Deep Stacks No. 15 - Caravanserai

I've always been drawn to artists who both push boundaries and blend styles and influences but still are able to move on through their careers and lives into different sounds and approaches. This album "Caravanserai" (1972) is a testament to a brilliant phase of Carlos Santana's catalog. Featuring an incredible live band, this album's long-form sonic meditation begins with an ambient hush but ultimately ascends to soaring heights capped by Santana's recognizable sustained sound and a jazz-rock centered rhythm section. In between and along the way: bass lines are super funky (think H. Hancock's "Headhunters"), percussion is layered and very African influenced. Briefly moments of vocal incantations also mark a few transition as the thunderous celebratory solos yields to quieter moments of rhythm and texture.