Illuminations | ||||
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Studio album by | ||||
Released | September 1974 | |||
Genre | Free jazz | |||
Length | 35:40 | |||
Label | Columbia | |||
Producer | Turiya Alice Coltrane, Devadip Carlos Santana, Tom Coster | |||
Carlos Santana chronology | ||||
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Alice Coltrane chronology | ||||
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Illuminations is a 1974 collaboration between Alice Coltrane and Carlos Santana (under their Indian names "Turiya" and "Devadip", respectively). Saxophonist/flautist Jules Broussard, keyboardist Tom Coster, drummer Jack DeJohnette, percussionist Armando Peraza and bassist Dave Holland also contributed to the album. [1]
Alice Coltrane performs on harp, piano, and Wurlitzer electric organ and arranged and conducted the string section. Carlos Santana plays his electric guitar in a more minimal style than usual, utilizing feedback, sustain and simple melodic statements to create atmosphere and lend space to the other instruments. The album is all instrumental, with lengthy solos from most of the participants. [2] [3] [4]
The string section introduction to "Angel of Air" was sampled by the Cinematic Orchestra for use on the track "All That You Give", which appeared on their 2002 album Every Day . [5] [6] This is the first of three Santana albums (the others being Oneness and The Swing of Delight ) to be released under his Sanskrit name Devadip, given to him by guru Sri Chinmoy. [7]
The usual 2 channel stereo version of the album was also released in 1974 in a 4 channel quadraphonic version. [8] In 2017, Illuminations was reissued by the Dutton Vocalion label in the UK in Super Audio CD format containing both the stereo and quadraphonic mixes. [9] [10]
Santana biographer Marc Shapiro stated that the guitarist was "once again the child" during the recording session, plying Coltrane with requests for stories about her late husband. [11] Santana later recalled: "the music really took me farther away from that classic Santana sound than almost any other recording—farther away but closer to where my heart was." [12]
In 2001, Bill Laswell, responsible for remixes of albums by Bob Marley [13] and Miles Davis, [14] mixed and remixed excerpts of Santana's Illuminations and Love Devotion Surrender , [15] on an album called Divine Light. [16]
Review scores | |
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Source | Rating |
AllMusic | ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() |
Christgau's Record Guide | C− [17] |
In a review for AllMusic, William Ruhlmann wrote: "Columbia Records could not have been pleased at Santana's determined drift into esoteric jazz: Illuminations was the first of the nine Santana-related albums so far released in the U.S. not to go gold." [2]
A reviewer for Billboard called the album "a totally cosmic record," and stated that it "should turn a lot of people onto this form of music." [18]
Saxon Baird of Red Bull Music Academy noted that the album is "as strange and fascinating as the pairing" of Coltrane and Santana would suggest, and called "Angel of Sunlight" the album's centerpiece, commenting: "The nearly 15-minute, feverish free-jazz number is heavily indebted to John Coltrane's late output... But if much of the saxophonist's late work felt like a musician in search, Santana and Alice Coltrane here are also musicians journeying in the same style." [19]
Writing for All About Jazz , Rob Caldwell described Illuminations as "quite a bold album," and stated that it is "all about drama and grandiosity." He remarked: "At times bordering on New Age, it's much too adventurous to be pigeonholed as such and just when it seems to get too syrupy or cosmic, it veers into free jazz." [7]
A writer for Aquarium Drunkard commented: "Despite his instantly recognizable tone and reputation for wailing, Santana's playing is minimal and humble, stripped to its melodic core. Here, he sets a new benchmark for electric guitar in a spiritual jazz context, while also providing the soaring counterpoint to Alice Coltrane's lush orchestrations." [20]
Buckley Mayfield of Jive Time Records remarked that the album "is all about transmitting blazing beams of enlightenment into listeners' minds," and stated that Illuminations and Love Devotion Surrender "stand as [Santana's] creative peaks." [21]
A reviewer for Overgrown Path wrote: "It is, of course, very easy to dismiss this album as New Age whimsy. But that denies the primordial and mystical power of sound to transform, and it is elitist and myopic to contend that this transformative power is the exclusive property of the masterworks of the Western classical music." [8]
Violins:
Cellos:
Violas:
Chart (1974) | Peak position |
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Australian Albums (Kent Music Report) [22] | 75 |
UK Albums (OCC) [23] | 40 |
US Billboard 200 [24] | 76 |
Carlos Humberto Santana Barragán is an American guitarist, best known as a founding member of the rock band Santana. Born and raised in Mexico where he developed his musical background, he rose to fame in the late 1960s and early 1970s in the United States with Santana, which pioneered a fusion of rock and roll and Latin American jazz. Its sound featured his melodic, blues-based lines set against Latin American and African rhythms played on percussion instruments not generally heard in rock, such as timbales and congas. He experienced a resurgence of popularity and critical acclaim in the late 1990s.
Alice Lucille Coltrane, also known as Swamini Turiyasangitananda or simply Turiya, was an American jazz musician, composer, bandleader, and Hindu spiritual leader.
Journey in Satchidananda is the fourth studio album by American jazz pianist and harpist Alice Coltrane, released in February 1971 on Impulse! Records. The first four tracks were recorded at Coltrane's home studio in Dix Hills, New York, in November 1970, while "Isis and Osiris" was recorded live at the Village Gate in Greenwich Village in July of that year. Coltrane is joined on the album by saxophonist Pharoah Sanders, bassists Cecil McBee and Charlie Haden, and drummer Rashied Ali. Vishnu Wood also appears on oud on "Isis and Osiris", while the studio recordings also feature Majid Shabazz on percussion and Tulsi on tanpura.
Caravanserai is the fourth studio album by American rock band Santana, released on October 11, 1972. The album marked a period of transition for Santana as it was the band's last to feature several key early members, while shifting in a more instrumental, progressive jazz fusion direction. It sold in fewer quantities than the band's previous chart-topping albums, stalling at No. 8 on the Billboard LPs chart, but has been critically acclaimed.
Welcome is the fifth studio album by Santana, released in 1973. It followed the jazz-fusion formula that the preceding Caravanserai had inaugurated, but with an expanded and different lineup this time. Gregg Rolie had left the band along with Neal Schon to form Journey, and they were replaced by Tom Coster, Richard Kermode and Leon Thomas, along with guest John McLaughlin, who had collaborated with Carlos Santana on Love Devotion Surrender. Welcome also featured John Coltrane's widow, Alice, as a pianist on the album's opening track, "Going Home" and Flora Purim on vocals. This album was far more experimental than the first four albums, and Welcome did not produce any hit singles.
Love Devotion Surrender is an album released in 1973 by guitarists Carlos Santana and John McLaughlin, with the backing of their respective bands, Santana and The Mahavishnu Orchestra. The album was inspired by the teachings of Sri Chinmoy and intended as a tribute to John Coltrane. It contains two Coltrane compositions, two McLaughlin songs, and a traditional gospel song arranged by Santana and McLaughlin. It was certified Gold in 1973.
Borboletta is the sixth studio album by the American Latin rock band Santana. It is one of their jazz-funk-fusion oriented albums, along with Caravanserai (1972), and Welcome (1973). Non-band albums by Carlos Santana in this style also include Love Devotion Surrender (1973) with John McLaughlin and Illuminations (1974) with Alice Coltrane, Jack DeJohnette and Jules Broussard. The guitarist leaves much room to percussion, saxophone and keyboards to set moods, as well as lengthy solos by himself and vocals. The record was released in a metallic blue sleeve displaying a butterfly, an allusion to the album Butterfly Dreams (1973) by Brazilian musician Flora Purim and her husband Airto Moreira, whose contributions deeply influenced the sound of Borboletta. In Portuguese, borboleta means "butterfly".
Lotus is a 1974 live album by the Latin rock band Santana, recorded at the Osaka Kōsei Nenkin Kaikan, Osaka, Japan in July 1973, during their Caravanserai Tour. The Welcome album recording sessions were completed shortly before this concert, and that album was later released in November 1973. Lotus was originally released as a triple vinyl LP in Japan only. This version of the album was later released internationally.
Amigos is the seventh studio album by Santana released in 1976. It generated a minor U.S. hit single in "Let It Shine" and was the band's first album to hit the top ten on the Billboard charts since Caravanserai in 1972. In Europe, the song "Europa" was released as a single and became a top ten hit in several countries.
Inner Secrets is the tenth studio album by Santana. It was released in 1978 and, unlike the fusion of Latin, jazz, rock, and spirituality that characterized previous records, it was considered a rock album.
Oneness: Silver Dreams - Golden Reality is a 1979 album by Carlos Santana. It was his second of three albums to be released under his temporary Sanskrit name Devadip Carlos Santana, given to him by Sri Chinmoy. The album, which consists mostly of instrumental songs and ballads, features members of the band Santana, as well as Carlos Santana's first wife Deborah and father-in-law Saunders King. According to Santana, Oneness was influenced by Weather Report's album Mysterious Traveller. The track "Transformation Day" is an adaptation of part of Alan Hovhaness's symphonic work Mysterious Mountain.
The Swing of Delight is a 1980 double album by Carlos Santana. It was released under his temporary Sanskrit name Devadip Carlos Santana, given to him by Sri Chinmoy. It peaked at #65 on the charts.
Armando Peraza was a Cuban Latin jazz percussionist and a member of the rock band Santana. Peraza played congas, bongos, and timbales.
World Galaxy is the sixth solo album by Alice Coltrane. It was recorded in November 1971 in New York City, and was released in 1972 by Impulse! Records. On the album, Coltrane appears on piano, organ, harp, tamboura, and percussion, and is joined by saxophonist Frank Lowe, bassist Reggie Workman, drummer Ben Riley, timpanist Elayne Jones, and a string ensemble led by David Sackson. Violinist Leroy Jenkins also appears on soloist on one track, and Swami Satchidananda provides narration. World Galaxy features a trilogy of original compositions bookended by "My Favorite Things" and "A Love Supreme", two pieces for which her husband John Coltrane was known. It was the second in a series of three albums on which Coltrane appeared with an ensemble of strings.
Eternity is an album by Alice Coltrane. It was recorded in August through October, 1975, and was released in 1976 by Warner Records, her first release with the label. On the album, Coltrane is joined by ensembles of varying size. It was Coltrane's first album following both her move to California and her decision to become a monastic.
The discography of Carlos Santana, a Mexican-American rock guitarist, consists of seven studio albums, three live albums, six compilation albums and five singles.
The Caravanserai Tour was a series of performances by American Latin rock band Santana in support of their album Caravanserai during 1972 and 1973. It started on September 4, 1972, at the Erie Canal Soda Pop Festival in Griffin, Indiana, and ended on October 21, 1973 at Ginasio Municipal Novo in Brasília, Brazil. This tour could be considered to be the group's most eclectic tour at this point, as the band did concerts at every continent except Africa and Antarctica, including one of the first, if not the first, tours of Latin America by a major American rock act.
The Welcome Tour was a concert tour by Santana promoting their album, Welcome. The tour began on November 13, 1973 at Colston Hall in Bristol, England and ended on October 29, 1974 at the William P. Cole, Jr. Student Activities Building in College Park, Maryland.
Turiya Sings is an album by Alice Coltrane, recorded in 1981 during a marathon fifteen-hour session, and initially released in 1982 on privately-pressed cassette for her Vedantic Center's students. The album features recordings of devotional Sanskrit songs sung by Coltrane, accompanied by overdubbed strings and synthesised instrumentation, and marks her first recorded appearance as a vocalist.
Kirtan: Turiya Sings is an album by Alice Coltrane. It was recorded on June 23, 1981, at Redwing Sound in Los Angeles, California, and was released in 2021 by Impulse! Records. The album, a stripped-down version of 1982's Turiya Sings, features Coltrane on vocals and organ.