Welcome is the second jazz fusion album by Santana. It is a more laid-back, Latin-jazz outing than Caravanserai, but no less enjoyable. However, it does not generally get ranked as highly as Caravanserai or Borboletta. This may be because it is too mellow for fans steeped in the intense sounds of Santana's previous albums, and it does not have as many incendiary guitar solos by Carlos, who seems more into the overall sound here regardless of who is playing. With Caravanserai the band, and Carlos in particular, took a keen interest in jazz, Carlos collaborating on a number of solo albums with jazz musicians. Themes from John Coltrane appear on Welcome, along with collaboration with Alice Coltrane. The band's makeup has changed as well, so that affects the overall sound. While Welcome is not the innovative album that Caravanserai is, and does not have a consistent theme, the playing is great and the songs are good. Enjoy!

Despite being a jazz fusion fan, somehow I missed Live At The Greek way back when, so it was a treat to discover it. All the players here have pedigree: Stanley Clarke from Return To Forever, Larry Carlton from The Crusaders, Billy Cobham from The Mahavishnu Orchestra, Daron Johnson played with Miles Davis in the early '90s, and Najee, well know in smooth jazz circles, shows his fusion chops here. With this kind of talent, we should hope for something good, and fortunately, we've not been disappointed. The album starts unassumingly with a short (3:26) instrumental version of Minute By Minute, a Doobie Brothers song by Michael McDonald and Lester Abrams, which Carlton previously recorded as a studio instrumental. The next five tracks range from 5:20 to 14:02 minutes, and include three originals, plus Miles Davis' All Blues and Charles Mingus' Goodbye Pork Pie Hat, both being given the fusion treatment here. But the tour de force is a 21:33 minute version of Clarke's School Days. Clarke, Cobham and Carlton get the chance to really stretch out on this track, and the results are worth the price of admission. This would have been a great concert to attend!

First Set was one of the first albums I got when I made the transition from vinyl to CD. The 1980s had not been good to the ABB, or jazz, blues and rock in general, so I did not expect much. Gregg Allman and Dickey Betts had produced some respectable albums in the 1980s, but they didn't get much notice. Also, I had just listened to The Fillmore Concerts, so First Set had a hard act to follow. But I was pleasantly surprised. No, Fillmore II it's not. But at the time Dickey had been quoted as saying 'this is the way the ABB is supposed to sound', the addition of Warren Haynes on guitar and Allen Woody on bass making the band sound more like ABB I. We even get Thom Doucette on harp. First Set includes some new songs, plus some old classics, with a good range of material. I saw the ABB at Red Rocks in 1998 after Warren and Allen had left the ABB for Gov't Mule, and Jack Pearson was on guitar, and Oteil Burbridge on bass. The opener was John Hammond, Jr., backed by Little Charlie and the Nightcats. So it was kind of like old home week. If you haven't been to Red Rocks, go!

Brothers & Sisters, courtesy of Dickey Betts, brought a shift towards more of country sound for the ABB, though we saw this before with Diickey's Blue Sky, and Gregg Allman's Midnight Rider. Also, apparently one of Duane Allman's inspirations for the twin harmony guitars was the fiddles in Western Swing music. The shift led to complaints by some that the ABB was moving away from its blues-rock roots, but we still saw plenty of that in concert, With the deaths of Duane, then Barry Oakley, many wondered if the ABB would even carry on. But it did, recruiting Chuck Leavell on piano, and Lamar Williams on bass. The choice of a second keyboard player, rather than than another guitarist, made sense at the time, as there were likely few guitarists who would have wanted to be thrown into to Duane spotlight. And Chuck and Lamar were good players, so no problem there. They also contributed to the jazz element of the ABB, which Jaimoe had pushed from the start. In fact, ABB II spun off Sea Level, with its own jazz fusion elements. So the ABB was not fundamentally changed and, even with more country sound, Brothers & Sisters shows all of the ABB's elements. Treat yourself to the 40th anniversary 4-disc set for some interesting outtakes, jamming, and two live discs.

Shades Of Two Worlds is the second CD I bought (in a used shop) in my transition from vinyl 20 some years ago. Now (2014) people are going back to vinyl. The first CD I bought was The Fillmore Concerts boxset. The 1980s had not treated the ABB well. It had not treated jazz, blues or rock in general well. So I was pleasantly surprised to discover that I liked the sound of Shades. I recall a quote from Dickey Betts around that time saying 'this is the way the ABB is supposed to sound' With Warren Haynes and Allen Woody on board, it sounded more like the original ABB. Obviously, they could not recreate the magic of ABB I, but produced a series of good albums. If you like the ABB's original blend of blues, jazz and rock, you should like Shades. Some tracks are stronger than others, but overall a good effort.