Santana: Caravanserai / Love Devotion Surrender / Welcome / Borboletta / Amigos

Hi, I just want to add a quick note to those who might be wondering if these cds are all "remasters." I found that if a specific album in the set has been remastered, then you'll get that in these boxes. For the boxset of Caravanserai, Love Devotion & Surrender, Welcome, Borboletta, and Amgios, the remasters would be Caravanserai, Love Devotion & Surrender, and Welcome. For Borboletta and Amigos you get the same sound as the 2008 Sony SBME Special Markets cds, which I think still sounds great. Now you may be saying, wait Amigos and Borboletta have been remastered, right but only in Japan. Unfortunately you don't get those versions in these EU Import sets, or else they would be a HUGE value!I A/B'd this set with my Sony Legacy remasters of Caravenserai, Love Devotion & Surrender, and Welcome, and they were the same sound. I A/B'd Amigos and Borboletta with my Sony SBME special markets 2008 reissues, and they too were identical. This was in a JBL car audio system. I too am into the remasters and collect Japan mini-lps, but the SBME special markets of the two in this set do sound great. You can crank it up and it's not too loud, and it's not too weak either.Here's an update for the other boxes in the Santana series. For the box of Inner Secrets, Marathon, Zebop, Shango, and Freedom you will get the regular nonremastered Sony BMG reissues. Marathon, Zebop, and Shango have been remastered by Friday Music in the USA but those versions are not in this classic series set. Inner Secrets will have the 12" disco mix of "One Chain." To get the LP mix of "One Chain," you have to buy the Inner Secrets 2010 Japanese minilp DSD remaster (SICP-2875).For the boxset of Illuminations, Oneness, and Swing of Delight, you once again get the regular nonremastered Sony BMG reissues. Swing of Delight has been remastered by Friday Music in the USA (not the version in this classic series).Finally for the set of Havana Moon, Beyond Appearances, and Spirits Dancing In The Flesh, you get the regular nonremastered Sony BMG reissues. All in all a great value for around 10 bucks!

You hear a lot of complaints about the lack of details in the packages or the simplistic packaging. Word to the wise - you're getting a bargain - ENJOY IT for what it's worth. This is an excellent collection of jazz/ latin / fusion from Santana. I remember listening to some of Caravanserai and Borboletta, somewhat nonchalantly back in the 70's. I enjoyed what I heard, but never added any of the albums to my collection. Now I am maybe able to appreciate this a little more. In the light of the dearth of quality music and musicianship in much of modern music ( too much reliance on technology and not enough on musical chops...) I find myself returning to the classic era of rock and reveling in the freedom of expression found there. This is the 4th set of Original Album Classic's I have bought, the others being the 1st Weather Report box, John McLaughlin, and Mahavishnu Orchestra. This Santana collection is superb and reminds me of a time when listening to an album all the way through was the thing to do - pausing only to get up and flip the Lp over!It's wonderful to wallow in the sonic landscape of Caravanserai and marvel at the majestic power of Love, Devotion and Surrender, to applaud the diversity of Welcome and drift into the world of Borboletta. Even the funk and frill of Amigos has the capacity to release the party in me. Go get yourself a set of these....

5 great albums for the price of one. Jazz fusion at its finest. Just received in the mail and was pleasantly surprised with the packaging. Each of the 5 cds come in a cardboard slip cover with the original album artwork like a mini vinyl cover. All of them can be stored in a larger slip cover with the artwork from the product listing. The whole thing only takes up the space of about 2 regular cd cases or less.

one of the things that i have been trying to do lately is reacquire some of the music i had in my collection but for one reason or another got lost... this box is one way to gather some of these old santana albums for a great price, and be a nice corner stone of anyone's santana collection. featuring cd's from santana's jazzy period [except the mclaughlin cd which is in it's own category] originally released from 1972-1976 :::: exotic percussion , spectacular keyboards , soaring guitar and beautiful melodies and arrangements. if you are looking to add to your santana collection you can't go wrong with this box. all 5 albums are classics. each release has many fine reviews right here on amazon, check 'em out and enjoy !

This collection of Santana's jazz fusion/funk period is fantastic. Some of the albums are better than others (Borboletta being the weakest link, IMHO, but still with some great tunes), but they all have superb musicianship. My only complaint is the packaging - there is little information (although you can certainly look it up), and the individual sleeves tend to fly out of the box if you aren't careful when picking it up. So, I dinged the collection a star in that regard, but the music itself is 5+ stars!

Great box set!!!!!

5 albums for $20. You can't beat that.I liked Caravanserai, but agree that the John MGlaughlin collaboration was better, as some reviewers suggested. I thought Welcome was a little non-descript. Kind of a venture into jazz fusion, but not much to make anything really stand out. Barboletta started to get better as Carlos started to mix some of his latin influences in with the fusion. Amigos was the strongest of the pack in my opinion. This album features the classic, Europa, which is one of my favorite Santana tunes.

I love all 5 Santana CD's for a very low price. The music is awesome.