- 161Recommend It!
- 3,794views
CD/LP/Track Review
Pharoah Sanders: Pharoah’s First (2005)
Rex Butters
After years of writing music related articles, Rex still wonders who has time to listen to all these cds?
Recorded in 1964, the same year as Gods on Safari, his Sun Ra recording, and months before Ascension, his first with Coltrane, Pharoah's First pictures the legendary saxophonist Pharoah Sanders at the threshold of his historic and still startling cosmic operettas with John Coltrane. It was originally released on LP as two sidelong jams and has been reissued here as part of the ESP reactivation series with insightful interviews.
Both tracks feature a hard swinging bebop quartet, and while "Seven by Seven shows sparks of the fire to come, "Bethera has Sanders wrestling his horn away from the ghost of Prestige Coltrane. Sanders wastes no time blowing his horn apart on the opener, inspired by percussionist Marvin Pattillo and bassist William Bennett's indomitable drive. Pianist Jane Getz stays out of the way with small, clean chord chimes punctuating off-beats. As a soloist, she runs with the rhythm section and occasionally throws in deliberate Tynerisms. For the group outro, Sanders plays some trademark wail and spasmodic multiphonic roar over the straight-ahead quartet.
The light and bouncy "Bethera keeps Sanders pacing the edges of the repetitive theme. Trumpeter Stan Foster reads it midrange, while Getz elegantly spreads out, voicing chords so tightly with her melody line she suggests chorded lead without immersing both feet.
The interview segments cover tales of struggling in NYC, as well as valuable first person remembrances of the '64 scene. Trane, Dolphy, Sun Ra, Don Cherry, and others sit for portraits, as does Billy Higgins, about whom this gem is offered: "He had so much rhythm he played the knives and forks on the table.
Track Listing: Seven by Seven; Bethera Interviews: Bernard Stollman meets Pharoah Sanders; Coming to New York; Meeting Sun Ra; Meeting John Coltrane; Comments on other musicians; Playing with Don Cherry; The Scene; Why the music changes.
Personnel: Pharoah Sanders: tenor saxophone; Stan Foster: trumpet; Jane Getz: piano; William Bennett: bass; Marvin Pattillo: percussion.
Record Label: ESP Disk
Style: Modern Jazz
Denis Fournier / Nicole...
Noah Haidu
Matthew Sheens
Rich Halley 4
Darcy James Argue's Secret...
Hedvig Mollestad Trio
Joe Locke
Alexi Tuomarila Trio
Bobby McFerrin
Jonathan Kreisberg
Miguel Zenon & The Rhythm...
Michael Dease
