Studio Album · No. 16
Freedom
Produced by Jeffrey Cohen, Carlos Santana
Santana wrote 9 of 10 documented tracks
Authorship Breakdown 9 / 10 documented
Scored across the 10 tracks with documented writers, by whether Santana carries a lyricist or composer credit.
Share of the 10 tracks where a band member is credited, by role.
By the Numbers
Freedom is a full-band Santana record rather than a Carlos solo showcase, and its defining move is the return of Buddy Miles on vocals, picking up the thread of the live Santana/Buddy Miles partnership from the early 1970s. Compositional duties are shared widely across the lineup, with Buddy Miles, Carlos Santana, Chester D. Thompson, Sterling Crew, and Tom Coster all carrying writing credits alongside producer Jeffrey Cohen on several tracks. Outside writers shape the edges too: Armando Peraza wrote the instrumental "Mandela" and Traffic's Jim Capaldi co-wrote "Before We Go" with Santana. The result leans on funk and R&B grooves as much as the band's Latin rock signature, reflecting Miles's vocal presence and the multiple authors at the table.
Freedom is the fourteenth studio album by Santana, released in 1987 on Columbia Records. With Alex Ligertwood departing, Chester Thompson took a more prominent vocal and compositional role, and the album marked a new lineup stabilization as the band moved into the late 1980s. "Vera Cruz" and "Once It's Gotcha" demonstrated the band's ability to blend social commentary with their signature Latin-rock fusion, and the record carried a more politically engaged tone than most of their previous work. Carlos Santana's guitar work remained as expressive as ever, and the production, co-credited to Santana and Thompson, had a warmer, more live-sounding quality than the polished excess of the mid-80s records. Freedom was a modest commercial effort but a confident artistic one.