Deaf Dumb Blind (Summun Bukmun Umyun)

Deaf Dumb Blind (Summun Bukmun Umyun)
Studio album by Pharoah Sanders
Released	1970
Recorded	July 1, 1970
Genre	Jazz
Length	39:02
Label	Impulse! Records

Professional ratings

Review scores
Source	Rating
AllMusic
Pitchfork	8.6/10

Deaf Dumb Blind (Summun Bukmun Umyun) is an album by the American jazz saxophonist Pharoah Sanders. It was recorded at A & R Studios in New York City on July 1, 1970, and released on Impulse! Records in the same year. The album's title is bilingual: "Summun Bukmun Umyun" is Arabic for "Deaf Dumb Blind".

The phrase صُمٌّ بُكْمٌ عُمْيٌ ṣummun, bukmun, ʻumyun is taken from verse 18 of Surat al-Baqarah in the Qur'an. According to the liner notes, the album is "predicated on spiritual truths and to the future enlightenment of El Kafirun or The Rejectors of Faith (non-believers)."

The performances on the album are strongly influenced by the music of Africa.

Track listing

1. "Summun, Bukmun, Umyun" (Sanders) – 21:16
2. "Let Us Go Into The House Of The Lord" (arr. by Lonnie Liston Smith) – 17:46

Personnel

• Pharoah Sanders – soprano saxophone, cow horn, bells, tritone whistle, cowbells, wood flute, thumb piano, percussion
• Woody Shaw – trumpet, maracas, yodeling, percussion
• Gary Bartz – alto saxophone, bells, cowbell, shakers, percussion
• Lonnie Liston Smith – piano, cowbell, thumb piano, percussion
• Cecil McBee – bass
• Clifford Jarvis – drums
• Nathaniel Bettis – xylophone, yodeling, African percussion
• Anthony Wiles – conga drum and African percussion