Pharoah Sanders (born Ferrell Lee Sanders; October 13, 1940 – September 24, 2022) was an American jazz saxophonist. Known for his overblowing, harmonic, and multiphonic techniques on the saxophone, as well as his use of "sheets of sound", Sanders played a prominent role in the development of free jazz and spiritual jazz through his work as a member of John Coltrane's groups in the mid-1960s, and later through his solo work. He released more than thirty albums as a leader and collaborated extensively with vocalist Leon Thomas and pianist Alice Coltrane, among many others. Fellow saxophonist Ornette Coleman once described him as "probably the best tenor sax player in the world".
Sanders' take on spiritual jazz was rooted in his inspiration from religious concepts such as karma and tawhid, and his rich, meditative performance aesthetic.
Early life
Pharoah Sanders was born on October 13, 1940, in Little Rock, Arkansas.
His mother worked as a cook in a school cafeteria, and his father worked for the City of Little Rock. An only child, Sanders began his musical career accompanying church hymns on clarinet. His initial artistic accomplishments were in the visual arts,
but when he was at Scipio Jones High School in North Little Rock, Sanders began playing the tenor saxophone.
After graduating from high school in 1959, Sanders moved to Oakland, California, where he lived with relatives. He briefly studied art and music at Oakland City College.
Career
1960s
Pharoah Sanders began his professional career playing
tenor saxophone in Oakland, then moved to New York City in 1962.
biographer wrote that Sanders was often homeless and Ra gave him a place to live, clothes, and encouraged him to use the name "Pharoah".
According to Sanders himself his grandmother had wanted to call him after pharaohs in the Bible but chose Ferrell instead. Upon joining the New York musicians' union, Sanders chose "Pharoah" as an artist name. Initially it was sometimes misspelled as "pharaoh".
By 1963, he was playing with musicians like Billy Higgins and Don Cherry and had caught the attention of Eric Dolphy and John Coltrane.[ Nisenson, Eric (2009) Ascension: John Coltrane and His Quest, p.150. Da Capo Press. At Google Books. Retrieved September 22, 2013.] Sun Ra, and Cecil Taylor. Sanders first recorded with Coltrane on Ascension (recorded in June 1965), then on their dual-tenor album Meditations (recorded in November 1965). After this, Sanders joined Coltrane's final quintet, usually playing long, dissonant solos. Coltrane's later style was influenced by Sanders.
Although Sanders' voice developed differently from John Coltrane's, Sanders was influenced by their collaboration. Spiritual elements such as the chanting in Om would later show up in many of Sanders' own works. Sanders would also go on to produce much free jazz, modified from Coltrane's solo-centric conception. In 1968, he participated in Michael Mantler and Carla Bley's Jazz Composer's Orchestra Association album The Jazz Composer's Orchestra, featuring Cecil Taylor, Don Cherry, Larry Coryell, and Gato Barbieri.
Pharoah's first album, Pharoah's First, was not what he expected. The musicians playing with him were much more straightforward than Sanders, which made the solos played by the other musicians a bit out of place. Starting in 1966 Sanders signed with Impulse! and recorded Tauhid, released the following year. The years Sanders spent with the label were both a commercial and critical success.
1970s and 1980s
In the 1970s, Sanders continued to produce his own recordings and also continued to work with
Alice Coltrane on her
Journey in Satchidananda album. Most of Sanders' best-selling work was made in the late 1960s and early 1970s for
Impulse Records, including the 30-minute wave-on-wave of free jazz "The Creator Has a Master Plan" from the album
Karma. This composition featured vocalist
Leon Thomas's unique, "umbo weti" yodeling,
and Sanders' key musical partner, pianist Lonnie Liston Smith, who worked with Sanders from 1969 to 1971. Other members of his groups in this period include bassist
Cecil McBee, on albums such as
Jewels of Thought,
Izipho Zam,
Deaf Dumb Blind, and
Thembi.
Although supported by African-American radio, Sanders' brand of brave free jazz became less popular. From the experiments with African rhythms on the 1971 album Black Unity (with bassist Stanley Clarke) onwards he began to diversify his sound. In the late 1970s and 1980s, Sanders explored different musical modes including R&B ( Love Will Find a Way), modal jazz, and hard bop. Sanders left Impulse! in 1973 and explored various other labels, such as Theresa Records in 1980, which was sold to Evidence Music in 1991.
1990s
In 1992, Sanders appeared on a reissue (
Ed Kelly and Pharoah Sanders) for the Evidence label of a recording that he completed for Theresa Records in 1979 entitled
Ed Kelly and Friend. The 1992 version contains extra tracks which feature Pharoah's pupil Robert Stewart. In 1994, Sanders traveled to
Morocco to record the
Bill Laswell-produced album
The Trance Of Seven Colors with
Gnawa musician
Mahmoud Guinia. The same year, he appeared on the Red Hot Organization album
on the track "This is Madness" with Umar Bin Hassan and
Abiodun Oyewole and on the bonus track "The Creator Has A Master Plan (Trip Hop Remix)." The album was named "Album of the Year" by
Time. He also collaborated with drummer–composer Franklin Kiermyer on Kiermyer's album
Solomon's Daughter, also released on the Evidence label (re-released with 3 previously unreleased tracks on the Dot Time label in 2019).
Sanders's major-label return came in 1995 when Verve Records released Message from Home, followed by Save Our Children (1998). But again, Sanders's disgust with the recording business prompted him to leave the label. Sanders worked with Laswell, Jah Wobble, and others on the albums Message From Home (1996) and Save Our Children (1999). In 1999, he complained in an interview that despite his pedigree, he had trouble finding work.
2000s and 2020s
In the 2000s, a resurgence of interest in jazz kept Sanders playing festivals including the 2004 Bluesfest Byron Bay, the 2007 Melbourne Jazz Festival, and the 2008 Big Chill Festival, concerts, and releasing albums. He has a strong following in Japan, and in 2003 recorded with the band
Sleep Walker. In 2000, Sanders released
Spirits and, in 2003, a live album titled
The Creator Has a Master Plan. He was awarded an NEA Jazz Masters Fellowship for 2016 and was honored at a tribute concert in Washington DC on April 4, 2016.
In 2020, Sanders recorded an album titled Promises, with the English electronic music producer Floating Points and the London Symphony Orchestra. It was released in March 2021, the first major new album by Sanders in nearly two decades.
Death
Sanders died on September 24, 2022, at his home in
Los Angeles at the age of 81.
Discography
As leader
| +Overview of Pharoah Sanders albums |
|
| Pharoah's First (also released as Pharoah and Pharoah Sanders Quintet) | 1964 | 1965 | ESP-Disk |
| Tauhid | 1966 | 1967 | Impulse! |
| Karma | 1969 | 1969 |
| Jewels of Thought |
| Deaf Dumb Blind (Summun Bukmun Umyun) | 1970 | 1970 |
| Thembi | 1970–1971 | 1971 |
| Black Unity | 1971 |
| Live at the East | 1972 |
| Wisdom Through Music | 1972 | 1973 |
| Izipho Zam (My Gifts) | 1969 | Strata-East |
| Village of the Pharoahs | 1971–1973 | Impulse! |
| Love in Us All | 1972-73 | 1974 |
| Elevation | 1973 |
| Pharoah | 1976 | 1977 | India Navigation |
| Love Will Find a Way | 1977 | Arista Records |
| Journey to the One | 1979 | 1980 | Theresa Records |
| Beyond a Dream | 1978 | 1981 | Arista |
| Rejoice | 1981 | 1981 | Theresa |
| Pharoah Sanders Live... | 1982 |
| Heart Is a Melody | 1982 | 1983 |
| Shukuru | 1981 | 1985 |
| Africa | 1987 | 1987 | Timeless |
| Oh Lord, Let Me Do No Wrong | Doctor Jazz |
| A Prayer Before Dawn | Theresa |
| Moon Child | 1989 | 1989 | Timeless |
| Welcome to Love | 1990 | 1991 |
| Crescent with Love | 1992 | 1993 | Venus Records; Evidence Music |
| Ballads with Love (compilation / reissue) | 1994 | Venus |
| Message from Home | 1996 | 1996 | Verve |
| Save Our Children | 1997 | 1998 |
| Spirits | 1998 | 2000 | Meta |
| The Creator Has a Master Plan | 2003 | 2003 | Venus |
| With a Heartbeat | Evolver Records |
| Promises | 2019-20 | 2021 | Luaka Bop |
| In the Beginning 1963-1964 (4 CD compilation) | 1963–1964 | 2012 | ESP-Disk |
| Live at Antibes Jazz Festival Juan-Les-Pins July 21, 1968 (Unofficial / bootleg) | 1968 | 2019 | Alternative Fox |
| Live in Paris (1975) (Lost ORTF Recordings) | 1975 | 2020 | Transversales Disques |
| Live At Fabrik Hamburg 1980 | 1980 | 2023 | Jazzline |
| Oyster Club, Nice, France Fm 18/07/1971 (Unofficial / bootleg) | 1971 | 2023 | WHP |
As sideman
- with John Coltrane
- Ascension (Impulse!, 1965)
- Live In Seattle (Impulse!, 1965)
- Om (Impulse!, 1965)
- (Impulse!, 1965)
- Kulu Sé Mama (Impulse!, 1965)
- (Impulse!, 1965)
- Meditations (Impulse!, 1965)
- Live at the Village Vanguard Again! (Impulse!, 1966)
- Live In Japan (Impulse!, 1966)
- (Impulse!, 1966)
- Expression (Impulse!, 1967)
- (Impulse!, 1967)
- Infinity (Impulse!, 1972)
- with Don Cherry
- Symphony for Improvisers (Blue Note, 1966)
- Where Is Brooklyn? (Blue Note, 1967)
- with Alice Coltrane
- Cosmic Music (Impulse!, 1968)
- A Monastic Trio (Impulse!, 1968)
- Ptah, the El Daoud (Impulse!, 1970)
- Journey in Satchidananda (Impulse!, 1970)
- Carnegie Hall '71 (Hi Hat, 2018)
- The Carnegie Hall Concert (Impulse!, 2024)
- with Kenny Garrett
- Beyond the Wall (Nonesuch Records, 2006)
- (Mack Avenue, 2008)
- with Norman Connors
- Romantic Journey (Buddah 1977)
- This Is Your Life (Buddah 1978)
- Remember Who You Are (MoJazz 1993)
- with Tisziji Muñoz
- Visiting This Planet (Anami Music, 1980's)
- River of Blood (Anami Music, 1997)
- Present Without a Trace (Anami Music, 1980's)
- Spirit World (Anami Music, 1997)
- Divine Radiance (Dreyfus/Anami Music, 2003)
- Divine Radiance Live! (Anami Music, 2013)
- Mountain Peak (Anami Music, 2014)
- with McCoy Tyner
- Love & Peace (Trio 1982)
- (Impulse!, 1987)
- with Randy Weston
- The Spirits of Our Ancestors (Verve 1992)
- Khepera (Verve 1998)
- with others
- 1964 – Sun Ra – Featuring Pharoah Sanders & Black Harold
- 1965 – Ornette Coleman – Chappaqua Suite (Columbia)
- 1968 – Michael Mantler – Jazz Composer's Orchestra – The Jazz Composer's Orchestra (JCOA)
- 1968 – Gary Bartz – Another Earth (Milestone)
- 1969 – Leon Thomas – Spirits Known and Unknown (Flying Dutchman)
- 1971 – The Latin Jazz Quintet – Oh! Pharoah Speak (Trip) reissued in 1973 as Spotlight on Pharoah Sanders with the Latin Jazz Quintet
- 1973 – Larry Young – Lawrence of Newark (Perception)
- 1979 – Ed Kelly – Ed Kelly & Friend (Theresa Records)
- 1979 – Hilton Ruiz – Fantasia (Denon)
- 1980 – Idris Muhammad – Kabsha (Theresa)
- 1984 – Benny Golson – This Is for You, John (Baystate)
- 1985 – Art Davis – Life (Soul Note)
- 1991 – Sonny Sharrock – Ask the Ages (Axiom)
- 1992 – Ed Kelly – Ed Kelly and Pharoah Sanders (Evidence Records) with Robert Stewart (saxophonist)
- 1992 – New York Unit – Over the Rainbow (Paddle Wheel)
- 1994 – Franklin Kiermyer – Solomon's Daughter
- 1994 – Bheki Mseleku – Timelessness (Verve)
- 1994 – Maleem Mahmoud Ghania – The Trance of Seven Colors (Axiom)
- 1995 – Aïyb Dieng – Rhythmagick
- 1996 – Jah Wobble – Heaven & Earth (Island)
- 1997 – Wallace Roney – Village (Warner Bros.)
- 1997 – Music Revelation Ensemble – Cross Fire (DIW)
- 1998 – Terry Callier – Time Peace (Verve)
- 2000 – Alex Blake –
- 2000 – Kahil El'Zabar's Ritual Trio – Africa N'Da Blues (Delmark)
- 2001 – Gigi (singer) - Gigi (Guramayle)
- 2004 – David Murray – Gwotet (Justin Time)
- 2005 – Will Calhoun – Native Lands
- 2008 – Sleep Walker – Into the Sun (in The Voyage)
- 2014 – Chicago Underground/São Paulo Underground – Spiral Mercury
- 2019 – Joey DeFrancesco – In the Key of the Universe
- 2021 – Floating Points and the London Symphony Orchestra – Promises
External links
