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Pharoah Sanders: An Alternative Top Ten Albums To Feed Your Head
Courtesy Fred Katz
I loved what Alice was doing. Her playing was amazing. But I always felt like I wasn’t good enough—she seemed more intellectual than I was. But I tried to play something close to the concept she was doing. At one point I said, ‘I don’t know if you like the way I’m playing or not, whether this fits.’ She said, ‘You’re doing O.K. Just keep on blowing.’
—Pharoah Sanders
Albert Ayler
saxophone, tenor1936 - 1970
Pharoah Sanders
saxophone, tenor1940 - 2022
John Coltrane
saxophone1926 - 1967
An early foretaste of Sanders' longterm trajectory came with his debut album for Impulse! in 1967. Recorded while he was still a member of Coltrane's barn burning band, Tauhid was Sanders' declaration of independence, its broken notes, sandpaper vocalisations and bottom-end explosions tempered by passages of exquisite delicacy. Tauhid, and in particular its centrepiece, "Upper Egypt & Lower Egypt," still ranks among Sanders' most entrancing work.
Born Farrell Sanders in Little Rock, Arkansas in 1940, Sanders came up through the ranks of local bar-walking tenorists before arriving, after two years in Oakland, California, in New York City in 1961, where he fell in with the young avant-garde which was already clustering around John Coltrane. He recorded his debut album, Pharoah, for ESP in autumn 1964, and began playing with Coltrane around the same time. Beginning with 1965's Ascension, he is heard on around a dozen albums which Coltrane recorded for Impulse! before he passed in 1967. The following year, Sanders began an association with
Alice Coltrane
piano1937 - 2007
Given the in-your-face tumult of much of his early work, by which he is still largely defined, Sanders is sometimes imagined to be as abrasive in person as he was then (and still can be) as a saxophonist. In fact, he is quietly spoken, approachable and self-deprecating....
In his most recent interview, with The New Yorker in January 2020, Sanders said of his time with Alice Coltrane: "You know, her playing was amazing. I loved what she was doing. But I always felt like what I was doing wasn't good enough. Maybe I was playing a little bit more dominant than what she wanted. She seemed more intellectual than I was. But I tried to play something close to the concept that she was doing. At one point, I had told her, 'I don't know if you like the way I'm playing or not. I don't know whether this fits, or what.' She said, 'You're doing O.K. Just keep on playing. Keep on blowing." He felt similarly inadequate during his time with John Coltrane.
In the same interview, Sanders was asked if he was happy with his playing on any of his albums. "Sometimes on my horn, a couple of notes, I'm feeling satisfied with it," said Sanders. "But the rest of the notes just is not sounding right. So I'm still working on that."
Such is the splendour of Sanders' work on Impulse! between 1965 and 1975, with the Coltranes and under his own name, that a credible Top Ten (even Top Twenty) Albums list could be compiled purely from his work on the label. But Sanders has conjured wider magic than that, much of it in more recent times.
This Alternative Top Ten excludes all Sanders' Impulse! albums, as leader or sideperson, in order to focus on less widely celebrated but equally elevated releases. Hopefully, you will find one or two items that have so far escaped your radar.
Sun RaSun Ra And His Arkestra Featuring Pharoah Sanders And Black Harold
El Saturn, 1976
This gloriously eruptive album was recorded live in 1964 at Judson Hall, New York City, during the Jazz Composers Guild's Four Days In December festival. Following the early 1965 break-up of the Guild, which had intended to release it, the album was lost in space, but was eventually released in 1976 on El Saturn. Since then it has reappeared under various titles, with different sleeve designs and track listings, and on various labels. The first reissue was on El Saturn itself later in 1976, retitled Gods On A Safari. Welcome to the world of Ra. Anyway, the original LP was a four track affair with Sanders—who was depping for
John Gilmore
saxophone, tenor1931 - 1995
Art Blakey
drums1919 - 1990
Pharoah SandersLive At Antibes Jazz Festival Juan Les Pins July 21 1968
Alternative Fox, 2019
In places rhapsodic, at other times ferocious enough to weld metal, Live At Antibes Jazz Festival Juan-Les-Pins July 21, 1968 catches Sanders between the sonic extremes of his work with John Coltrane and the mellifluous vibe of Tauhid. The main event is "The Creator Has A Master Plan," the first studio version of which was about to appear on Karma (Impulse!, 1969). Leading a quartet, Sanders is accompanied by bassist
Sirone
bass, acoustic1940 - 2009
Lonnie Liston Smith
keyboardsb.1940
Leon ThomasSpirits Known And Unknown
Flying Dutchman, 1969
Singer
Leon Thomas
vocals1937 - 1999
James Spaulding
saxophone, altob.1937
Pharoah SandersJourney To The One
Theresa, 1980
The album that introduced Sanders to a new generation of dancefloor-loving jazz neophytes. After he was dropped by Impulse! in 1975, the victim of a cost-cutting change of label ownership, Sanders hopped between India Navigation, Arista and Nova to relatively underwhelming effect. In 1980, however, things looked up again, after he signed with Theresa, where he continued recording until 1987. A double album, Journey To The One featured two musicians who would be heard with Sanders through the mid 1980s, the solid if rather unadventurous pianist
John Hicks
piano1941 - 2006
Idris Muhammad
drums1939 - 2014
Pharoah SandersOh Lord, Let Me Do No Wrong
Doctor Jazz, 1987
Bob Thiele set up the Doctor Jazz label in 1983 as a successor to Flying Dutchman, and the presence of Leon Thomas on Oh Lord, Let Me Do No Wrong, together with the album's title, might suggest a reprise of Spirits Known And Unknown. But the music is more multi-faceted than that. Thomas is heard on three tracks: "Oh Lord, Let Me Do No Wrong," which could almost be from the Spirits Known And Unknown sessions, and "If It Wasn't For A Woman" and "Next Time You See Me," which are downhome carnal blues. There is duality, too, in the keyboard players. Lonnie Liston Smith's brother,
Donald Smith
piano and vocals
Sonny SharrockAsk The Ages
Axiom, 1991
The guitarist
Sonny Sharrock
guitar, electric1940 - 1994
Bill Laswell
bassb.1955
Charnett Moffett
bass1967 - 2022
Elvin Jones
drums1927 - 2004
Pharoah SandersCrescent With Love
Evidence, 1994
Crescent With Love is Sanders' double-album tribute to his mentor, focusing on Coltrane's classic quartet period. Nine of the twelve tunes were either written or had been recorded by Coltrane: "Lonnie's Lament," "Wise One," "Feelin' Good," "Too Young To Go Steady," "Naima," "Crescent," "In A Sentimental Mood," "Body And Soul" and "After The Rain." The treatments are in the main respectful rather than reimagined and the love shines through. The band is completed by bassist
Charles Fambrough
bass1950 - 2011
Sherman Ferguson
b.1944
Erroll Garner
piano1921 - 1977
Maleem Mahmoud GhaniaThe Trance Of Seven Colors
Axiom, 1994
And now for something completely different.... Recorded live in the walled courtyard of a house in Essaouira, Morocco by Bill Laswell, The Trance Of Seven Colors features Sanders alongside the guimbri player " data-original-title="" title="">Maleem Mahmoud Ghania, a leading light of gnawa, a percussive, black African cult music which originated in southern Morocco. There are none of Laswell's trademark sonic manipulations and only a little editing: the album is a field recording, pure and simple. Sanders is variously heard with Ghania and his percussion ensemble, and alongside ghaita players Abdelmalak Ben Hamou and Maleem Abdelkabir Addabachi. Most of the tunes are traditional gnawa numbers; two others, including "Peace In Essaouira," which is dedicated to Sonny Sharrock, who had passed a week earlier, are Sanders originals. Sanders scrolls back to the declamatory style of his work with John Coltrane.
Pharoah SandersMessage From Home
Verve, 1996
On Message From Home, Bill Laswell revisits and tweaks the electrified, pre-digital, avant-funk studio template he had made his name with in the mid 1980s, while Sanders stays mainly with the broken-note strewn, analogue-age rhapsodising that became his default mode in the early 1970s. Against expectations, it works. The burnished, chugging vibe is reminiscent of Kraftwerk's Autobahn (Philips, 1974), fast-forwarded two decades. The lineup is a mixture of Laswell and Sanders regulars: Parliament-Funkadelic keyboardist
Bernie Worrell
keyboards1944 - 2016
Steve Neil
bass, acousticb.1953
Hamid Drake
drumsb.1955
Michael White
b.1954
Foday Musa Suso
kora
Pharoah & The UndergroundSpiral Mercury
Clean Feed, 2014
This live recording from the Jazz em Agosto festival in Portugal in 2013 features Sanders fronting a mash up of cornetist and electronicist
Rob Mazurek
trumpetb.1965
"
data-original-title="" title="">Sao Paulo Underground bands. Along with the two horn players, the lineup comprises, "
data-original-title="" title="">Guilherme Granado on keyboards, vibraphone and marimba, 
Mauricio Takara
percussion
Matthew Lux
bass
Chad Taylor
drumsb.1973
Miles Davis
trumpet1926 - 1991
Tags
Building a Jazz Library
Pharoah Sanders
Chris May
Albert Ayler
John Coltrane
John Gilmore
Art Blakey
Sirone
Najeed Shabazz
Lonnie Liston Smith
Leon Thomas
James Spaulding
John Hicks
Idris Muhammad
Donald Smith
William Henderson
Sonny Sharrock
Bill Laswell
Charnett Moffett
Elvin Jones
Charles Fambrough
Sherman Ferguson
Erroll Garner
Jeff Bova
Steve Neil
Hamid Drake
Aiyb Dieng
Michael White
Foday Musa Suso
Rob Mazurek
Chicago Underground
Sao Paulo Underground
Guilherme Granado
Mauricio Takara
Matt Lux
Chad Taylor
Miles Davis
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