Maps of Music

Welcome (1973)

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

The album opens with a traditional spiritual that Dvořák used in his New World Symphony, and John Coltrane's widow played piano on that track.

Place unknown

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Welcome: fifth studio album by Santana, released in 1973
Follows the jazz-fusion formula of the preceding album Caravanserai, with a changed lineup
Gregg Rolie and Neal Schon left to form Journey
Tom Coster, Richard Kermode and Leon Thomas joined; John McLaughlin appears as a guest
Far more experimental than the band's first four albums
No hit singles were released from the album
Re-released in 2003 with the bonus track "Mantra"

Carlos Santana was renamed "Devadip" by the guru Sri Chinmoy in 1972
Alice Coltrane, John Coltrane's widow, played piano on the opening track "Going Home"
Flora Purim, former wife of Airto Moreira, sang vocals
Mirrors Caravanserai's fusion direction while moving away from Latin roots

Douglas Rauch on bass and Michael Shrieve on drums
Armando Peraza and José "Chepito" Areas on percussion
Glen Kolotkin was the engineer
"Going Home" is adapted from a traditional spiritual that Dvořák used in the New World Symphony

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.

Rolling Stone's Robert Palmer called Welcome the most rhythmically satisfying rock recording since Professor Longhair's
Palmer said the rhythm section was at its loosest and best
Palmer heard enough of the old Latin fire to satisfy fans, along with a promising expansion of sources and resources
DownBeat's Eric Kriss gave the album 3 stars
Kriss wrote that the many musicians made the result a mixed bag, some good and some bad
Kriss praised the title track and Flora Purim's contribution on "Yours is the Light"
Robert Christgau wrote that the album proves rock percussion and transcendentalist jazz can work together, with good themes, playing, beat and singing

AllMusic's Thom Jurek called Welcome a jazz record with rock elements, not a rock record that flirted with jazz
Jurek wrote that the album was ahead of its time as a musical journey and is one of the band's more enduring recordings
All About Jazz's Jeff Winbush described it as the summit of Santana's jazz fusion era
Winbush singled out Michael Shrieve's drumming and the dual keyboard attack of Coster and Kermode

No hit singles
Remastered in 2023 and released in SACD format with stereo and quadrophonic mixes, without the bonus track

The title track is a John Coltrane cover; the French article notes it comes from Coltrane's album Kulu Sé Mama
The 2003 bonus track "Mantra" was described by AllMusic's Thom Jurek as a killer improv tune with a ferocious bass solo
"Mantra" grew out of a jam session by Tom Coster, Carlos Santana and Mike Shrieve
The Spanish article notes the album was reissued in 2003 with an extra track
Flora Purim had been married to the percussionist Airto Moreira
Welcome was the first Santana album after Gregg Rolie and Neal Schon left for Journey