CARLOS SANTANA & JOHN MCLAUGHLIN: LOVE DEVOTION SURRENDER

Two guitar masters meet at this unexpected record. Two historically quite different guitar players including their bands. Latin meets acid/fusion raweness combined with spirituality and emotions which is something that is sometimes missing from Mahavishnu Orchestra records. Thematically, there are original compositions by McLaughlin as well as Coltrane's reworked works. Though the songs are somewhat repetitive, emotions and jamming abilities let them flow naturally and discover new spiritual and music levels. You can immediately discern fusion guitar with blitzful runs and Santana's rock emotional guitar and their tandem is a new experience for any fan of them. Larry Young's Hammond organ glues them together with a lot of tact. Percussions and drums give most of time a Latin feeling. "Love supreme" is a great highlight giving both guitarists and Young enough space to stretch. "Naima" is a beautiful acoustic guitar number without any other instruments - time for meditation as well as on "Meditation". "The live divine" is the most intensive number and closest to Mahavishnu orchestra, not only distorted guitars are great, also drumming is out of this space. A highly recommended album and one of its kind in the music universe,