Santana Echoes Miles Davis and John Coltrane on Caravanserai: Organic 1972 Jazz-Fusion Album Doubles as a Spiritual Quest, Features Beautiful Arrangements and Soulful Playing Mobile Fidelity's 180g 33RPM Vinyl LP Plays with Superb Detail, Clarity, Airiness, and Naturalism 1/4" / 15 IPS analog master to DSD 64 to analog console to lathe
Filled with harmonious performances that reflect the definition of its title – a place at which ideas, products, and culture are freely traded – Caravanserai marks the start of Carlos Santana's foray into the jazz-fusion territory that would inform his career for the better part of the next two decades. Inspired by Miles Davis' pioneering period work, and aiming to discover and develop inner peace within a musical realm, the guitarist sets off on a quest to find his equivalent of the spiritual dimensions John Coltrane channels on A Love Supreme. The daring move paid dividends: The namesake band's 1972 album landed in the Top 10, sold more than a million copies, and established Santana as a visionary who refused to cater to commercialism. Sourced from the original analog master tapes and pressed at Fidelity Record Pressing, Mobile Fidelity's numbered-edition 180g 33RPM LP brims with atmospheric texture, three-dimensional spaciousness, and revealing microdynamics. This collectible audiophile reissue exposes the natural feel of Santana and drummer Mike Shrieve's production, allowing the music to emerge with refreshing airiness, intimate presence, and organic balance. Whether the sound pertains to the brassy reach of a saxophone, bloom of an acoustic bass, intricate wash of an organ, or trailing note of an echo, Caravanserai projects with superb detail and clarity. This is an album whose meanings and scope tremendously benefit from such enhanced closeness, warmth, and tonality.