By Wesley Britton, BLOGCRITICS.ORG
Published 10:00 pm, Saturday, August 17, 2013
Back in 1973, Love Devotion Surrender was an unevenly received jazz fusion collaboration between Mahavishnu John McLaughlin, as he was calling himself at the time, and Carlos Santana. In a sense, McLaughlin was the senior partner of the pair. Three years before introducing Santana to his spiritual master, McLaughlin had become a disciple of the guru Sri Chinmoy, from whom he got the name Mahavishnu. Both his second solo album, My Goal's Beyond (1973) as well as Love Devotion Surrender were dedicated to Chinmoy. Both included writings from Chinmoy on the covers, and, on the latter, he is seen on the back photo with his hands on the shoulders of his two white-suited disciples, McLaughlin and the new convert, Santana.
Musically, McLaughlin was also the leader of the partnership. Santana, of course, was the guitarist for the Latin-rock band named after him with several hit albums and a memorable appearance at Woodstock in his resume. At the time, McLaughlin was a pioneer of the sub-genre of jazz-rock fusion with stints with Miles Davis and the Tony Williams Lifetime behind him. He was the leader of The Mahavishnu Orchestra and was famous for his double-necked guitar-one six-string, one twelve.
While Love Devotion Surrender was dedicated to Chinmoy, it was also clearly a tribute to jazz giant John Coltrane. As such, Santana was venturing into McLaughlin's playground even as many of the players on the five extended tracks drew both from The Mahavishnu Orchestra and Santana's own group. The final result, produced by both McLaughlin and Santana, ended up pleasing the jazz fusion crowd more than Santana's rock base, and even in the more high-brow world of jazz enthusiasts, the experiment met with mixed critical response.
Read more: http://www.seattlepi.com/lifestyle/blogcritics/article/Music-DVD-Review-Carlos-Santana-And-John-4742135.php
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