Maps of Music

Shape Shifter (2012)

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

Santana's 36th album is the first since 1992's Milagro with no guest singers on any song, after a run of albums built around guest vocalists.

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Shape Shifter: 22nd studio album by Santana, 36th album overall
Released May 14, 2012
First album on the new label Starfaith Records, distributed by Sony Music Entertainment
Produced by Carlos Santana and Clive Davis
Essentially instrumental: only one track has vocals, "Eres La Luz"
Thirteen tracks in the listing

First Santana album since Milagro (1992) with no guest singers on any song
Guest singers had characterized Santana's albums since Supernatural
The album is a selection of tracks Santana recorded from the late 1990s to 2012
"Mr. Szabo" honors Hungarian guitarist Gábor Szabó, one of Carlos Santana's early idols

Mastered at The Lodge, New York
Vocals on "Eres La Luz": Andy Vargas and Tony Lindsay
Personnel: Carlos Santana (guitar), Chester Thompson and Salvador Santana (keyboards), Benny Rietveld (bass), Dennis Chambers (drums), Karl Perazzo (timbales, percussion), Raul Rekow (congas, bongos, percussion)
Additional guitars on "Nomad" by Carlos Hernandez and Jorge Santana

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.

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.

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.

Classic Rock, 28 March 2012: article titled "Carlos Santana Readies 'Shape Shifter' Instrumental Album" by Matt Springer
Billboard, 28 February 2012: article "Santana Releasing 36th Album, 'Shape Shifter', Others While in Vegas" by Phil Gallo
Rolling Stone, 4 June 2012: article "Shape Shifter: Santana" by Will Hermes

US Billboard chart: peak at number 16
Rock album chart: peak at number 6
Released on Starfaith Records, distributed by Sony Music Entertainment
Sony Music distributes all of Santana's albums except those recorded for Polydor Records, which are owned by Universal Music Group

"Mr. Szabo" pays tribute to Gábor Szabó, who released a series of 8 albums for Impulse Records between 1966 and 1967.
The track's rhythm and harmony resemble "Gypsy Queen", a 1966 Szabó recording that Santana covered in 1970 as a medley with Fleetwood Mac's "Black Magic Woman".
Before release, Classic Rock described the album as an instrumental album.
The album is essentially instrumental, with the only vocal track being "Eres La Luz".