I bought a copy of Santana’s Welcome album in my mid to late teens. and I’ve always adored it. It’s Santana and co at their peak – along with Caravanserai, Lotus, and Borboletta – with the perfect blending of latin, rock, blues, funk, soul, pop, and lashings of cosmic jazz.
And I love that Santana collaborated with Alice Coltrane, both here and elsewhere (Illuminations). The version of Going Home on Welcome is credited to Alice. But surely it also owes something to Dvořák’s piece of the same name, from his New World Symphony?
Here are two other readings of the Dvořák piece:
The above is by US Army musicians! And is a more conventional and minimal interpretation. Very beautiful.
And then there’s this expanded male voice choir arrangement. Which is pretty wonderful and powerful.