Shapeshifter Of Delight Dept.

The boundary between solo albums by Carlos Humberto Santana Barragán and band albums by Santana is blurred and tricky to negotiate. I avoid the problem by filing everything under Santana. Shape Shifter, 2012, might have lifted the "band albums" out of a ten-year creative rut, but it sold less than the previous Guitar Heaven, his absolute nadir, and the rut was soon slipped back into.

Shape Shifter is basically instrumental, a good start. The only vocal nicely prefigures the last Santana album anybody really needs, the underrated (because unapologetically Mexican, I'm guessing) Corazon. This is above all, a Swell Album, not exactly like any other in the canon, and will provide you, Mr. and Mrs. Consumer, with many hours of musical pleasure. New cover art [above - Ed.] to freshen things up a bit.

The Swing Of Delight, attributed to Devadip Carlos Santana, is three decades older [pause for quiet contemplation while we stare into the abyss of time - Ed.] but they make an interesting pairing. This is an entirely instrumental jazz album, with Chucky leading, and allowing his musicians (including Herbie Hancock, Waynie Shorter, Ronnie Carter, and Tony Williams) to strut their stuff. This doesn't sound exactly like a Santana album, either, even with his instantly recognisable playing and dialled-back Latin percussion. Like Shape Shifter, it's not quite the success we might have hoped, and the wild magic that inspired his incredible run from Abraxas to Borboletta is absent. But again, it's a Swell Album, so being too critical is, well, being too critical. Quit yer whinin' an' let the music play. New cover art features rare selfie of Krishna - hubba hubba! [left - Ed.].

This post sponsored by Krishna's Karmic Klam Kastle™, Pismo Beach, CA.