Pharoah Sanders

Pharoah Sanders (born October 13, 1940) is an Grammy Award winner American jazz saxophonist. Ornette Coleman once described him as "probably the best tenor player in the world."^[1] Emerging from John Coltrane's groups of the mid-60s Sanders is known for his overblowing, harmonic, and multiphonic techniques on the saxophone, as well as his use of "sheets of sound." Albert Ayler famously said "Trane was the Father, Pharoah was the Son, I am the Holy Ghost."^[2]

Biography

Early life and career

Born Ferrell Sanders in Little Rock, Arkansas, he began his professional career playing tenor saxophone in Oakland, California.

He moved to New York City in 1961 after playing with rhythm and blues bands. He received his nickname "Pharoah" from Sun Ra, with whom he was performing. 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. Amiri Baraka lays claim naming him Pharoah in an early sixties Downbeat review upon hearing him introduce himself as Farrell Sanders and thinking he said "Pharaoh Sanders."

After Coltrane

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 Michael 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, featured on the fourth track entitled 'Preview', 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. Most of Sanders' best-selling work was made in the late 60's and early 70s for Impulse Records, including the 30-minute wave-on-wave of free jazz "The Creator has a Master Plan" from the album Karma. This featured Sanders' key musical partner, pianist Lonnie Liston Smith, who worked with Sanders from 1969-1971. Other members of his groups in this period include bassist Cecil McBee and vocalist Leon Thomas, on albums such as Jewels of Thought, Izipho Zam, Deaf Dumb Blind and Thembi.

The 1970s and beyond

Then, although supported by African-American Radio, Sanders' brand of revelatory and sometimes political free jazz became less popular and from the experiments with African rhythms on the 1971 album Black Unity (with bassist Stanley Clarke) onwards he began to diversify his sound. In the late seventies and eighties, Sanders sometimes explored different musical modes including smokey R'n'B (on Love Will Find a Way), modal jazz and hard bop. Popular work of the 1980s include the Live in San Francisco DVD from 1981, a rare film of him performing, and the 1981 album Rejoice.

In 1994 he traveled to Morocco to record with master Gnawa musician Mahmoud Guinia, 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.^[3]

In the 2000s, a resurgence of interest in free jazz has kept Sanders playing festivals (including the 2007 Melbourne Jazz Festival), concerts, and releasing albums. He has a strong following in Japan, and in 2003 recorded with the band Sleep Walker.

Discography

As leader

Title	Year	Label
Pharoah's First	1964	ESP-Disk
Tauhid	1966	Impulse! Records
Izipho Zam	1969	Strata-East Records
Karma	1969	Impulse!
Jewels of Thought	1969	Impulse!
Deaf Dumb Blind (Summun Bukmun Umyun)	1970	Impulse!
Thembi	1971	Impulse!
Village of the Pharoahs	1971	Impulse!
Black Unity	1971	Impulse!
Live at the East	1971	Impulse!
Wisdom Through Music	1972	Impulse!
Elevation	1973	Impulse!
Love in Us All	1973	ASD
Voyage to Uranus	1974	Capitol
Pharoah	1977	India Navigation
Love Will Find a Way	1977	Arista
Beyond a Dream	1978	Arista
Journey to the One	1980	Theresa (Evidence)
Live	1981	Theresa (Evidence)
Rejoice	1981	Theresa (Evidence)
Heart is a Melody	1982	Theresa (Evidence)
Shukuru	1985	Theresa (Evidence)
Oh Lord, Let Me Do No Wrong	1989	Columbia
A Prayer Before Dawn	1987	Theresa (Evidence)
Africa	1987	Timeless
Moonchild	1989	Timeless
Welcome to Love	1990	Timeless
Crescent with Love	1992	Evidence
The Trance Of Seven Colors (with Mahmoud Guinia)	1994	Axiom
Naima	1995	Evidence
Message from Home	1996	Verve
Save our Children	1999	Verve
Spirits	2000	Meta
With a Heartbeat	2003	Evolver
The Creator Has a Master Plan	2003	Venus