Carlos Santana/Mahavishnu John McLaughlin
Two guitar giants.
A band comprised of virtuosic instrumentalists.
One shared goal. And one tremendous album.
The only meeting of Santana and John McLaughlin on record, Love Devotion Surrender more than lives up to the promise offered by its principal creators.
Based in divine faith, religious toleration, meditative intent, and the forward-thinking philosophy that music can take us closer to the truth, it is a spiritual journey.
These enlightening concepts are reflected in the inspired playing of Santana and McLaughlin, who repeatedly hit a higher plane on this 1973 set.
Sourced from the original analogue master tapes and pressed at Fidelity Record Pressing in California, Mobile Fidelity’s numbered-edition 180g LP of Love Devotion Surrender benefits from the reissue label’s painstaking engineering efforts.
The windows on the record’s give-and-take passages, sustained notes, and varied textures are thrown open with palpable transparency and detail.
Laden with delicate acoustic touches and gentle piano touches, as well as powerful staccato bursts and fast-paced percussion, Love Devotion Surrender contains a dynamic mix of tempos, tones, and contrasts crucial to its optimal enjoyment.
This collectible edition brings those aspects to the fore with extraordinary realism.
In addition, the pinpoint imaging — Santana primarily on the left, McLaughlin on the right — invites you to picture the musicians in the act.
You’ll sense a newfound freedom and naturalism to the playback, as well as black backgrounds and an openness that allow the widespread array of textures, atmospherics, echoes, and neo-psychedelic shapes to float in the air.
Call it jamming guided by a higher power or surreal art brought together by time, circumstance, and purpose; there really is no other album completely like it.
Having each become a follower of Indian guru Sri Chinmoy, who wrote the album’s extensive liner-note essay and is seen in several jacket photos, Santana and McLaughlin began playing together in 1972.
Both legends found themselves in the midst of personal and creative transition.
Santana was moving away from rock-based songs in favour of exploratory jazz-rock.
A contemporary of Miles Davis, McLaughlin had already achieved fame with the Mahavishnu Orchestra, then on the brink of collapse due to internal disagreements.
On Love Devotion Surrender, the duo pools its interests in discovery and transcendence into gorgeous music steeped in improvisational lines, ecstatic chords, and sensitive organ accompaniment courtesy of the record’s best-kept secret, Larry Young.
The former Blue Note recording artist had already connected with McLaughlin in the Tony Williams Lifeline, which began as a power trio and turned jazz on its head with its groundbreaking 1969 debut.
Young’s ear for melody and fearless penchant for chasing down adventurous fusion leads — not to mention keeping pace with the headliners, no small feat — make him an ideal foil for the proto post-rock happening throughout.
Credited under his Muslim name, Khalid Yasin, Young isn’t the only standout.
Several Santana contemporaries — bassist Doug Rauch, drummers Mike Shrieve and Billy Cobham, percussionists Mingo Lewis and Armando Peraza — play alongside Mahavishnu Orchestra member Jan Hammer and Tony Williams Lifeline drummer Don Alias, who already had credits on Davis’ seminal Bitches Brew and On the Corner. Complemented by Santana and McLaughlin, the ensemble sounds and feels unstoppable.
In addition to the band’s search for sacred soulfulness, the common denominator throughout is John Coltrane, who engaged in similar pursuits during the 1960s.
Two of the five compositions — “A Love Supreme,” “Naima” — are interpretations of Coltrane standards while the lynchpin, a nearly 16-minute investigation into the traditional “Let Us Go Into the House of the Lord,” integrates free-form structure, jazz phrasing, gospel mysticism, cross-cut dynamics, and tonal shaping into one of the most uplifting pieces of music you’ll ever hear.
The same can be said for the entirety of Love Devotion Surrender. Bow down.
Track List: Carlos Santana/Mahavishnu John McLaughlin – Love Devotion Surrender
A Love Supreme
Naima
The Life Divine
Let Us Go into the House of the Lord
Meditation
