Santana - Welcome (1972)

Dan:

As each new year arrived in the 1970s, I was eager to hear what the next Santana album might bring. The successor to Caravanserai was Welcome, and I welcomed it into my collection as soon as I could. I knew the title tune was by John Coltrane, and I also noticed that Coltrane's widow, Alice, was involved with Welcome as the arranger for "Going Home," the album's first track. Also contributing to Welcome was British guitarist John McLaughlin; Carlos and John would collaborate in 1973 on Love, Devotion and Surrender. Alice and Carlos were to collaborate on 1974's Illuminations. 

This set of albums and their instrumental lineups intrigued me. The jazz influence was obvious, but so were the Santana guitar solos (and guitar duets with McLaughlin), and a distinctive spiritual signature. Alice was well into her monastic era, which lasted until her death in 2007 (and probably beyond). All three artists also adopted spiritual names: Turiya Alice Coltrane, Devadip Carlos Santana. and Mahavishnu John McLaughlin (not to mention drummer Maitreya Michael Shrieve). Devadip and Mahavishnu also wore white clothing and openly acknowledged the influence of Guru Sri Chinmoy. (The photo shows Santana wearing a Sri Chinmoy t-shirt).

The programming of the tracks on Welcome creates an effective link between the low temperature tracks ("Going Home," "Mother Africa," "Light of Life," and "Welcome") and the more incendiary tracks (especially "Flame-Sky"). Instrumental and vocal tracks also work together, as they did on Caravanserai. Vocals are performed by Leon Tomas and guest Flora Purim. Almost everyone gets in on the writing of the seven original pieces, which beautifully complement the John Coltrane and Antonín Dvořák compositions.

Music like this got me through the mid-to-late 1970s. It filled the void left by jazz, which had turned to lighter fusion material to compete commercially with rock. I much prefer jazz-influenced rock than rock-influenced jazz. Yes, there is a difference, although in particular instances it's better to drop the labels and enjoy what you hear (as in the case of McLaughlin's Mahavishnu Orchestra). 

Steve: 

Although I do not listen to Welcome nearly as often as Caravanserai, I still consistently enjoy it all the way through each time I do. The Coltranes' (both John and Alice) influence is very pronounced on this album, as is the McLaughlin and Sri Chinmoy influence, guaranteeing this to be a much more spiritually minded Santana effort. I recall several of these tracks from my youth, no doubt from Dan's turntable, including "Mother Africa" with its curious organ melody, Jose Arias' "Samba de Sausalito", and the Flora Purim-sung "Yours is the Light".  

In recent years, I discovered the source of the opening Alice Coltrane meditation "Going Home", via Alice Coltrane's Lord of Lords album, which I purchased along with a couple other of her albums. Much of my recent interest in Alice Coltrane stems from a collaborative album Carlos Santana did with her around this time called Illuminations (mentioned by Dan above), also worth your time.