Audio CD review:
Santana - Borboletta

Santana - Borboletta

Band: Santana Title: Borboletta Rating: Release Date: 29 May, 1990 Media: Audio CD Tracks: 1: Spring Manifestations 2: Canto De Los Flores 3: Life Is Anew 4: Give And Take 5: One With The Sun 6: Aspirations 7: Practice What You Preach 8: Mirage 9: Here And Now 10: Flor De Canela 11: Promise of The Fisherman 12: Borboletta

Customer Reviews The last in a long run of strong albums While Borboletta is like its predecessors in that it's a spiritual release that's heavy on the instrumentals, their venture into a more pop-rock sound is evident on the vocal tracks. Borboletta would be the third and last jazz fusion studio album that Santana would record after Caravanserai and Welcome respectively. The opening instrumentals "Spring Manifestations" and "Canto De Los Flores" recall "Singing Winds, Crying Beasts" from Abraxas with its jungle rhythms and peaceful demeanor. The vocal tracks then begin as "Life Is Anew" is a playful Latin rock tune while "Give and Take" is hard and funky and ends with a cool jam at the end. "One with the Sun" may be the best Santana track that most people don't know. Boasting a very memorable vocal and guitar line, this could have been a hit single in a shortened version on AM radio back in the day. "Aspirations" and "Promise of a Fisherman" are both great driving Santana instrumentals that the band has made famous with the former featuring some great sax playing and Carlos providing some wicked soloing on the latter. The remaining instrumentals are decent as "Here and Now" is very jazzy while "Flor de Canela" is more or less a prelude to the aforementioned "Promise of a Fisherman. " Other tracks include the strong "Practice What You Preach" which features a slow long build before the vocal kicks in and the bland pop song, "Mirage. " All told, Borboletta would be the last of a long string of strong albums from Santana as their future output would become less challenging and more radio friendly. . Overlooked gem from Santana "Borboletta" came in 1974 and was part of his jazz fusion period but much more uptempo than his previous jazzy outings. Santana has released many albums in his long and distinguished career and naturally some get more attention than others. A great listen from start to finish with songs like "Mirage" and "One with the Sun" standing out. Definitely one of his all time best- he's done other jazzy works but none quite like this. Great album cover too!. Spiritual fusion It is really one of his best works and displays Santana's virtuosity, style and grace. I recently have been updating some of my collection of LP's to disc and am very glad to have purchased "Borboletta" again. This is not a rock album perse but rather a fusion disc that mixes the worlds of jazz and rock with a heavy dose of spirituality to solidify the effort. "Canto de Los Flores" manifests the essence of this disc quite well, blending all the aforementioned elements leaving even the most discerning listener wondering where is Santana? Make no doubt , he is all over this disc, it was just a different Santana; the third and final incarnation of his fusion period. Personally I wish he would have done more like this but commerically it wasn't feasable. Listen to "One with the Sun" and you get the cosmic feel Santana was undergoing and for that matter many of the people of his(our) generation were going through;the dawning of the Age of Aquarius had arrived. Not convinced something was going on in music and all around? Listen to " Mirage" and you might understand. There are several instrumental only songs that are just beautiful like "Aspirations" which could as easily be jazz song but rather fuses the elements of rock and jazz for a snapshot sampler of jazz-rock-fusion circa 1974, "Here and Now" is another one that is the epitome of fusion, "Flor de Canela" features the wailing guitar work of Carlitos mixed with more jazz rhythms to perfection; there are several other great instrumentals that capture this experimental growth time period of Santana. This is not one of his most popular or best selling discs but it was one of his most personal and therefore one of his most underrated. This is Mmsic for the soul that sets you free;get it and be free(again). . You can see a complete list of all Santana discography, or go back to the Santana tabs