Borboletta cover

Borboletta

Released

Beginning with 1972’s Caravanserai and followed by Welcome and Love Devotion Surrender, both featuring guest guitar from John McLaughlin, the triple live album Lotus and the Alice Coltrane collaboration Illuminations, Carlos Santana went on a spiritual jazz-rock journey for several years, derailing his career commercially while making the most beautiful and ambitious music of his career. Borboletta, released in 1974, marks the end of this phase; it features plenty of spacy, almost ambient jams and guest vocals from Flora Purim (plus percussion from her husband, Airto Moreira). Jazz-funk bassist Stanley Clarke and drummer Leon “Ndugu” Chancler, who’d played with Miles Davis in 1971 before joining Herbie Hancock’s Mwandishi, also appear. There are some hard-rocking and funky moments (“Give And Take”), but a lot of this album is closer in spirit to Weather Report or In A Silent Way than Abraxas.

Phil Freeman

Suggestions
Love Bug cover

Love Bug

Reuben Wilson
Disrespectful cover

Disrespectful

Tim Lefebvre, JZ Replacement
Mandance cover

Mandance

Ronald Shannon Jackson & the Decoding Society
MARCHING MUSIC cover

MARCHING MUSIC

Dave Douglas
Lotus cover

Lotus

Santana
Shuffle and Deal cover

Shuffle and Deal

Eddie Henderson
LongGone  cover

LongGone

Brad Mehldau, Christian McBride, Joshua Redman, Brian Blade
Fearless Movement cover

Fearless Movement

Kamasi Washington
Good Days cover

Good Days

Chicago Underground Quartet