Santana-Welcome www.pnworld.biz

Santana

Welcome

Columbia/Legacy (85944)

1973 USA



Following a couple of adventurous fusion-styled albums, Welcome is definitely a let-down hampered by a case of bloat. The title seems to indicate an invitation back to the fold for fans of the original Santana band's first three albums who were alienated by Carlos' subsequent forays into fusion. Welcome doesn't sound any more like Abraxas than Caravanserai did, though; it's just more commercially-oriented. I think Welcome is a patchy attempt to have too much at once. What I hear is Santana trying to take the jazz influences and spiritual atmosphere of Caravanserei and Love Devotion Surrender, smoothing out almost every edge and then tossing in some lite funk and soul — as well as hordes of guest musicians and even strings — to make an album that, theoretically, would taste good yet be good for you at the same time. Unfortunately, Welcome strikes me as not doing either thing particularly well.

To be fair, while Welcome is album that really disappointed me when I first heard it, this was more the result of unmet expectations than bad music. In fact, other than the lite-funk balladry of "When I Look Into Your Eyes" and wimpy pop-fusion of "Light of Life," (both of which also sound horribly dated) there's nothing here that I think is worse than merely average. But there's not one track on Welcome that really excites me, either — not even "Flame-Sky," an 11.5-minute reunion wankfest with John McLaughlin — although "Mother Africa" and the bonus track "Mantra" are pretty good and at least come close. Mostly, I find Welcome to be overproduced and underthought. You know Santana is trying to be serious when he includes a Coltrane cover and intersperses the album with atmospheric passages intended to induce spiritual tranquility, but despite Santana's considerable growth as a musician over the preceding few years, this isn't the kind of effect you can just call upon at a whim, or — worse — order in for by hiring a string section and a bunch of other people to stuff the songs ever fuller with more sounds. And bringing in Leon Thomas to sing doesn't automatically make you "jazz;" not when he's given material more suited to Barry White.



All in all, I think Welcome is a mediocre Santana album — the first of many in his large discography, though it's certainly among the most artistically ambitious of his middling efforts.



Carlos Santana, guitars, percussion, kalimba, vocals; Tom Coster, Yamaha organ, Hammond organ, piano, electric piano, marimba, percussion; Richard Kermode, Mellotron, Hammond organ, piano, electric piano, percussion, marimba, shekero; Doug Rauch, bass; Armando Peraza, percussion, congas, bongos, casaba; Michael Shrieve, drums; Tony Smith, drums; Jose Areas, timbales, congas, percussion; Bob Yance, flute; Mel Martin, flute; Joe Farrell, flute; Jules Broussard, soprano sax; John McLaughlin, guitar; Doug Rodriguez, guitar; Flora Purim, vocals; Wendy Haas, vocals; Leon Thomas, vocals



Tracklist: (one file mp3)

1. Going Home — 4:11

2. Love, Devotion, Surrender — 3:38

3. Samba de Sausalito — 3:11

4. When I Look Into Your Eyes — 5:52

5. Yours Is The Light — 5:47

6. Mother Africa — 5:55

7. Light of Life — 3:52

8. Flame-Sky — 11:33

9. Welcome — 6:35

10. Mantra (bonus) — 6:11



total time 56:50