MoFi Vinyl - Santana "Caravanserai" (33RPM LP)

180g MFSL1-524

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.

Just consider the quote from Indian monk-yogi Paramahansa Yolanda gracing the album's inner cover: "The body melts into the universe. The universe melts into the soundless voice. The sound melts into the all-shining light. And the light enters the bosom of infinite joy." Yolanda's words serve as a guide: Caravanserai feels at once cosmic, hopeful, bright, festive. Though grounded and centered, its songs seem to float in an otherworldly stratosphere; its liberating passages and pulsing rhythms don't touch the ground. Arrangements point forward and skyward, drawing attention to a higher consciousness and away from earthly pursuits. The effect is beautiful, uplifting, freeing.

Soulfulness and spirituality course throughout Caravanserai. Its deep emotionalism and heartfelt expressiveness are on par with the most personalized playing of Santana's career. Distinct from instrumentally based albums centered around jams performed for the sake of virtuosity, Caravanserai retains a cohesive focus and purpose. It is foremost an album of songs connected by melody, groove, and relative concision. It makes demands on not just the ears but the heart and mind. Directly and indirectly invoking concepts like purifying, cleansing, and sharing, it invites you to listen and concentrate with undivided attention.