Pharoah Sanders
Pharoah Sanders possesses one of the most distinctive tenor saxophone sounds in jazz. Harmonically rich and heavy with overtones, Sanders’ sound can be as raw and abrasive as it is possible for a saxophonist to produce. Yet, Sanders is highly regarded to the point of reverence by a great many jazz fans. Although he made his name with expressionistic, nearly anarchic free jazz in John Coltrane’s late ensembles of the mid-’60s, Sanders’ later music is guided by more graceful concerns
Pharoah Sanders possesses one of the most distinctive tenor saxophone sounds in jazz. Harmonically rich and heavy with overtones, Sanders’ sound can be as raw and abrasive as it is possible for a saxophonist to produce. Yet, Sanders is highly regarded to the point of reverence by a great many jazz fans. Although he made his name with expressionistic, nearly anarchic free jazz in John Coltrane’s late ensembles of the mid-’60s, Sanders’ later music is guided by more graceful concerns
Beyond a Dream
"Beyond a Dream" is a live jazz album by saxophonist Pharoah Sanders and drummer Norman Connors, recorded on July 22, 1978, at the Montreux Jazz Festival in Switzerland and released in 1981 by Arista Novus. The album showcases a blend of spiritual and free jazz elements characteristic of Sanders' style, complemented by Connors' dynamic drumming. A reviewer from Dusty Groove described it as "a dream of a record from this legendary spiritual jazz duo."
Moon Child
Recorded in France in 1989, Sanders plays here with an all-star line-up consisting of Stafford James on bass, William Henderson on piano and Eddie Moore on drums. Great percussion work from Cheikh Tidiane Fall, particularly on “Moon Rays”, and as always Sanders’ sax work is rich, full and throaty. On this album, the legendary saxophonist clearly reinvented himself as a more traditional improviser, capable of thoughtful and pensive deliberations. Catchy mystical New Age vocals and astrological re…
Africa
On this 1987 album Pharoah Sanders is accompanied by the great Idris Muhammad on drums, John Hicks on piano and Curtis Lundy on bass. Five of the eight compositions are by Sanders, one track by pianist Hicks, Coltrane’s “Naima” is a tribute to Trane and “Speak Low” is a beautiful standard from Kurt Weill and Ogden Nash. A real smoky slower number “Heart To Heart” shows Sanders can be subdued and romantic and John Hicks plays some beautiful jazz piano. The whole album exudes energy and joy. On “D…
Symphony for Improvisers
Biggest Tip! 180 gram Vinyl Edition. Recorded in 1966 and released by Blue Note Records in August of 1967, Don Cherry's Symphony for Improvisers features Gato Barbieri, Henry Grimes, and Ed Blackwell, all of whom had appeared on Cherry's previous album Complete Communion. Also featured are Karl Berger, Jean-François Jenny- Clark, and Pharoah Sanders. The abum received a rating of ***** on AlMusic, with reviewer Steve Huey string that, "Even though the album is full of passionate fireworks, there…
Summun Bukmun Umyun
Biggest Tip! 180 gram Vinyl Edition. Gatefold Cover. Recorded at A & R Studios in New York City on July 1, 1970, Pharoah Sanders' album Deaf Dumb Blind (in Arabic "Summun Bumun Umyun" was released on Impulse! Records that same year. It features the leader along with fellow stars Woody Shaw, Gary Bartz and Lonnie Liston Smith. The album received a **** rating on AllMusic, with reviewer Thom Jurek staring that this is a stunningly beautiful and contemplative work that showcases how intrinsic melod…
Love In Us All
Biggest Tip! Limited Edition LP. Deluxe 180-Gram Reissue. Special Gatefold Edition Including Original Artwork. Again, we have the reissue of a true holy grail in our hands (yeah, we know holy grail gets thrown around a lot these days, but, if ever there was one, this is it) - Pharoah Sanders's absolutely astounding “Love In Us All”. Raw and emotive, soulful and thoughtful to points of profound depth, and entirely liberated and free, as well as one of the hardest, rarest Pharoah Sanders albums to…
The Trance of Seven Colors
Big tip! *2024 much needed repress* The Trance of Seven Colors by master Gnawa musician Maleem Mahmoud Ghania and free jazz legend Pharoah Sanders comes in a gatefold sleeve and also include download code. Produced by Bill Laswell and - according to The Attic - "one of the most important albums of Gnawa trance music released in the '90s", The Trance of Seven Colors was originally released in 1994 on Laswell's Axiom imprint and is the magic meeting of two true musical masters. Maleem Mahmoud Ghan…
Wisdom Through Music
Biggest Tip! 180 gram Vinyl Edition. Gatefold Cover. Recorded in New York City and Los Angeles, California, and was released in 1973 by Impulse! Records. Wisdom Through Music, with its smaller line-up - Sanders is joined by flutist James Branch, pianist Joe Bonner, bassist Cecil McBee, drummer Norman Connors, and percussionists Badal Roy, James Mtume, and Lawrence Killian. - consists of five tracks. Most notable is "High Life," on which Sanders emulates the West African style of music with roil…
Village of the Pharoahs
Building on the back of their recent, stellar reissue of Eddie Gale's “Ghetto Music”, Elemental Music continues their long-standing initiative to make important works from the history of jazz available to a new generation of listeners with the much needed and long overdue, first ever vinyl reissue of Pharoah Sanders’ towering 1973 classic “Village of the Pharoahs”. Easily some of Sanders’ most radical music ever laid to tape, unfolding as a bristling hybrid of modal, spiritual jazz and driving f…
Jewels of Thought
180 gram Vinyl Edition. Gatefold Cover. The fourth album as a leader by spiritual jazz saxophone titan Pharoah Sanders, Jewels of Thought was released in 1969. It Consist of two extended tracks, one of which had to be divided into two parts in order to fit onto the LP. Sanders was incrediblt active in 1969, recording lo less than four albums and releasing three. The band on Jewels of Thought includes several major stars, among them Idris Muhammad, Roy Haynes, Richards Davis, Cecil McBee, Leon Th…
Journey In Satchidananda
*180 Gram/ gatefold/ audiophile* Originally issued by Impulse in 1971, this masterpiece Alice's album is on of the most exciting record she have ever did! And, what's more, it's absolutely live! It is definitely one of the best truly cosmic jazz orchestrations ever realized. Recorded at the Coltrane home studio, Dix Hills, New York on November 8, 1970. Alice Coltrane (harp, piano); Pharoah Sanders (soprano saxophone, perc); Charlie Haden (bass); Rashied Ali (drums); Cecil McBee (bass); Vishnu W…
Harvest Time / Love Will Find A Way
Unreleased Japanese radio edit of two ethereal masterpieces from .
Record Store Day 2024 "RSD First" release. Limited to 2500 copies. The RSD website refers to the vinyl colour as "Black Power Black" Runouts are laser-etched. ©/℗ 2024 Luaka Bop Inc.
Promises
* Repress, on color vinyl* Apparently it's been over a decade since avant jazz deity Pharoah Sanders recorded any new music, it took Sam Shephard aka Floating Points to coax the 80 year old out of near-retirement. Anyone familiar with Sanders' work will know how life-affirming his music can be, from his early work with John Coltrane, through 1967's mind-altering "Tauhid" to his spiritual pairing with Alice Coltrane on "Journey in Satchidananda". Here, he takes a more restrained role, offering bu…
Black Unity
Temporary offer! For 1971’s Black Unity, Pharaoh Sanders added groove to foundation of spiritual and free jazz he had explored on his previous Impulse! albums. The result is a piercing and emotive 37-minute rhythm-driven title track exploration of African, Latin, aborigine and Native American sounds. "By 1971, Pharoah Sanders had taken the free thing as far as he could and still live with himself. He was investigating new ways to use rhythm -- always his primary concern -- inside his music and m…
Thembi
VERY last copies Pharoah Sanders recorded the songs that comprise Thembi in the winter of ’70/’71, in between sessions with Alice Coltrane that would eventually become her masterpiece Journey In Satchidananda LP. The same compelling spirituality that embued Coltrane’s masterpiece with a mood of stately calm and grace pervades Thembi. ‘On Thembi, that was the first time that I ever touched a Fender Rhodes electric piano. We got to the studio in California — Cecil McBee had to unpack his bass, t…
Pharaoh Sanders Quintet
2024 Repress. ESP-Disk present a reissue of Pharoah Sanders Quintet, originally released in 1965. Recorded on September 10, 1964, prior to his well-known association with John Coltrane, this eponymous album (later renamed Pharoah's First) is the debut release of the iconic tenor saxophonist, Pharoah Sanders. (Yes, there are some spelling oddities here: the artist -- birth name Ferrell -- only later changed the spelling from the standard Pharaoh to the more personalized Pharoah). With one foot in…
Sun Ra And His Arkestra - Featuring Pharoah Sanders And Bla
Green-Vinyl reissue. "To understand the significance of the word 'featuring' on Featuring Pharoah Sanders And Black Harold, consider how infrequently Sun Ra used it and the exact way it had been used. The October Revolution in Jazz, organized by Bill Dixon in the West Village in 1964, presented a vivid cross section of approaches to the new music, including a sextet led by Ra. For the October Revolution's continuation, titled Four Days in December, held at nearby Judson Hall on the last days of …
Karma
Karma is Pharoah Sanders' third recording as a leader, and is among a number of spiritually themed albums the Impulse! Record label released in the late 1960s/early 1970s. Although it is followed by the brief "Colors", the album's main piece is the 32-minute-long "The Creator Has a Master Plan", co-composed by Sanders with vocalist Leon Thomas. Some see this piece as a kind of sequel to Sanders' mentor John Coltrane's legendary 1964 recording A Love Supreme (whose opening it echoes in a muscular…
Pharoah Box Edition
Deluxe 2CD boxset with 70-page booklet. Alongside a remastered version of Pharoah, his seminal record from 1977, are two previously unreleased live performances of his masterpiece, “Harvest Time.” Includes a 24-page booklet with rarely seen photographs and ephemera, as well as interviews with many of the participants and a conversation with Pharoah himself. With Pharoah Sanders’ blessing, we present the definitive, remastered version of Pharoah, his seminal record from 1977, in an embossed 2 L…
Issue 5, Vol. 2. (Magazine)
Issue 5, Volume 2. Along with the cover stars of Pharoah Sanders and Anri, the issue features Ron Trent, Dexter Wansel, Carolyn Crawford, Hyldon, Linda Lewis, Lance Ferguson, Psychic Mirrors, Liv.e, Bernard Wright plus Re:Discoveries, Record Rundowns and more...