Welcome
| Santana
Welcome
Welcome is the fifth studio album by Santana, released in 1973. It followed the jazz-fusion formula that the preceding Caravanserai had inaugurated, but with an expanded and different lineup this time. Gregg Roliehad left the band along with Neal Schon to form Journey, and they were replaced by Tom Coster, Richard Kermode and Leon Thomas, along with guest John McLaughlin, who had collaborated with Carlos Santana on Love Devotion Surrender. Welcome also featured John Coltrane's widow, Alice, as a pianiston the album's opening track, "Going Home" and Flora Purim (the wife of Airto Moreira) on vocals. This album was far more experimental than the first four albums, and Welcome did not produce any hit singles.-Wikipedia
Critic Reviews
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Rolling Stone
January 3, 1974. Conceptually, the album sprawls somewhat, due to the occasionally divergent pulls of its various inspirations. But Carlos’ devotion to the musical substance of the Coltrane legacy is admirable, and he seems less inclined toward the superficial treatments which marred Love Devotion Surrender.
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AllMusic
Welcome was merely ahead of its time as a musical journey and is one of the more enduring recordings the band ever made. This is a record that pushes the envelope even today and is one of the most inspired recordings in the voluminous Santana oeuvre.
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Jazz Music Archives
October 21, 2011. 'Welcome' is an uneven release but does have enough moments to make it worthwhile.
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Prog Archives
This album is almost pure instrumental (only a few songs with vocals, which is good actually). I was quite anxious after Neil and (even more of course) Gregg's departures, but we can breathe deeply : this Santana album is a good one. Not a masterpiece (their won't be such ones any longer IMO). Still, four stars.
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George Starostin's Reviews
Overall, Welcome strikes me as a mostly unsuccessful attempt to marry Santana's unpretentious dancey past with the more spiritual approach of Caravanserai.
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Jive Time Records
July 9, 2010. Welcome sounds as good today as it sounded back then, a musical adventure and one of the best Rock albums of the 70s.
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The Music Box
January, 2004. Backed by The New Santana Band . . . Santana takes the jazz-fusion sound that he explored with John McLaughlin on Love Devotion Surrender and fully makes it his own.
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nokey-a-times
One word describes the CD Welcome from Santana... AWESOME! Every track is enjoyable and was pretty easy for me to listen to from start to finish.
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hifi.ml
March 1, 2013. Welcome was born in 1973 and showed a renewed Santana. The renewed line-up of the band, the audible sense of innovative music and, last but not least, the skill of all assisting artists, make Welcome anno 2013 an intense listening experience.
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Wilson & Alroy's Record Reviews
A relative flop, this still managed to reach #25 and go gold. (DBW)
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All About Jazz
April 4, 2012. This is Santana's John Coltrane/A Love Supreme moment: creating transcendent, reverent, passionate music conceived and executed by a virtuoso artist without the slightest trace of concern for commercial considerations. Welcome is every bit as much of a classic as the first three Santana albums. It sounds great nearly 40 years after its release.
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Robert Christgau
More confident and hence more fun than Caravanserai, this proves that a communion of multipercussive rock and transcendentalist jazz can move the unenlightened--me, for instance. Good themes, good playing, good beat, and let us not forget good singing . . . .
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Ultimate Santana
Featuring many new band members and musical guests, Welcome, while somewhat uneven, was in many ways a step up. . . . Welcome has a strong rhythmic element that bolsters almost every track
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Darwin Monkey
. . . the feel is more a slight return to the melodic structures of Caravanserai, and heralds the chart-oriented excursions of future albums. Carlos Santana's education from the more technical John McLaughlin is definitely taking effect. There is appreciation of space and melody in his playing, more than ever before.
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The Great Albums
This is a fabulous and beautiful disc, but be advised that this disc is far closer to jazz territory stylistically than it is to rock.
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