Santana
Welcome




1. Going Home
2. Love Devotion & Surrender
3. Samba De Sausalito
4. When I Look Into Your Eyes
5. Yours Is The Light
6. Mother Africa
7. Light Of Life
8. Flame Sky - (11:32)
9. Welcome

Track 8: Carlos Santana, John McLaughlin - guitars; Tom Coster - piano, organ; Richard Kermode - organ; Doug Rauch - bass guitar; Michael Shrieve - drums; Armando Peraza - congas.

Recorded in San Francisco, May 2, 1973.
Produced by Carlos Santana, Michael Shrieve and Tom Coster.


------------------- All-Music Guide Album --------------------

The membership of Santana continued to change and its music continued to evolve on the group's fifth album. "The New Santana Band," as it was called, was now an octet, consisting of Carlos Santana, Michael Shrieve, and Jose Areas from the original lineup, plus Doug Rauch, who had joined for Caravanserai, Tom Coster and Armando Pereza, who had played on Caravanserai, and additions Leon Thomas (formerly with Count Basie) on vocals and Richard Kermode on keyboards. The major omissions in this lineup were Greg Rolie and Neal Schon, who had left to form Journey. (James Mingo Lewis, who had joined for Caravanserai and played a big part on it, had also decamped to join Return To Forever.) The band also added occasional session players, especially horn players and vocalists, for selected tracks. Musically, the album was something of a companion piece to Carlos Santana's duet album with John McLaughlin, Love Devotion Surrender, even including a song by that title and, like the earlier record, containing compositions by McLaughlin and John Coltrane. In addition to the jazz influences, there was also a new blues sound courtesy of Thomas, a smooth-voiced singer in the Joe Williams tradition. The record was musically adventurous, but as Santana continued to diverge from its Latin rock roots, its popularity eroded: Welcome went gold and hit #25, but that was a far cry from the five weeks at #1 Santana III had enjoyed two years before. (Although the album had no Hot 100 bits, "When I Look In Your Eyes" [#102] came close.)
~William Ruhlmann, All-Music Guide


1973 LP
CBS PC 32445 (US)
CBS 69040 (GB)
CBS 32194 (GB)
CBS-Sony SOPN-55
CBS-Sony 25AP819
CD
Castle Comm. TFO 14/1 (includes Santana & Buddy Miles - "Live") (GB)
CBS CDCBS 32194
Sony 7464 32445 4
Q8
CBS CAQ 32445