[Review] Devadip Carlos Santana/Turiya Alice Coltrane: Illuminations (1974)
A magical journey of music featuring harp, strings, Santana and some jazz ringers.
Kronomyth 3.0: Black, magic woman.
Music is the language of God. You might consider this a controversial idea; I state it as a matter of fact. Spend even a few minutes in nature and you’ll hear a symphony of sounds: birds, amphibians, insects, the wind rustling through leaves. There’s a rhythm to it, but a freedom as well. Illuminations is the sound of human beings speaking to God in his language. Presented as a collaboration between Carlos Santana and Alice Coltrane, both disciples of guru Sri Chinmoy, the album defies easy categorization. It’s foundation is jazz, but there’s a mystical/spiritual side to this music that transcends jazz. In some ways, Illuminations is the obvious offspring of the earlier Love Devotion Surrender, which featured the music of John Coltrane. And yet Illuminations is a very different journey. With harp and strings, Alice Coltrane gives the music an otherworldly feel that suffuses the senses with love. You don’t simply listen to songs such as Bliss: The Eternal Now and Angel of Water, you experience them. From the opening moments of Angel of Air, it’s clear that Santana and Coltrane are on a magical journey. The album’s longest track, Angel of Sunlight, is a meditation on music that melds Eastern and Western halves together. There is electric guitar, tamboura and tabla, joined eventually by bass, congas, hand cymbals, soprano sax and organs; as eclectic an assortment as you could think of, making a divine noise to the nameless cosmos. The album closes with Illuminations, a field of flowers unfolding in the mind featuring strings, harp and electric guitar. Together with Caravanserai and Welcome, this is some of the best music to bear the Santana name, despite being a very different record.
Original elpee version
A1. Guru Sri Chinmoy Aphorism (1:10)
A2. Angel of Air (Devadip Carlos Santana/Tom Coster) (3:37)
A3. Angel of Water (Devadip Carlos Santana/Tom Coster) (6:18)
A4. Bliss: The Eternal Now (Turiya Alice Coltrane) (5:32)
B1. Angel of Sunlight (Devadip Carlos Santana/Tom Coster) (14:43)
B2. Illuminations (Devadip Carlos Santana/Tom Coster) (4:20)
The Players
Turiya Alice Coltrane (harp, acoustic piano, Wurlitzer organ, string arrangements), Devadip Carlos Santana (lead guitar, rhythm guitar, wind chimes, finger and hand cymbals), Jules Broussard (flute, soprano sax), Tom Coster (electric piano, Hammond organ, acoustic piano, finger and hand cymbals), David Holland (acoustic bass), strings (Murray Adler, concert master) with Prabuddha Phil Browne (tamboura on B1), Jack DeJohnette (cymbals on A2, drums on B1), Phil Ford (tabla drums on B1), Armando Peraza (congas on B1). Produced by Turiya Alice Coltrane, Devadip Carlos Santana and Tom Coster; engineered by Glen Kolotkin and George Engfer.
The Pictures
Album cover by Retina Circus. Art direction & cover illustration by Michael Wood. Sleeve/design by Cynthia Shyvers. Photography by Steve Bruce. Liner photo by Herb Green.
The Plastic
Released on elpee, cassette and 8-track in October 1974 in the US (Columbia, PC/PCA-32900), the UK (CBS, S/40-69063) and Japan CBS/Sony, SOPN-95). Reached #79 on the US charts and #40 on the UK charts. (First appeared in 10/5/74 issue of Billboard.)
- Re-issued on elpee in Japan (CBS/Sony, 25AP 825).
- Re-issued on compact disc in 1998 (Sony International, 83810).
