Brothers cover art

  Studio Album · No. 19

Brothers

1994 Polydor Records 11 tracks 52 min

Produced by Carlos Santana, Jorge Santana

Polydor Records Latin RockInstrumental RockJazz Fusion
55%
Authorship
Collaborator

Santana wrote 6 of 11 documented tracks

Authorship Breakdown 6 / 11 documented

Who wrote the songs?

Scored across the 11 tracks with documented writers, by whether Santana carries a lyricist or composer credit.

55%
6 trackswritten by Santana 5 tracksoutside writers
Santana's roles on this album

Share of the 11 tracks where a band member is credited, by role.

Lyricist55%
Composer55%
Producer100%
Performer100%

By the Numbers

11
Tracks
7
Lyricists
2
Producers
1994
Released
Data Insight

Santana Brothers is a Carlos Santana family project rather than a Santana band album, pairing Carlos with his younger brother Jorge Santana and their nephew Carlos Hernandez across an almost entirely instrumental set of guitar interplay. The two brothers share the producer credit, and the writing is spread among the three guitarists, with Hernandez contributing "Thoughts," Carlos taking "Luz Amor y Vida," and Jorge closing the band's originals with "Reflections." The record reaches outside the family for two of its centerpieces, adapting Joaquin Rodrigo's "En Aranjuez Con Tu Amor" from the Concierto de Aranjuez and Djalma de Andrade's "Morning in Marin." The album's lone instrumental "Luz Amor y Vida" earned a Grammy nomination for Best Rock Instrumental Performance at the 37th Annual Grammy Awards.

Brothers is the seventeenth studio album by Santana, released in 1994 on Island Records. The album is a collaborative project featuring Carlos Santana alongside his brothers Jorge Santana and Carlos's nephew Carlos II, making it a family affair rather than a traditional band record. Almost entirely instrumental, Brothers gives Carlos Santana the space to explore blues, jazz, and Latin music without the commercial pressures of a full band record, and his guitar playing is particularly loose and exploratory throughout. The record functions as a bridge between the Milagro era and the massive commercial comeback that Supernatural would deliver five years later, showing a Carlos Santana re-engaged with his musical roots and playing with the kind of joy that had defined the original Santana band. Brothers stands as both a family document and a musical experiment that anticipated the collaborative, guest-heavy approach of Supernatural, the album that would restore Santana to commercial superstardom, and it demonstrates that even in a modest commercial context, Carlos Santana's guitar playing and his identity as a generative musical force remained undiminished by the commercial difficulties of the mid-1990s.

Track Listing & Credits 11 tracks

Written by the artist Written by outside writers
#TitleLyricist(s)Composer(s)Producer(s)Performers
1
Transmutation/Industrial
Carlos SantanaJorge Santana Carlos SantanaJorge Santana Carlos SantanaJorge Santana Carlos Santana
2
Thoughts
Hernandez Hernandez Carlos SantanaJorge Santana Carlos Santana
3
Luz Amor y Vida
Carlos Santana Carlos Santana Carlos SantanaJorge Santana Carlos Santana
4
En Aranjuez Con Tu Amor
Joaquín Rodrigo Joaquín Rodrigo Carlos SantanaJorge Santana Carlos Santana
5
Contigo (With You)
Carlos SantanaJorge Santana Carlos SantanaJorge Santana Carlos SantanaJorge Santana Carlos Santana
6
Blues Latino
Javier VargasEspinoza Javier VargasEspinoza Carlos SantanaJorge Santana Carlos Santana
7
La Danza
HernandezCarlos SantanaJorge Santana HernandezCarlos SantanaJorge Santana Carlos SantanaJorge Santana Carlos Santana
8
Brujo
HernandezCarlos Santana HernandezCarlos Santana Carlos SantanaJorge Santana Carlos Santana
9
The Trip
Carlos SantanaJorge Santana Carlos SantanaJorge Santana Carlos SantanaJorge Santana Carlos Santana
10
Reflections
Jorge Santana Jorge Santana Carlos SantanaJorge Santana Carlos Santana
11
Morning in Marin
Djalma de Andrade Djalma de Andrade Carlos SantanaJorge Santana Carlos Santana

Songwriter & Credit Spotlight 7 contributors

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Frequently Asked Questions Brothers

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