Cindy Blackman Santana recorded Illumination on its first run-through

Mack Avenue Records released “Coherence” on July 31. Cindy Blackman Santana recorded her seventh solo album in Las Vegas in late 2024 with saxophonist Emilio Modeste, guitarist Aurelien Budynek, keyboardist Zaccai Curtis and bassist Felix Pastorius. Carlos Santana, John McLaughlin, Matt Garrison, Ray Angry and Dave Eggar appear as guests.

The title track had already appeared on Carlos Santana’s 2025 album “Sentient”. Blackman Santana calls her husband her equal half; they married in Maui in 2010 after he proposed onstage, immediately after her drum solo.

The band recorded the lead single, “Illumination”, the first time they played the piece. Blackman Santana wanted the musicians’ attention to one another to remain audible. The point is not a claim about a first take, but that the parts had not yet become habit.

“The Message Is Love” places Carlos Santana’s guitar alongside a spoken introduction by Snoop Dogg. The two also appeared on Chris Stapleton’s 2023 version of Phil Collins’s “In the Air Tonight” for ESPN’s Monday Night Football broadcasts.

The vinyl edition has eleven tracks and the digital edition seventeen. “Alkebulan” is exclusive to the record. Blackman Santana says she values vinyl for the listening ritual around it: the large sleeve, photographs and notes that streaming services rarely make room for.