Caravanserai was the fourth album from Santana and began a significant change in his career as he moved away from the blues and salsa rhythms of his earlier three albums to more explore the jazzy sound. Compared with groups like Mahavishnu Orchestra, Carlos Santana’s group approaches the music from a more accessible and tuneful direction and many of the instrumentals are very expressive. It sounds very much like Santana, and it’s really good. Just the fact that this departure from the style of three very successful albums exists demonstrates that Santana was committed to making challenging music and pushing himself into new territory. Personnel changes in the group and Santana taking greater creative control during and after this album created tensions that led to Gregg Rolie and Neal Schon leaving the group and founding Journey after this was recorded. Carlos Santana would not have the same commercial success that he enjoyed again until about 1999, and this album represents a major transition in Santana’s history.
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