Jazz Articles about Pharoah Sanders

Pharoah Sanders: Crescent with Love

by Chris May
July 21, 2008

Pharoah Sanders Crescent with LoveEvidence1994 Saxophonist Pharoah Sanders worked extensively in John Coltrane's bands from 1965 until Coltrane's passing in 1967. At the time of making this tribute album, Sanders probably knew Coltrane and his music better than anyone outside of Coltrane's surviving wife, harpist/pianist Alice Coltrane, and members of his classic quartet, pianist McCoy Tyner and drummer Elvin Jones.

There is something quietly significant then in the ...

Pharoah Sanders: Tauhid

by Chris May
July 1, 2008

Conventional wisdom has it that saxophonist Pharoah Sanders' signature, late-1960s astral jazz recording is “The Creator Has A Master Plan" from Karma (Impulse!, 1969). But conventional wisdom is rarely to be trusted. Clocking in at an unhurried and mesmerising 32:45, “Master Plan" is certainly definitive Sanders of the time; yet “Upper Egypt And Lower Egypt," from Sanders' own-name Impulse! debut, Tauhid, recorded in November, 1966, is arguably the finest statement in his astral oeuvre.At a relatively brief 16:16, ...

Pharoah Sanders: Finest

by AAJ Italy Staff
December 6, 2007

Alla fine degli anni ottanta, abbandonati i furori new thing e le lunghe trance ipnotiche dei suoi primi lavori, il sassofonista Pharoah Sanders si trovò a incidere tre dischi per l'etichetta olandese Timeless, Africa, Moon Child e Welcome to Love. Ora un'altra piccola label di Amsterdam, la Dopeness Galore, riprende in un'antologia dal titolo un po' banalotto, Finest, alcuni brani di quei dischi. Non si fa un torto a Sanders e alla sua “collocazione" nelle vicende del jazz contemporaneo se ...

Pharoah Sanders: Pharoah Sanders: The Impulse Story

by Chris May
July 15, 2006

Pharoah Sanders began his recording career as a fully paid-up, card-carrying member of the extreme fringe of the mid-'60s new wave. His first album, in 1964, was for ESP-Disk, a tiny but influential independent run by sonic ninja Bernard Stollman, who was also an early champion of Albert Ayler (he recorded Ayler's world-changing Spiritual Unity and Bells albums in 1964 and 1965).

In 1965, John Coltrane began regularly calling on Sanders to augment his late-period outer-reaches band. Sanders is one ...

Bill Laswell - Pharoah Sanders: With a Heartbeat

by AAJ Italy Staff
February 2, 2006

Che il battito del cuore sia all'origine dell'essere puo' darsi. Che debba anche diventare il concetto-base per molte realizzazioni sonore di Bill Laswell e i suoi collaboratori fidati, e' un problema. Nel senso che confidando sulla semplicita' dell'"heartbeat" come cellula ritmica primigenia, Laswell prosciuga la sua creativita' affidandosi ad un'idea seriale di ritmo e melodia, buona per ogni evenienza. Lo spettro sonoro limitato ma affascinante, che descrive molte delle opere laswelliane rivolte all'analisi della cosiddetta ambient, sembra abbia dato il ...

Pharoah Sanders: Pharoah's First

by Clifford Allen
October 13, 2005

Pharoah Sanders Pharoah's First ESP-Disk 2005 (1964)

Hindsight can work wonders on the perception of a jazz musician's career, which makes it an exceptionally valuable tool to look at that artist's early recordings. Through the historian's lens, we can find snippets of what is to come in that first solo, a young-but-confident blueprint of artistic trajectory as well as some startling differences. Jazz Advance, for example, paints Cecil Taylor as a bizarrely-shaped branch of ...

Pharoah Sanders: Karma

by Trevor MacLaren
October 5, 2005

Pharoah Sanders Karma Impulse! 1969

John Coltrane left behind a legacy of experimental and extremely spiritual work whose timeless quality still reverberates today. After his untimely death many poseurs came out to stake their claim as the next Coltrane. Many tried and many failed. Then in 1969 a former sideman of Coltrane's, Pharoah Sanders, stepped out from the shadow of his mentor and recorded Karma, which bore the soul of Coltrane's musical ...