More than 25 years after a collaboration-heavy album rocketed Carlos Santana back into the spotlight, the guitar legend will release another - albeit one assembled from an assortment of solo tracks and guest spots spanning his last five decades of work.

Sentient, hitting stores on March 28, brings together joint tracks with Michael Jackson, Miles Davis, Smokey Robinson and Darryl "DMC" McDaniels of Run-DMC, along with select deep cuts that make for a retrospective distinct from well known renditions of "Black Magic Woman" and "Oye Como Va" or latter-day triumphs like "Smooth," "Maria, Maria," "The Game of Love" and other all-star pop collaborations. "I'm always driven by passion, emotion and inner instinct," the guitarist said in a statement. "When I first heard these tracks floating around in the house, I said, 'Why don't we put these all in one place?'"

The 11 tracks span from "I'll Be Waiting," from his 1977 studio/live hybrid double album Moonflower, and the title track off 1987's Grammy-winning Blues for Salvador (one of the few projects the guitarist issued as a solo artist instead of his eponymous band); all the way to last year's single "Let the Guitar Play," a team-up with McDaniels released as a Record Store Day single last year. Three of the tracks are billed as unreleased: an alternate take of "Please Don't Take Your Love," as heard on Smokey Robinson's Time Flies When You're Having Fun (2009); the track "Coherence," a duet with Santana's wife and drummer Cindy Blackman Santana; and a live instrumental cover of Michael Jackson's mid-'90s ballad "Stranger in Moscow," cut with Narada Michael Walden and his band in 2007. ("Whatever Happens," a post-"Smooth" track issued in 2001 on Invincible, the final album of Jackson's lifetime, is also featured.) The rest of the album is devoted to some lesser-heard work with Italian jazz-rock keyboardist Paolo Rustichelli. Two of those tracks, originally released on the 1996 album Mystic Man, also featured posthumous performances from Miles Davis on trumpet. Those four tracks are listed as "Sentient Version[s]," as is "Please Don't Take Your Love," though they're not billed as unreleased even if they are theoretically newly mixed or updated in some way.

"Please Don't Take Your Love," featuring the unheard first of two solos Santana recorded for the track, is available to hear above; "Stranger in Moscow" will be released as a single March 14, with the Rustichelli/Davis collaboration "Get On" being serviced to radio the following week on March 17. Sentient will be available on CD and vinyl (including a limited blue pressing) on March 28 and can be pre-ordered below. As an Amazon affiliate, we earn from qualifying purchases.

Sentient (Candid, 2025)

CD: Amazon U.S. / Amazon U.K. / Amazon Canada
LP: Amazon U.S. / Amazon U.K. / Amazon Canada / Candid Store (blue)

1. Let the Guitar Play (Radio Version) (feat. Darryl "DMC" McDaniels)
2. Stranger in Moscow (Live) *
3. Whatever Happens (with Michael Jackson)
4. Please Don't Take Your Love (Sentient Version) (with Smokey Robinson) *
5. Get On (Sentient Version) (with Miles Davis & Paolo Rustichelli)
6. Vers Le Soleil (Sentient Version) (with Paolo Rustichelli)
7. Rastafario (Sentient Version) (with Miles Davis & Paolo Rustichelli)
8. Full Moon (Sentient Version) (with Paolo Rustichelli)
9. I'll Be Waiting
10. Coherence (with Cindy Blackman Santana) *
11. Blues for Salvador

Track 1 released on Candid digital single (no cat. #) and 12" CAN33391RSD, 2024
Track 3 released on Invincible - MJJ/Epic EK 69400, 2001
Original version of Track 4 released on Time Flies When You're Having Fun - Robso 8 51404 00200 4, 2009
Original versions of Tracks 5-7 released on Mystic Man - Guts & Grace 162-531 065-2, 1996
Original version of Track 8 released on Capri - Verve Forecast 314 517 206-2, 1991
Track 9 from Moonflower - Columbia C2 34914, 1977
Track 11 from Blues for Salvador - Columbia FC 40875, 1987