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09 May

Love Devotion Surrender by Carlos Santana / John McLaughlin

A bit of background: back in the early 70s, there was Carlos Santana, one of the most successful rock guitarists of the era got bit by the jazz bug via John Handy, John Coltrane and one of the premier fusion bands of the time, The Mahavishnu Orchestra; John McLaughlin, a British guitarist who’d started out in blues and rock & roll moved towards jazz, ending up playing with Miles Davis and Tony Williams’ first Lifetime -- both were (and are) amazing guitarists. In 1972, they decided to record an album together, reissued in 2003 w/ boss new sound and with two bonus cuts. The contents? A searing, at times transcendental experience, as two guitarists, at what many aficionados consider their respective peaks, get together and pay tribute to/absorb/transpose the early 60s modal Coltrane experience of ecstatic, spiritually supercharged improvisation to nominally "rock" instrumentation (guitar/organ/bass/drums). The guitars sound like too-tightly-wound coil-springs around the sun, cushioned/buttressed by the sumptuously swirling organ chords of Larry Young and buoyed by passionate, stormy drumming. Sure, at times it’s not exactly subtle, but what the players lack in that department they more than make up for in sheer focused intensity. If you young people out there wondered what the "glory days" of Fusion were like from the way us old farts talk about it, put Love Devotion Surrender on your must-get list; the old guard can take this op to replace their scratchy vinyl and tinny-sounding CD copies w/ this incendiary superior edition.

Additional Info

  • Artist / Group Name: Carlos Santana / John McLaughlin
  • CD Title: Love Devotion Surrender
  • Genre: Fusion
  • Year Released: 2003
  • Reissue Original Release: 1972
  • Record Label: Columbia / Legacy
  • Musicians: C.S. and J.McL.: guitars; Larry Young: organ; Doug Rauch: bass; Billy Cobham, Jan Hammer, Don Alias: drums; others.
  • Rating: Five Stars
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