Pharoah Sanders Music

i got this CD because i heard that buckethead was on it. i am also a fan of jazz and fusion, but i didn't know that this CD was so jazzy. i thought it would be ambient crap, but i got it because it was buckethead, and i had nothing to lose. all the songs on this CD are somewhat ambient, but nowhere near boring. i would catagorize this CD as ambient acid jazz-fusion.
everybody's performance on this CD is simply stunning.
buy this CD!

This album is one of my favorites. On this wonderful recording we have jazz greats like Graham Haynes, Byard Lancaster, Pharoah Sanders, and of course the amazing Tony Williams, with studio wizard Bill Laswell (who also plays bass on this) and fusion guitarists Buckethead and Nicky Skopelitis. This is the sort of recording that you can just sit back and listen to these incredible musicians go off into their own world... Take Williams' off-time jazzy rhythms, with Laswell's tasty and well fitted bass lines, with Sanders' astonishing improvised sax soloing, add Buckethead's mind-boggling virtuoso playing and you have quite an eclectic mix. A must have for fans of Jazz Fusion. Stand-out tracks: "Returnin" and "Circles Of Hell".

first of all let me say this is the most expensive single CD i've ever purchased (i paid around $22-25 for it), but undoubtably one of the best i've ever heard.

This is prog/jazz/fusion at its best with an all-star cast that actually comes to play (unlike other all-star Laswell related discs such as Material: third power which, despite the cast, have let me down). Pharoah is still a tremendous talent and lends his own freakout sax stylings on a couple of trakcs. Buckethead fans won't be disappointed either, as he plays a major role in the few tracks that he actually appears on. Finally, Tony Williams is amazing...you won't believe that this is his last outing before his death as his chops are as fine tuned as ever.

Its often times difficult for me to relate to my friends what this disc sounds like, as simply labeling it prog-jazz or fusion seems to be an inept definition. I came up with the term "psychedelic masterpieces" to describe the feel of the tunes on this CD to one of my friends and in a way its the best description i have given yet. Each track is its own world, often times dark and dramatic, yet with much beauty and life manifested inside. One can get lost in their own visions while listening to this album, creating vivid imagery of the history of life in ones own head while experiencing the peaks and plateuas of this amazing album.

Basically all i can say is that if you have read anything about this album and the idea of bringing all of these legends together in one disc intrigues you, don't cop out of buying it due to the price. it is worth every penny.

Wow! This was Tony Williams' last recorded album. He's drumming straight-8th fusion style all over this recording. The supporting cast(actually everyone contributes equally), Bill Laswell, Pharoah Sanders, Byard Lancaster, Graham Haynes, Nicky Skopelitis, and Buckethead, are all incredible musicians in their own right.

But, just because you assemble some great, respective and creative musical artists together, doesn't mean they're going to deliver. This time, however, you can only wonder, "what would've been"?Tony WIlliams died before this was released, so any fan of his would be proud to own this as a final "swansong" recording.

I am proud to have it because it is an interesting creative fusion recording. It used to be that Jazz-Rock was a genre full of promise--until the moneyhounds and Record companies got a hold of it and turned it into generic Fuzac. I was wary of purchasing what could very well be a regurgitated carbon-copy of funky-sounding sleepy Elevator music. If you're wanting something interesting and creative, and respect only ONE of the names on this disc, I would suggest that purchasing this might be a sure-thing for ya. Buckethead's guitar is incredible, so is Tony's drumming, and Laswell, well, his name on anything as producer and bassists insured a rubber-stamp of quality and creativity unlike anyone else for the past 25 years!

I was really into Tony Williams music during the Miles years and some of his fusion is pretty good. But as a drummer he has had to rely on the supporting cast to step up and meet the quality of his drumming. These guys did it in a fresh way. Plus this is a gateway into Buckethead, Laswell, Pharoah Sanders, and the others. I plan on going through that door, with eager anticipation.

This is jazz-fusion of the highest order. No fooling around, no chick vocalists or fluffy synths, no out-of-tune soprano saxophone solos meandering around the room, no slickness, no concession to pop radio or any of that nonsense. This is blazing, hard, rhythm-based improvisational music. The late Tony Williams attacks the drums with a power rarely heard outside of death-metal, various guitarists add thick furious layers of skronk to the mix, and greats like Pharaoh Sanders return to glory with cathartic free-jazz solos. And above it all (or perhaps below it all) lurks Bill Laswell on bass and keyboards. Next time somebody dismisses jazz-fusion out of hand (and they do have the right), offer this as supporting evidence along with "Jack Johnson".

this has become one of my favorite albums. pharoah sanders is in fine form , elvin jones is a swirling fountain rhythm machine. and sharrock is mean and nasty. he realy is a forgotten man. you never here him mentioned with mcglaughlin and dimeloa. but this album rescues him from obscurity.just in time before his death. thats a shame. he might of run off a string of greatness after. im glad to have it. its jazzy, its proggy, its avant guard, reflective, and very listenable. no filler here. a very engaging cd.manny mansions is my favorite track.

On first hearing it, you might feel nothing but regret about "Ask the Ages." I certainly have never had an opportunity to play this disc with a loved one within earshot.

The session draws you in completely, though, within its first few measures. And with time, you may feel nothing else comes close. It is, to my mind, THE free jazz masterpiece. Its title is no pomp. Lasswell, as producer, strips the players' sounds down to the essence of each, and they gel into something every bit as timeless as the album's name suggests. It is a session sound that somehow is both intimate and spacious at the same time.

Every track will repeatedly shock, both in clarity and brutalism, sending chills right up and down the spine. The sound Sharrock gets out of his Les Paul and Marshall stack are the Alpha and the Omega of this date. He opens and closes each piece with ringing, transcendant melody. Then Pharaoh Sanders blasts in, and Sharrock can still ride that one-man herd. But incredibly, during every one of these Hendrixian fuzz-fests, Bill Lasswell has the guitarist's amp low in the mix.

That means we have all sorts of room to listen for every faint, layered rumble out of the superstar rhythm duo of Charnett Moffett and Elvin Jones. The two sound supremely confident of this whole fusion. Charnett Moffett is in his absolute prime, with a jaw-dropping 12 bars of perfection on "Who Does She Hope to Be?" And I have never understood Elvin Jones' technique better than I have on this disk -- every tap or roll sounds like it comes from an awesome, rainmaking deity just over the horizon.

And there's more going on than each man working alongside the other. "Little Rock" for instance, is a nice play on words. Step back from the solos, and you'll sense in the syncopated melodicism, Sharrock and Sanders having a little unspoken fun with the old doo-wop repertoire.

Sharrock's solo on "Many Mansions" is the most thrilling sound ever to issue from a Les Paul. (A fair-weather tribute to Hendrix's "Star Spangled Banner.") And there was never a sweeter, or more anthemic close, than "Once Upon a Time." It will have you whistling for hours, until you dare spin up the whole CD again -- so that this time you can listen that much more closely.

I have been returning to this disc since it caught my ear as an undergrad in DC in 1991, and I could never part with it -- no matter what heights those eBay bids might scale.

I'd never heard of Sonny Sharrock until someone mentioned him to me in an e-mail discussion about Jerry Garcia. You ought to hear this album. If you can find it! Powerful, sensitive playing, simultaneously Zappa-like with JB Hutto flavoring. New ground broken. It is tragic that he died fairly young.

The song "who does she hope to be" is in my opinion what true love must sound like. I remember where I was the day I heard that Sonny died. He truly lives through this great body of work. He is fiercely beautiful.

This is a great jazz album...not for everyone though. First off, the fact that Pharoah Sanders plays on this one should clue you in that there will be violent, chaotic bursts of sound...not for everyone's musical taste. Sharrock also plays a whirlwind of notes, sometimes in a violently pointless manner. But the album swells into interesting tones and changes that make this an extremely unique accomplishment of jazz music. As a musician, I loved the sounds..the harmonies and noises...the rawness, nakedness of sound.

I first heard of Pharoah Sanders at the age of 10 years old, (I'm now 49 years old). I became a fan of his music from the first time I heard him play that sax. I had a number of his albums over the years which were lost or stolen. I have seen him perform in New York City once a few years ago (great show, I rode that feeling for a couple of weeks). I must find this recording with Upper and Lower Egypt on it, so I can listen to it every day. The vaule of his music is far greater than the dollar vaule.

Pharaoh Sanders, Bay Area saxaphone great, brings you Love Ballads, a hard-to-get release of his magic tones. At times warm and smooth, at times honking with emotion. If you can ever see him perform live, you will be astounded. When he's on, his playing can make you cry. I don't care how tough you are- its true. His jazz is like a whalesong- its that deep .

This record plays and you feel in heaven. Not only Pharoah's sax sounds beautifull, but the piano work is fantastic. A jewel.

This record plays and you feel in heaven. Not only Pharoah's sax sounds beautifull, but the piano work is fantastic. A jewel.