It seems that with many duet albums that bring disparate popular music talents together, there’s a sort of sliding scale of how much influence the “host” is willing to give up. Sometimes the host artist lets guests take command. In other instances, the guests function as little more than supporting players to the sound and vision. Blessings and Miracles, the new Carlos Santana album, is, in most instances, neither.

Instead, it’s the best kind of duet album, allowing Santana to sound like himself while at the same time allowing guest artists to do what they do best. Having two established artists be able to successfully express their voices on the same song in this way is less common than you may think.

But that’s exactly what happens on “Angel Choir/All Together,” a pairing of Santana and the late jazz keyboardist Chick Corea that doesn’t sound like a Corea track, nor a Santana track. It sounds like both, and that’s a good thing. This song features a keyboard part Corea recorded shortly before he died in February, and Santana built a track around it. The heavenly “angel choir” that begins the song—the multi-tracked voice of Corea’s wife, Gayle Moran Corea—provides a stately grace.

Most of the guests on Blessings and Miracles—Matchbox 20 vocalist Rob Thomas, country singer-songwriter-guitarist Chris Stapleton, East Bay rapper G-Eazy, Steve Winwood and Metallica guitarist Kirk Hammett among them—get their words in edgewise in a way that allows Carlos Santana to put his signature on the individual songs.

Winwood and Santana perform the Procol Harum classic “A Whiter Shade of Pale,” with Winwood’s signature organ and vocals anchoring the tune. But the song is a synthesis of Winwood (his contributions sounding not unlike Gary Brooker and Harum) and Santana, with the traditional guitar riffs and congas. This is the predominant approach on this album, and it works far more often than not.

About the only song on which the guests don’t bend, at least in part, to the host’s will is “America for Sale,” a slow hard rocker on which Death Angel vocalist Marc Osegueda spits out lyrics about how “Nothing is holy ground” when your country is being sold “by the pound.” Hammett and Santana trade guitar solos here, and Santana’s riffs don’t much sound like those found on countless of his songs.

In most universes, songs as unalike as “Angel Choir/All Together,” “A Whiter Shade of Pale” and “America for Sale” would simply not coexist. But on duet-type albums with multiple guests, there rarely is any stylistic or lyrical theme, and that’s the case with Blessings and Miracles. On the hard-rocking side, Living Colour singer Corey Glover comes strong on “Peace Power.” Santana goes the wah-wah route of “Shaft” and other ’70s classics on this one. “Move,” meanwhile, features Thomas and members of American Authors.

Placed aside (and among) these rockers are decidedly slower songs, including the shuffling “Joy,” on which Stapleton’s world-weary vocals are offset by Santana’s riffing. On “She’s Fire,” G-Eazy’s singing and rapping lie atop a slow groove. Others in this vein include the more otherworldly “Break” and “Breathing Underwater.” The former features former Fifth Harmony singer Ally Brooke, and the latter Carlos Santana’s daughter Stella, along with Avi Snow. Both are delicate and beautiful, with Carlos Santana lending appropriately minimal support.

There also are a few numbers here that could have been lifted straight from Santana’s Abraxas period. On “Mother Yes,” current Santana singer Tommy Anthony brings the appropriate muscle. Salvador Santana (Carlos’ son) and Asdru Sierra of the Latin hip-hop band Ozomatli do the same on “Rumbalero.”

This album isn’t only full of guest stars, but also of family. In addition to Stella and Salvador, Cindy Blackman Santana—an established musician long before marrying Carlos in 2010—does the drumming in all these styles.

There is no obvious radio-ready hit here like “Smooth” with Thomas (22 years ago? Really?), or 2002’s “The Game of Love” with Michelle Branch. But a good listen to Blessings and Miracles will reveal plenty of not-so-hidden charms.

Follow journalist Sam Richards at Twitter.com/samrichardsWC.