carabello werd vervangen door twee percussionisten, Armando Peraza en Mingo Lewis. Rolie werd op een paar nummers vervangen door Tom Coster. Caravanserai debuteerde op nummer 8 in de VS.

The Music Aficionado review: “At the end of 1971 the Santana band was disintegrating. After an iconic performance at Woodstock and three excellent albums that defined the blue print for Latin rock, plus a succession of hits like Black Magic Woman and Oye Como Va, the band was falling apart. That phase in the band’s timeline is chronicled well elsewhere so I will let other sources document the inevitable results of too much sex and drugs and rock n roll. The gist of it is that by the time recording sessions commenced in February 1972 for the band’s fourth album, percussionist Michael Carabello and bassist David Brown were gone, replaced by James Mingo Lewis and Dough Rauch. More changes were to come soon, and these sessions document a band in transition while in search of a new purpose. The result is one of the best albums of that period, a spiritual blend of jazz, rock and Latin music like no other. This is the story of Caravanserai, my favorite album in the band’s catalog.

In the Near East the word Caravanserai means a large courtyard that provides accommodation for caravans, or simply a group of people travelling together. But Carlos Santana found a different meaning for it when he was reading a text by Indian yogi and guru Paramahansa Yogananda: “The caravan is the eternal cycle of reincarnation, every soul going into and out of life, from death to life and back again, until you arrive at a place where you can rest and achieve an inner peace. That place is the caravanserai.” He could not come up with a better title for the album, as it represents not only his personal quest for spirituality at that time, but also the music that the band created for the album. There is a level of intensity and urgency about that music that has its peers in the beginnings of jazz rock: albums by Miles Davis, Tony Williams’ Lifetime and John MacLaughlin’s Mahavishnu Orchestra. But unlike most albums in the genre that came about when jazz musicians discovered that rock attitudes and instrumentations can add a new dimension to their music, it is rare to find a rock band foraying into jazz territories. Sure, progressive rock bands, mostly from the British Isles like Soft Machine and King Crimson, where already doing that in spades by 1972. But for an American top 40 band to do that, and with such a level of integrity and sincerity, that was unique. (…)

Summarizing his experience in making the album, Michael Shrieve said: “We thought it was appealing, to the ear and to the soul. It made me feel good inside. There is a certain purity in the music that is seemed had to be recognized that would touch people if they really listened to it.” I’ll hand the closing comment to Carlos Santana: “Shrieve was there to complete the journey that became Caravanserai. He was in my corner and I was in his – we helped each other complete it. More than any Santana album, Caravanserai was meant to be a full album experience, with one track connected to the next – a body of work like What’s Going On or A Love Supreme.” Mission accomplished.”

Wednesday, 20 August 2025 12:00 noon CET Brussels – 11 a.m. GMT London. Repeated: 16:00 & 20:00 hrs CET Brussels, 3 p.m. & 7 p.m. GMT London
Ends: 12 midnight CET Brussels, 11 p.m. GMT London.