Maps of Music

Borboletta (1974)

Where the lyrics of Borboletta take you, and where it was really made.

The butterfly on the sleeve points to another record: Butterfly Dreams (1973), made by Flora Purim and Airto Moreira, whose work deeply shaped the sound of Borboletta.

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Album story

Overview

• Borboletta: sixth studio album by the American Latin rock band Santana
• One of Santana's jazz-funk-fusion-oriented albums, along with Caravanserai (1972) and Welcome (1973)
• Carlos Santana's other records in this style include Love Devotion Surrender (1973) with John McLaughlin and Illuminations (1974) with Alice Coltrane, Jack DeJohnette and Jules Broussard
• The guitarist leaves much room to percussion, saxophone and keyboards to set moods, as on "Spring Manifestations"
• "Promise of a Fisherman" features long guitar solos by Santana
• "Give and Take" is a funky, guitar-led vocal song

Background

• At that time Santana was drawn to Christian devotional music, to the Oriental fashion in the United States (especially the San Francisco area), and to jazz-rock
• He admired the music of Return to Forever and wanted to make something similar, ideally with some of that group's musicians
• Original bassist David Brown returned to replace Doug Rauch, and bassist Stanley Clarke played on some tracks
• Vocalist and keyboardist Leon Patillo joined the band
• After the album was completed, drummer Michael Shrieve left; Leon "Ndugu" Chancler replaced him, having guested on parts of the album

Cover

• Released in a metallic blue sleeve showing a butterfly
• The butterfly alludes to Butterfly Dreams (1973) by Brazilian musician Flora Purim and her husband Airto Moreira
• Their contributions deeply influenced the sound of Borboletta
• In Portuguese, borboleta means "butterfly"

Sources: en.wikipedia.org · es.wikipedia.org · fr.wikipedia.org

Tracklist

Sources: musicbrainz.org

Artist

Formation

• Formed in San Francisco, California, in 1966 by Mexican-American guitarist Carlos Santana.
• Named the Santana Blues Band at a January 1967 Fillmore audition; shortened to Santana by the end of 1967.
• Signed with Columbia Records in late 1968.
• The "classic" line-up stabilised in May 1969: Carlos Santana, Gregg Rolie, Michael Carabello, David Brown, Michael Shrieve and Jose "Chepito" Areas.

Members

• Carlos Santana is the only consistent member across the band's history.
• Classic line-up: Santana, Gregg Rolie (organ, lead vocals), Michael Carabello and Jose "Chepito" Areas (percussion), Michael Shrieve (drums), David Brown (bass).
• Brown died in 2000; Areas was not invited to the 2014 reunion.
• Classic line-up members were inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1998.

Career

• Breakthrough at the 1969 Woodstock Festival; the debut album Santana peaked at No. 4 on the US Billboard 200.
• Abraxas (1970) and Santana III (1971) both reached No. 1 on the US Billboard 200.
• Early 1970s experiments with jazz fusion on Caravanserai (1972), Welcome (1973) and Borboletta (1974).
• Amigos (1976) returned the band to commercial success; Moonflower (1977) was its most successful album since Santana III.
• Commercial decline in the 1980s, followed by a seven-year recording hiatus.
• Supernatural (1999) won eight Grammy Awards and sold an estimated 30 million copies worldwide.
• Santana IV (2016) reunited the classic line-up, the first recording together in 45 years.
• Estimated 100 million records sold worldwide.

Sources: en.wikipedia.org

Reception

At release

• Spanish Wikipedia: the album continues the jazz-rock trend marked by Caravanserai and Welcome
• Spanish Wikipedia: it completes a line of Santana's non-band recordings with John McLaughlin and Alice Coltrane
• Spanish Wikipedia: Santana leaves much room to percussion, saxophone and keyboards
• Spanish Wikipedia: funk-style guitar solos appear on "Promise of a fisherman" and "Give and take"
• Spanish Wikipedia: around that time Santana was interested in Christian devotional music, Oriental fashion in the US, and jazz-rock
• Portuguese Wikipedia: released in October 1974 as the sixth studio album by Santana
• Portuguese Wikipedia: the guitars leave more space for percussion, saxophone and keyboards
• English Wikipedia: the album is one of the band's jazz-funk-fusion-oriented records
• English Wikipedia: the guitarist leaves room for percussion, saxophone and keyboards to set moods
• English Wikipedia: "Give and Take" is a funky song led by guitar

Sources: en.wikipedia.org · es.wikipedia.org · pt.wikipedia.org

Trivia

• The record came in a metallic blue sleeve with a butterfly, an allusion to Butterfly Dreams (1973) by Flora Purim and Airto Moreira.
• The title is spelled with two t's, perhaps by analogy with Italian word endings that may have been more familiar to American designers.
• Label credits misprint the writers for A1 and B6, listing A. Purim instead of A. Moreira.
• The opening track, "Spring Manifestations", contains only percussion and sound effects by the Purim/Moreira couple, and is credited to them.

Sources: en.wikipedia.org · es.wikipedia.org · fr.wikipedia.org · www.discogs.com

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