Santana - The Good Years

This past weekend, I picked up a copy of Santana's 1974 album Borboletta, which was the last album of Carlos' 1972-74 fusion period, and which contains quite possibly the best playing he ever did in the studio. After that, he decided to clip his musical wings and go be a pop star again, with a series of less inspired rock albums in the mid-late '70s.

Borboletta is somewhat overlooked these days, even by those (like me) who treasure Carlos' fusion work. I've been listening to his music since the '80s and I finally just now got around to buying a copy. It has a funk/R&B influence that wasn't so present on his earlier fusion albums, such as Caravanserai and Welcome. Overall, I'm groovin' on it.

In that spirit, here's some burnin' video from back when Carlos truly aspired to greatness--live at the Budokan in 1973, from the series of shows that was used to create the classic Santana live album Lotus.