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Reviews: Carlos Santana & John McLaughlin: Love Devotion Surrender

Reviews: 3

Review by thelonious27 November 12, 2011 (2 of 2 found this review helpful)
Performance:   Sonics:
This is such a great album, one of my favorites of the genre (fusion), and I was really looking forward to the SACD version for vastly improved sonics over the original redbook version, which was compressed, harsh and brittle with little bottom end or balance. Well, the SACD is a mixed bag. Bigger sound stage, some more detail, perhaps a wee bit more bottom end. But not the slam, oomph and air one hopes for and often gets in SACD. The overall compressed feel is still apparent. And the mix is a little odd, sometimes one guitar much louder than the other while they trade solos and sometimes not. I suspect the master tapes being worked with had inherent limitations, and that tradeoffs had to be made. And of course McLaughlin and Santana were playing at blasting volumes with lots of distortion -- the music on this album isn't about sonic subtlety. But who knows, all I can judge is the product, and it's ultimately rather disappointing. An improvement over the red book, and fortunately not at SHM prices. But not what I was hoping for.

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Review by analogue November 24, 2011 (4 of 4 found this review helpful)
Performance:   Sonics:
Santana continues his run of experimental and improvisational music with this album. He gets the creative muse and runs with it. John Coltrane is the focus of his music this time. At certain moments this disc can sound almost late 60's psychedelia.

In going through the interpretations of the Coltrane music and their renditions of said music, listeners might experience some fatigue as it can sound very similar with repeating patterns. This comes from the original Coltrane jazz offerings and not Santana'a invention. The music is free form in nature......much like jazz is. Its very spontaneuous at times and laid back at others.

The sound is...and this is a long standing story with Mobile Fidelity nowadays.....on the cool side. I cant say for certain if the original recording is audiophile in quality but I suspect not. Still Mofi can only deal with what they have to work with. There is also some coherency issues that again are not Mofi's fault. I am almost indifferent to this release but I am a huge Santana fan so I had to have it.

Sonically and only at certain times...there seems to be some strain with the sound. Mostly limitations with the tape source. Track 2 features an excellent acoustic guitar song by Mclaughlin which is played beautifully. Taken as a whole I believe that prospective listeners should be Santana/ Coltrane fans or otherwise they might feel at odds with this particular disc.

I like this Mofi effort and I like the music. Its not a bad disc in any way just not outstanding in any way either.
Recently I purchased a James Taylor sacd from Mofi that was absolutely fantastic. It was everything I could hope for in a sacd transfer. Tragically Im beginning to suspect that this is some sort of abberation and I am forcing myslef not to get to excited with any future Mofi releases. I hope they prove me wrong.

Recommended but not at premium prices.

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Review by FullRangeMan January 30, 2012 (2 of 2 found this review helpful)
Performance:   Sonics:
What could MFSL do to made a great sound SACD, when on the first track open notes, there is a lot of master tape saturation for afew seconds by a peak of tutti from the band?? Unfortunatelly, with this kind of basic erros, nothing, there is no solution to fix it. Seems this analog master tape from 1973, were another low speed recording, for low cost operation, all problems came from the original tapes, the DSD mastering is good.
As very usual on rock bands, the producer think sound quality is not important, and in 1973 the ruling format was the vinyl, not a transparent media, but a very euphonic format. Maybe a good SET tube amp, could give you a better sound quality.

This disc is a beautiful performance to a surprising fresh music, to original pieces, a pity the analogue recording is this bad, the good side is the MFSL jod, made this SACD sound much better than the rbCD in all areas.

The local musicians of my city had a long tradition of jam-sessions with famous internationals rock-jazz stars, sometimes they up on stage even without invite, and plug his guitar in any head amp of the band, to play with.
A friend already late, a great rock and classical bass player, by artistic name Mitch Marini, told me this story in the 90 years, and he was very upset, even already pass more than 20 years. At the time of this album was released, John McLaughlin was in a mystical phase under the ''spiritual'' guidance of the Indian Guru Sri Chinmoy, a practitioner and preacher of prayers, vegetarianism, peace and love.
Just at this time McLaughlin and band came to my city, as he was and still is very famous among brazilian critics and musicians, so the local musicians were excited.
Our brave Mitch, who studied acoustic bass in London for two years, was alone try talking with McLaughlin at the top hotel of the city, to invite him to a jam-session in a local wine castle. To his surprise, Mr.McLaughlin and the band were in the hotel restaurant, eating steak meat, and came get close to the great icon McLaughlin, Mitch saw that he was eating an undercooked steak, dripping blood on a white porcelain plate.

Mitch presented himself to McLaughlin, but was coldly received, even so, he invited all the band to participate in a jam-session with the local musicians, but McLaughlin strictly refused to accept the invitation, saying ''we dont do jam-sessions'', which is not true, as proved DVD Live at Belgrade and Lost Trident Sessions CD with Miles Davis and others guys in a jam-session.
Mitch retry the invitation, saying the local musicians can play very well etc, but the answer was harder.

Then, Mitch give up the jam-session and said to McLaughlin, he would like to put his name on the guest list for the show, which McLaughlin again refused, saying the band had no guest list, but Mitch insisted once again, saying he really would like to put his name on the guest list for the show, this time McLaughlin bothered, and rose from the table, put his big hand in the pants pocket and pulled out a US green bill and offered to Mitch, who was shocked with such rudeness and obviously refused this alms.
After this charity attempt, Mitch was upset and had to withdraw from the divine presence of the great Mahavishnu John McLaughlin.

The package is Mini LP double cover and a nice booklet, with additional photo from the Guru and a huge text posed as poem, it seems that the original producers in 1973, gave more importance to the photos and the said poem, than the sound quality. Is informed this is a special numbered limited edition reissue, mine is nº000883, BarCode 821797208062 Time 38:54 only.
Tracks:
1) A Love Supreme 7:48
2) Naima 3:11
3) The Life Divine 9:30
4) Let Us Go Into The House Of The Lord 15:45
5) Meditation 2:46
Musicians:
Devadip Carlos Santana: Guitars
Mahavishnu John McLaughlin: Guitar, Piano
Khalid Yasin (Larry Young): Organ
Doug Rauch: Bass
Billy Cobham: Drums
Don Alias: Drums
Jan Hammer: Drums
Mike Shrieve: Drums
Armando Peraza: Congas

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