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Don Cherry: Complete Communion & Symphony For Improvisers Revisited
by Mark Corroto
Before his departure, Don Cherry was a kind of Johnny Appleseed for what would eventually be called the “New Thing" in jazz. He can be heard in the midst of the innovative work of Ornette Coleman, Sonny Rollins, Albert Ayler, Steve Lacy, Archie Shepp, and John Tchicai. Cherry's fertilizations changed the sound of creative music then and now. His explorations into (what we now call) world music opened doors for countless non- American musicians to participate in creative improvised music. ...
Continue ReadingJohn Coltrane: A Love Supreme - Live In Seattle
by Chris May
A Love Supreme: Live In Seattle comes from a gig at The Penthouse in October 1965. The recording, by a septet, is a radical reading of : John Coltrane's suite which has only previously been heard by friends and students of saxophonist and educator Joe Brazil, who taped it and who, few days earlier, had played flute on Coltrane's Om (Impulse, 1968). Brazil passed in 2008 and by a route not yet made public, the tape has been acquired and ...
Continue ReadingFloating Points, Pharoah Sanders & The London Symphony Orchestra: Floating Points
by Ian Patterson
The meeting of electronics artist/DJ Sam Shepherd—aka Floating Points—with free-jazz icon Pharoah Sanders and the London Symphony Orchestra is a welcome surprise. Sanders has seldom troubled his discographers since the dawn of the new millennium. A couple of archival radio recordings, Live at Antibes Jazz Festival Juan Les Pins July 21 1968 (Alternative Fox, 2019) and Live in Paris (1975) (Transversales Disques, 2020), were potent reminders of his primacy in the crowded arena of the post-John Coltrane legacy. Yet these, ...
Continue ReadingPharoah Sanders: An Alternative Top Ten Albums To Feed Your Head
by Chris May
Fellow tenor-wielding sonic adventurer Albert Ayler famously described his own and Pharoah Sanders' relationships with their mentor John Coltrane thus: “Trane was the Father, Pharoah was the Son, I am the Holy Ghost." The epigram goes some way to capturing the scorched-earth ferocity of much, though not all, of Sanders' music in the 1960s. But Ayler passed in 1970, and so was not around to witness Sanders' maturation into a full-spectrum stylist equally at home with voluptuous balladeering.
Continue ReadingRevenge of the Cosmic Panda
by Patrick Burnette
Does harp music fill you with images of celestial angels, or a (relatively) tamed Pharoah Sanders? Either way, there's something for you here in this brief overview of “cosmic" jazz. We start with a good, long look at the early career of Pharaoh Sanders and his brief gig with displaced resident of Saturn, Sun Ra, then move on to Alice Coltrane's contribution to the formation of cosmic/spiritual music. Finally, two exemplars of the genre, including one who's active and trending ...
Continue ReadingPharoah Sanders: Live In Paris (1975)
by Chris May
Pharoah Sanders' catalogue of newly-discovered album releases is expanding as fast as those of his fellow travellers Alice Coltrane and John Coltrane. Which is great, but... most of the albums were recorded live, sometimes with poor audio capture, and do not always find the musicians at their best. You have to pick and choose between them. A further consideration is the legitimacy or otherwise of the releases and whether it is acceptable to support pirates and bootleggers. This is particularly ...
Continue ReadingThe 9th Annual John Coltrane International Jazz and Blues Festival
by La-Faithia White
Jazz and Blues lovers enjoyed a breathtaking view on Oak Hollow Lake in High Point, North Carolina for the ninth annual John Coltrane International Jazz and Blues Festival. The two day event happens every Labor Day weekend. Saturday's lineup consisted of the John Coltrane Youth Workshop, Laurin Talese with the North Carolina Coltrane All-Star Band under the direction of trumpeter and educator Mondre Moffett, five-time Grammy nominee Nnenna Freelon who was joined by living legend Benny Golson, three-time ...
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