Pharoah Sanders

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Reggie Workman, Pharoah Sanders, and Idris Muhammad, c. 1978
Reggie Workman, Pharoah Sanders, and Idris Muhammad, c. 1978

Pharoah Sanders (born October 13, 1940) is an American jazz saxophonist. Ornette Coleman once described him as the "best tenor saxophonist in the world."[citation needed]

Sanders was born in Little Rock, Arkansas, under the name Farrell Sanders. He began his professional career playing tenor saxophone in Oakland, California.

Sanders moved to New York City in 1961 after playing with rhythm and blues bands. He received his nickname "Pharoah" from Sun Ra, with whom Sanders performed. He came to prominence playing with John Coltrane's band starting in 1965, as Coltrane began adopting the avant-garde jazz of Albert Ayler, Ra and Cecil Taylor. Sanders first performed on Coltrane's Ascension (recorded in June 1965), then famously on their dual-tenor recording Meditations (recorded in November 1965). After this Sanders joined Coltrane's final quintet, usually performing very lengthy, dissonant solos. Coltrane's later style was strongly influenced by Sanders.

Although Sanders' voice developed differently from Coltrane, Sanders was strongly influenced by their collaboration together. Spiritual elements such as the chanting in Om would later show up in many of Sanders' own works. Sanders would also go on to produce much free jazz, modified from Coltrane's solo-centric conception.

In 1968 he participated in Mike Mantler and Carla Bley's JCOA: Jazz Composer's Orchestra Association album Communications, featuring Cecil Taylor, Don Cherry, Larry Coryell and Gato Barbieri. This solo has been referenced by John Zorn and others, as the most intense and inspiring free tenor solo ever put to tape.[citation needed]

In the 1970s, Sanders pursued his own recordings and continued to work with the likes of Alice Coltrane on her Journey In Satchidananda album.

After several hits in the early seventies, including "The Creator has a Master Plan," and other songs especially supported by African-American Radio, Sanders' brand of revelatory and sometimes political free jazz became less popular. In the late seventies and eighties, Sanders sometimes explored different musical modes resembling modal jazz and hard bop. He only released a few albums during the 1980s[1].

In 1994 he traveled to Morocco to record with master Gnawa musician Maleem Mahmoud Ghania, resulting in the Bill Laswell-produced The Trance Of Seven Colors. Sanders continued to work with Laswell, Jah Wobble and others on the albums Message From Home (1996) and Save Our Children (1998). In 1999, he complained in an interview that despite his pedigree, that he had trouble finding work:

"I don't work that much myself. I would love to work, but nobody calls me. I have to just rely on and pray that I work somewhere.

AAJ: Why do you feel you are not getting work?

PS: I think that it maybe the agencies keep me from working. I have asked many, many times, but I don't know. What is the point? I don't have nothing personal against anybody. I feel like, maybe, it's me. Maybe it's the music, or maybe it's the way I express myself. I know that it may be hard for somebody to listen to me play the way I play, but I don't know. I'm just going to keep on playing and hope that I can do better, play better, and keep learning. I can only try to live healthy and try to live life."[2]

In the 2000s, a slight resurgence of interest in free jazz has kept Sanders playing festivals, concerts, and releasing albums.

Sanders is known for his overblowing, harmonic, and multiphonic techniques on the saxophone, as well as his use of "sheets of sound." Examples of this technique can be heard on "You've got to have freedom".

Contents

[edit] Selected discography

  • 1965 - Pharoah's First (ESP-Disk)
  • 1966 - Tauhid
  • 1969 - Izipho Zam
  • 1969 - Karma - features "The Creator Has a Master Plan" with vocalist Leon Thomas
  • 1969 - Jewels of Thought
  • 1970 - Deaf Dumb Blind (Summun Bukmun Umyun)
  • 1971 - Live at the East
  • 1971 - Black Unity
  • 1971 - Thembi
  • 1972 - Wisdom through Music
  • 1973 - Elevation
  • 1973 - Love In Us All
  • 1976 - Pharoah
  • 1980 - Journey to the One
  • 1981 - Beyond a Dream
  • 1981 - Rejoice
  • 1982 - Heart is a Melody - features live version of John Coltrane's Ole
  • 1990 - Welcome to Love
  • 1994 - The Trance Of Seven Colors
  • 1996 - Message From Home
  • 1998 - Save Our Children
  • 2000 - Spirits
  • 2003 - The Creator Has A Master Plan

[edit] With John Coltrane

  • 1965 - Meditations
  • 1965 - Ascension
  • 1965 - Live In Seattle
  • 1966 - Live At The Village Vanguard Again!
  • 1966 - Live In Japan
  • 1967 - Expression
  • 1967 - The Olatunji Concert: The Last Live Recording

[edit] With others

[edit] External links

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