Pharoah Sanders Music

As far as cut & paste compilation albums go, this is among the best. The abum's creators simply placed the perfect songs from that era of Pharoah's career together.
Aesthetic, Spiritual, Meaningful Music, enough said!

Thank you,

JD

TRACKS:

DISC 1
1. Stolen Moments - Oliver Nelson
2. Sister Sadie - Gil Evans
3. Chocolate Shake - Freddie Hubbard
4. Goodbye Porkpie Hat - Charles Mingus
5. Alfie's Theme - Sonny Rollins
6. Trey Of Hearts - Count Basie
7. Solitude - Duke Ellington/Coleman Hawkins
8. In A Sentimental Mood - John Coltrane/Duke Ellington
9. My One And Only Love - John Coltrane/Johnny Hartman
10. Someone To Watch Over Me - Ben Webster

DISC 2
1. Rapid Shave - Shirley Scott
2. Sister Mamie - Yusef Lateef
3. Afro Blue - John Coltrane
4. Forest Flower (Sunrise) - Chico Hamilton
5. Naima - Archie Shepp
6. Southern Smiles - Keith Jarrett
7. Cuando Vuelva A Tu Lado (What A Difference A Day Makes) - Gato Barbieri
8. The Creator Has A Master Plan (part 1) - Pharoah Sanders

Not only is the CD great if you get the DVD you can see two the compositions perfomed to see the intensity of the performers including Pharoah blowing so hard saliva comes out the horn.

Pharoah is one of the great successors of John Coltrane in the tradition of deeply spiritual African American jazz. Seeing this quartet numerous times around the time of this recording was an overwhelmingly joyous and uplifting experience. Waves and waves of ecstasy, happiness, bliss. I always regretted being too young to see "The Master" - John Coltrane play live (he died when I was a child) but, Pharoah continues that legacy beautifully. Go See Him Live if you ever get the chance!!!! You will not regret it!

I used to own this fantastic album on vinyl. As others have said, the first track alone justifies the purchase of this release.

Blazing, intense and drenched in spiritual soulfulness....highly recommended to fans of John Coltrane....

The first track on this album is worth the price of the album... Don't miss out...

Damn! This recording changed my life.

Bought it on Teresa Records vinyl years ago.

The keyboard action by John Hicks is simply amazing. I have never heard another session like it!

Idris on drums, what can I say.

"You've got to have freedom" will captivate you with energy, and you will listen until you wear it out! One of the best; ever!

Take some quality time with this one! Even a deaf, dumb, and blind man will get into this!

CCW

I was anticipating this release for a long time given the fact that I have been a fan of Mr Blake's work for many years as he performed with one musical giant after another, including but not limited to; Nancy Wilson, Lee Morgan, Dizzy Gillespie, Freddie Hubbard, Betty Carter, Sun Ra, McCoy Tyner, Randy Weston, Billy Cobham, Stan Getz, etc.... I was not disappointed.

Alex Blake has a revolutionary playing style and technique second to none. His innovative combination of strumming, rapid lyrical notations and percussive slaps on the Acoustic Bass are on a level par excellence and distinctly Alex Blake. His Electric Bass Solo on the Beatles classic "With A Little Help From My Friends" exemplifies Alex's mastery of that instrument while giving the listener shades of Jimi Hendrix.

His compositional skills reveal a composer with a unique third eye for melodic originality. Mr Blake has chosen an incredible supporting cast for his date at the Knitting Factory and I recommended this CD highly for all those interested in listening to a Artist/Musician whose talent transcends the boundaries of his chosen instrument.

This CD could have been titled "the gentle side of Pharoah Sanders". Here is a beautiful collection of ballads, most of which were favorites of John Coltrane. If you like Pharoah's outside playing this might not be the best choice; there's none of that here. I like all of it, in and out, and he gets sounds out of his tenor that no else can, but on this date he treats the songs with reverent lyricism on both tenor and soprano. Great trio support also.

This CD has many similarities with the John Coltrane and Johnny Hartman CD and titled it Music of Incredible Beauty and Sensitivity. Each CD shares a moving version of the jazz ballad, My One and Only Love. There are more parallels. Coltrane himself recorded several of these tunes. Coltrane and Sanders collaborated in furious free-jazz explorations at the end of Trane's life. Sanders became famous within the jazz community for those recordings. However, he has explored music and the saxophone from then until now. This CD, recorded in 1990, issued in 1996, explores the gentler side of Pharoah Sanders, a jazz giant, communicating subtly and serenely.

Here, the musicians are a quartet. Sanders is on tenor and soprano sax, William Henderson on piano, Stafford James on bass and Eccleston W. Wainright, Jr. on drums. The included songs are standards and ballads, songs of love, tempos of reflection and deliberation, compositions clearly within the mainstream jazz tradition.

Sanders' performances are stunning. On tenor, his tone is lyrical and sure in his upper register, big, yet mellow in his lower one. His incredible technique is displayed not in furious runs but in exquisite note choices, the mark of the outstanding communicator as demonstrated in the art of the ballad. Sanders plays six of the eight cuts on tenor. On soprano, IMHO the most difficult of the saxophones to play with excellent tone and intonation, Sanders communicates with a warmth and tonal center that is unusual among present players and compares favorably to many soprano sax greats. Mr. Sanders lays claim to these tunes as his own - through subtle lines constructed inside the changes but unique in their beauty, romance and evocativeness. It's incredible to realize that a free-jazz explorer of fire and fury could choose to come around full circle and be equally inventive in a setting of deliberation and subtlety. Even the few free jazz effects, subtle warbling to end a couple of the cuts, are deployed gracefully. The opening cut, My One And Only Love is exceptionally beautiful in it's restatement of the melody and introspective solo and is my favorite, although the entire CD is uniformly great.

While cynics will cry that Pharoah is cashing in on his Coltrane connection, just listen and you will hear what a fantastically sensitive player Sanders is. Those who have listened to Sanders throughout the years already know this.

I like this CD for the same reasons Ballads is one of my favorite Trane CDs - Its is just so nice to listen to.

i really liked this album, it took a while to dig the yodeling on karma and after a while i sucumbed to its spell, cant complain at all, sanders is on fire as usual, this is a perfect companion to black unity, karma and thembi. but the price is outrageous, the used price is high too. ive seen this many places used for less than 15 dollars. sanders sax tone cuts like a knife, ive always felt the same way about gato barbieri, pre 1976 of course.

"Izipho Zam (My Gifts)" is one of those albums that everyone but me seems to love. Recorded shortly before his Impulse! masterpiece "Karma", this album features more or less the same band, with contributions from a large number of musicians-- prominent among them vocalist Leon Thomas, alto saxophonist Sonny Fortune, Howerd Johnson (on tuba this time), guitarist Sonny Sharrock, pianist Lonnie Liston Smith, and a seemingly endless cast of basssists and percussionists, many of whom were associated with Sanders at this point.

Opener "Prince of Peace" is really the only piece I truly love on this one. Re-recorded a year later (in a superior arrangement and retitled "Hum-Allah-Hum-Allah-Hum-Allah") "Jewels of Thought", it is a melodic vocal feature for Thomas, where he sings his sort of meditative lyrics calling for piece before performing his unique yodelling improv. Sanders appears confined to percussion (of which there's a ton) on this piece, with no real contributuion on his part. Still, it's a lovely piece and certainly noteworthy.

But after that the album feels to come unglued to me. "Balance" fades in during what sounds to be the middle of the introductory statement to "The Creator Has a Masterplan", moves into a bluesy Monkish riff (it's interesting that only recently had I noted the compositional influence Monk seemed to have on Sanders' early work) and then into a frantic free improv section where Sanders wails away freely on top of the other horns with Johnson in counter on tuba. The problem is, I don't really feel much from the improv, some of the playing is exciting, but it just does nothing for me.

And speaking of doing little, the title track, a nearly half-hour long sprawling suite, slowly develops with Thomas yodelling and singing (wordlessly) until the piece settles into a groove irritatingly stated by Sharrock on clean-tone guitar (it seems fine until you realize the same riff gets aired and varied for the length of the piece), with Sanders occasionally showing up to air out some more of his "Creator Has a Masterplan" themes.

In the end, it all feels like a rehearsal-- even "Prince of Peace". It's not bad music, it's just that it can't stand up to the work Sanders did on Impulse. On the other hand, lots of folks enjoy this one immensely, start with "Karma" if you're new to Sanders, but this might sit better with you than me.

Karma's actual sister album is a little know gem. The first tune, Prince of Peace is better know to Sanders' fans as "Hum-Allah." This version is concise at 8:00. "Balance" walks the tightrope between structure and freedom more convincingly than any other Sanders track. Treat yourself! get It!

It is easy to be with this recording. Prince of Peace is the evocation of peace, and celebrates it at the same time.
Leon Thomas soars over the rhythm section with his own brand of vocal virtuosity. Majid's drumming and bells create a "Paradise" groove, unparalled since "A Love Supreme". Pharoah is reaching as always. These are serious players! Intuitive playing at its best. 5 Stars for the group sound.