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
The Sea II cover

The Sea II

David Darling, Jon Christensen, Terje Rypdal, Ketil Bjørnstad
Elegant Gypsy cover

Elegant Gypsy

Al Di Meola
Simulacrum cover

Simulacrum

John Zorn
Wisdom of Elders cover

Wisdom of Elders

Shabaka & the Ancestors
We Out Here cover

We Out Here

Various Artists
Of Human Feelings cover

Of Human Feelings

Ornette Coleman
Naked City cover

Naked City

John Zorn, Naked City
Afro Classic cover

Afro Classic

Hubert Laws
Fishbone cover

Fishbone

Fishbone