is Karma by Pharoah Sanders the best record ever?

i dunno, i guess i feel like there is more striving on izipho zam, laying something down that they stretched out on for karma without really expanding.

I have all the Impulse albums, and Izipho Zam is my favorite thing of Pharaoh's. It's the tuba, I think, that makes it better than Tauhid. Plus, Sharrock is more unfettered on IZ.

I've been trying to find the right words to talk about the shift from the howling squalls of late-60s free jazz to the blissed-out spirituality of early-70s Pharaoh, Alice, etc. I often feel, when listening to these albums, that my own militant atheism (it actually makes me angry when people I've previously considered intelligent mention their belief in a god in my presence) keeps me from fully appreciating them (gospel, too, though sacred steel guitar blows me away).

I'm also searching for more music in that spiritual-jazz vein - who else was doing that kind of stuff during those years, and what's in print on CD?

Maurice McIntyre - Humility In The Light of Creator!! (one of my favorite albums EVER)

Eddie Gale - "Black Rhythm Happening" & "Ghetto Music" (!!!)

Bill Cosby presents "Badfoot Brown & the Bunions Bradfor Funeral and Marching Band" (one of the most emotional albums ever. was a requiem for the just passed away Martin Luther King jR)

Alice Coltrane (Everything she ever released)
Leon Thomas solo albums
Albert Ayler
John Coltrane (of course)
Don Cherry
John Klemmer (late 60s early 70s)
Carlos Santana & John Mclaughlin "Love, Devotion, Surrender"
Gato Barbieri (Stuff on Flying Nun and his album with Dollar Brand)
Max Roach ("It's Time", "Freedom Now Suite", "Lift Every Voice")
Charles Lloyd
Art Ensemble of Chicago

Those Eddie Gale releases are the ultimate. sooooooo amazing!!

and dwight trible has a solo album out a few years ago. he sings just like leon thomas

Brown Rice

I also second Joe Henderson's Elements w/ Alice and Charlie Haden.

I guess I gotta try out this Iphizo Zam thing.

Session 4, 18.07.1971, Nice, France

Pharoah Sanders ts, ss, fl, tamb, perc
Lonnie Liston Smith p
Cecil McBee b
Jimmy Hopps dr
Lawrence Killian bongo

1.Jamil (Sanders) 22:55
2.Unknown title (sanders) 19:30
2.The Creator Has a Master Plan (Sanders-Thomas) 20:45
3.Let Us Go into the House of the Lord (Sanders) 25:13

Private tape

astral travelling, tell me of this one?

That Karma though...man, what an album.

i just ordered a copy from sound323

at the moment i like summun bukmun umyun best, and ive been into sun in aquarius a lot more also

lets talk about these lps

i've only ever listened to Live at the East once or twice. kinda whatever. (actually i take that back.listening now. it's what you'd expect from a prime period PS album except you can hear people clapping in the background).

Pharoahs First, even though it's on ESP was boring. remember it being just bop.

i only got Elevation recently. weird that i didn't even know it existed because he's one of my fave artists. it's pretty good. some of the same players on the later albums (village, wisdom). not as much sax also.

fuck. just buy or download them all. except First and the Pharoah & Latin Jazz Quartet album.

This might be a stupid question, but how did those Pharoah Sanders albums that have tunes longer than 25 minutes work on vinyl? Did the tune fade out at the end of side A and the fade in at the beginning of side B? Did they only become available in their intended form after they were released on CD?

yes. http://www.discogs.com/release/873261

Def. one of the huge benefits of CD.

everyone should own two copies of each pharoah album!

-- vahid (vahid), Saturday, May 28, 2005 1:49 AM

i am working on this as we speak.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY, FARRELL PHAROAH SANDERS!!!

and i was just singing "the creator has a master plan" to myself today before i found out. made me feel damn in tune, lemme tell ya. also i'm in little rock, his birthplace! gotta listen to some this eve in his honor.

oh and jaxon, interesting cover of it you put up on the blog recently.

I wish someone would reissue the CD version of "Izipho Zam", it's impossible to find even a used copy at a reasonable price.

not enough love for colors here -- i like the way the singer sings "puuuuuuuuuurple"...

happy birthday! i'm so glad i got to see you play within my lifetime!

to paraphrase neal cassady, "thembi" beats "karma"

The Louis Armstrong duet with Leon Thomas on "The Creator Has a Master Plan" is kinda fun, though Armstrong doesn't really put much effort to it.

Gareth do you still have that live set?

this record is killing me right now:
http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_S6slEGoLEz0/SMlQxHOcb6I/AAAAAAAAAZw/T7SiAscNQdY/s200/Trance+of+Seven+Colors.jpg

Went and saw the man perform at Birdland a few weeks ago and he delivered the goods.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y7EGQzn8e1k

Just found this awesome live performance on Youtube, what an incredibly beautiful solo! Does anyone know if this is available on record?

thanks tuomas. that video was amazing. the circular breathing at around 5minutes was breathtaking (heh)

Phenomenal! Thanks for that Tuomas.

It looks like that song (though not the same version as in the video) is available this CD, which still in print. I just ordered it online, will report back once I get to hear it.

To be honest I'd always seen Sanders as more of a "groove"/"cosmic" type of player, so I've stayed away from the later albums with smoother, extended solos. However, that video convinced that he might be equally good at that sort of setting.

ya. there are so many of his albums i've never heard. everything from 1973-2000! i see a bunch of those around too. love will find a way, journey to the one, rejoice. i have Spirits, his 2000 record with Hamid Drake and Adam Rudolph and it's ridiculously beautiful.

It's nice that those Theresa/Evidence albums are still easily available, as this doesn't seem to be case with many other late 70s/early 80s jazz albums. A while ago I bought this great album by Idris Muhammad, which also features some pretty, smooth playing by Sanders (though there's some shrieking and wailing as well).

His collabs with Alice Coltrane are absolutely transcendent, esp. 'Ptah, The El Daoud' & 'Journey in Satchidananda.'

Not sure if you're including these in your 1973-2000 range jaxon but Elevation and Love In Us All (both from 1973) are possibly my two favorite albums by him, Elevation being my definite favorite.

i have elevation, but not love in us all.

wow great clip

It's Sonny Sharrock's birthday this week so WKCR is playing some great Sonny and Pharoah right now.

Man, I went looking for live Pharoah on YouTube around his birthday, especially Creator, and totally couldn't find anything satisfying.

picked up a cheap copy of 'love will find a way' but haven't been able to listen to it yet because every time i do, mrs jaxon asks me to turn it off during the first song. too smooth. we'll see...

This is awesome - Louis Armstrong (w/Leon Thomas) sings "The Creator Has A Master Plan", with arrangement by Oliver Nelson:

http://destination-out.com/?p=474

!

I'm really hoping that's not one of these: Britney's cover of Funkadelic's "Red Hot Mama"

I already mentioned it upthread. It's a okay version, but not as awesome as it sounds on paper. I think it ends a bit abruptly and too soon, and Satchmo doesn't really put much effort into it. The reason this version exists is that Armstrong and Leon Thomas were both on Bob Thiele's label, Flying Dutchman, at that time. I think it was Thiele's idea to have Satchmo record it.

Sorry, didn't scan the thread, and sure hadn't heard it. Neat little curio.

No problem, now others get to hear it too.

I think Thomas's own solo version of it on his debut album is clearly better though, as fun as it is to hear Satchmo on this version.

Thiele was an interesting cat, "discovered" Buddy Holly, married to Theresa Brewer, had song written about him by George Coleman's wife, Gloria, called "Funky Bob." Think he maybe wrote some songs himself.

Also, in Thomas's version you actually get to hear the verses too - even though the verse lyrics were printed in the liner notes of Karma, they aren't sung in the Pharoah version (nor in the Satchmo version).

(x-post)

xxpost I think Thiele wrote "What A Wonderful World" of all things. Or am I thinking of someone else?

I think so, yes.

No, that's exactly right. (xp)

And I just checked, his wife's name was Teresa, no 'h.' Although she was born Theresa Breuer.

I've got to pull out that Ashley Kahn book about Impulse.

Wikipedia says:

Some of the songs Thiele wrote, for example "What a Wonderful World", are credited to George Douglas or Stanley Clayton[2]. These are pseudonyms Thiele used, made from the names of his uncles, Stanley, Clayton, George, and Douglas.

Btw, Leon Thomas's albums on Flying Dutchman are all more or less great, and everyone who digs his collabs with Pharoah, or soulful jazz in general, should check them out.

Just been thinking about Pharoah and Sonny Sharrock because of that No Guitar Solo threads and how those two guys had the abiility to consistently solo from a deep place and not just be filling/making time.

Thanks for the reccs, Tuomas - never heard those Flying Dutchman records of Leon Thomas'. Will track 'em down!

In the liners for the new Coltrane box set, Bob Weinstock disses Thiele and Impulse for stealing all of his artists after he made them big. From what I've read, though, Impulse paid their artists waaaay better than Prestige.

The first two (Spirits Known and Unknown and The Leon Thomas Album) are especially worth hearing if you like Thomas's collabs with Sanders, as they're quite close to that sound. Sanders even plays on SKaU. The third and fourth albums (Blues and the Soulful Truth and Full Circle) are probably closer to soul than jazz, but they're still pretty great - especially BatST, which IMO is one of the finest sould albums ever made.

(x-post)

literally dying for him to come play in the uk. last shows were in 2008 and i was totally un-sanders-revelated back then.

he's notoriously patchy/indifferent live these days, sadly - obv dude is pretty old now, v. hard to sustain that kinda blowing intensity. in the uk he was adopted by the acid jazz crowd, thanks mainly to some of his more funky 70s/80s tunes, and he generally plays the jazz cafe in london w/ frankly mediocre backing groups that are not well-versed in free/fire music. i guess what im saying is, just don't expect the jazz composers orchestra if you go see him

Anyone have any idea who 'For Big George' from 'Shukuru' is about?

Could be Big George Brock, who settled in St Louis, where the song's co-writer Leon Thomas was born. If I could figure out a better way to put that, I wouldn't, because I'm writing from my phone.

Cool, that makes sense, thanks.

This is awesome - Louis Armstrong (w/Leon Thomas) sings "The Creator Has A Master Plan", with arrangement by Oliver Nelson:

http://destination-out.com/?p=474

― EZ Snappin, Wednesday, October 28, 2009 4:44 PM (1 year ago) Bookmark

(if not, that is ok, I will just keep ~vibin'~ to Karma)

Here you go!

I have it on my home comp, I can upload it once I get home. IMO it's not as awesome as it sounds on paper, though it's not bad or anything. I'd recommend checking out Leon Thomas's solo version of "The Creator has a Master Plan" that appears on his debut album... That one is awesome, and you can hear all the verse lyrics that were printed to the album sleeve of Karma but didn't appear on the Pharoah version. The rest of the album is great too, and Pharoah plays on it.

(x-post)

Well, I guess I don't have to upload it, then.

dang, i've slept on Shukuru. i used to see it all the damn time, but passed because of the year. title track is beautiful. rest is good?

was just reading about how pharoah doesn't like this album because the engineer didn't put his sax higher in the mix! which seems weird.

(i mean, his sax sounds pretty loud on it, doesn't it?)

It's maybe more restrained than most of his stuff, but that has nothing to do with volume. 'For Big George' sounds oddly...Scottish. Lovely piece.

has it been mentioned that tauhid >>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>> karma?

ha, mayyyybe. but i might say jewels of thought is better than both of those!

That Armstrong cover of "Creator" is cool but also kinda sad.

Karma might not be "the best" by some sort of technical standards, but emotionally, for me, it's the best. Always always always inspires me. Mother nature seems to love us.

Saw a large Armstrong bio in a charity shop today, but then noticed it was auf deutsch. :(

feel like "Karma: Classic or Dud?" might come down to where you stand on "Colors"

(I used to think it was kinda cheesy... like, the first two times I heard it. then I realized it was fucking awesome. because it is.)

I haven't listened to Jewels in a while; I remember "Hum-Allah-Hum" but am blanking on what "Sun In Aquarius" sounds like

I love Live At The East almost as much as I love Karma.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qwl55i6VDrk

Has he really not cut an album since 2003?

no, i don't think so. any reasons why?

It's got soul, man. And some heavy metal sax.

I listen to this every Thanksgiving during dinner. It's the best tradition!

i can't believe izipho zam is still unavailable

listened to that earlier! it's all pharaoh all day here.

last pharoah i listened to was live at the east -- so good! that is weird that izpho zam is out of print. that one rules too.

Prince of Peace from Izipho Zam has become one of our holiday season tunes over the years. Great album. Speaking of maddening OOP Sanders, why can't I find "Harvest Time" anywhere? I love that record.

Speaking of Izipho Zam, I have a Leon Thomas compilation that includes the version of "Prince of Peace" from Izipho Zam, and at least on that comp it has a very obvious and irritating sound glitch towards the beginning of song. I've never gotten Izipho Zam because of the high price you have to pay for it, but can you who own the album tell me whether this glitch is there too?

High price on vinyl you mean? I got a CD of it for like £2 or something.

No, these days I think you can actually get it cheaper on vinyl than on CD. AFAIK it was reissued on CD in Germany in the early 90s, and the only CD reissues after that have been in Japan, so even the cheapest used copy I could locate at Amazon is 24 quid.

But can you tell me, does your CD copy have that glitch with "Prince of Peace"?

I don't know, I'll have to look out my copy, don't know where it's from, they were almost giving it away in the shop I got it (4-5 years ago)

Dunno when it was issued (1990s I think), but this Charly CD edition of Izipho Jam is extremely common in the UK, and (as Tom D) sells for peanuts. Don't remember hearing a digital glitch on it.

sorry, this edition:

http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/51SWIC3-WlL._SL500_AA300_.jpg

Well, it might've been cheap once, but it doesn't look like it's anymore, at least not on the UK Amazon (though of course some UK record stores might still sell it for cheap):

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Izipho-Zam-Pharoah-Sanders/dp/B00000BICI/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1353933990&sr=8-1

The glitch I'm talking about doesn't sound like a digital glitch to me, more like there's something wrong with the master tape. That's why I was wondering whether it exists on the original album as well.

I don't have the album at hand, so I can't check it, but IIRC it sounds like some of the channels suddenly cut off, but you can still hear part of the sounds.

Is there much Strata East on cd or reissue vinyl? Seems like all of my SE albums are vinyl rips I found on blogs awhile back.

Like his records but find his actual sax playing often very boring.

I think most of the Strata East/Tribe/Black Jazz stuff got reissued on vinyl 10 or so years ago.

Lot of the Strate East stuff was reissued on CD by Charly back in the 90s: I have a couple of Charles Tolliver and Stanley Cowell CDs released then. Though it seems all of those reissues have been long out of print, judging by the prices they sell for now.

Anyway, I'd still love to hear if anyone who has the Izipho Zam CD can confirm whether it has the glitch on "Prince of Peace" or not? I've considering buying the album despite the steep price, but if the flaw is there too I'm not sure if I want it, the glitch is so blatant it kinda ruins my listening experience.

Gilles Peterson played a version of "The Creator ... " on his show last Sat.: shorter, with more vocals. Does anyone know where it's from? - he didn't say. It was part of his brief interview with Lonnie Liston Smith, about an hour in, iirc.

this, from the first Leon Thomas solo album?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ipRZEHRx6ow

aha. Thanks.

Thomas' first two solo albums on Flying Dutchman are well worth getting if you're a Pharoah Sanders fan... The sound is pretty similar, and they have many of the same players as on Pharoah's Impulse! albums (including Pharoah himself, under the pseudonym "Little Rock"), though the focus is obviously more on Thomas' singing. His two later Flying Duthchman records are more soul/R&B than jazz, but they're good too, especially Blues and the Soulful Truth, which shows Thomas was just as good with more straightforward material as he was with avant-garde stuff.

Oh man, I forgot to listen to this to see if it has the glitch Tuomas speaks of

my downloaded copy doesn't seem to have it. Not that that helps much

OK, my CD copy has the glitch - I don't know how I didn't notice before - but that's Charly for you, buncha cowboys

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OofJ2-AkBAg

at what timecode is the glitch on "prince of peace"?

i have the strata east LP on which i've never noticed a glitch and the sunspots CD reissue. i listened to the CD today and if there was a glitch in the first half of the song i didn't hear it.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3JvxMlir8Ks

You can hear it here, on the left speaker, starting from 0:18. It's not as bad as I remembered though, it seems to affect only the piano. Which makes me suspect it's a flaw in the recording process itself. This vinyl rip also has it:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_AAELC5Kzno

Anyway, since I already have "Prince of Peace" on the Leon Thomas comp, and it looks like there's no unglitched version of it, is the rest of Izipho Zam worth the 25 quids that I'd have to pay for it?

Sorry, the glitch is on the right speaker, not the left one.

afaict my sunspots CD doesn't seem to have that glitch!

either that or i am deaf - i can hear what you're talking about on the youtubes but i don't hear it on the cd. haven't got my turntable set up so i can't tell you whether the LP has it or not.

if you like karma, i'd say you should need izipho zam. whether you want to spend 25 quid on it or you want to download mp3s i can't really say.

ignore that "should"

I know there was a 9 minute edit of Creator that was on a couple of compis, I think including the yellow covered 2cd Pharaoh compi thta came out around 10 years ago. I couldn't find that compi when I put the tracks on my walkman at the start of the year or it woul ddegfinitely have featured, & interface between that player & my computer has meant I haven't edited the content since. Keeps wanting to totally wipe what's on there (reformat) and have you start again.

Was also on an Impulse sampler i picked up a couple of years earlier I think.

But as far as i know that was just a shorter edit not a different version. Is there a different version on an lp by LLS? I'm not as familiare with his solo material as I might be. Do like Expansions though.

The shorter version of "Creator" is on Leon Thomas's debut album, not on Lonnie Liston Smith's. And yeah, it's a different recording, and it also has Thomas singing the verses of the song, which don't appear on the version Karma (though the lyrics to the verses are in Karma's inner sleeve). Someone posted a Youtube link to it upthread.

Lonnie Liston Smith's debut album has a different, shorter version of "Let Us Go Into The House Of The Lord" though, which is quite good (as is the whole album, well worth checking out if dig Pharoah).

"on the version on Karma"

22 minute version by Sanders.

My Favorite Things

Or not. Scroll down the list on the right until you see Sanders from 2008.

Today "The Gathering" off Elevation is sounding like the best thing ever.

i am drooling over the bardo pond cover of master plan
hope i find one tomorrow!

hey thanks for reminding me!

and maggot brain!! but mostly want to hear alternate version of master plan. i've heard other maggot brains.

this was gonegonegone at every store i went to today
BUT
apparently it's on emusic so at least i can still hear it

i think any fan of the original should hear this. it's on spotify too. totally worth your 15 min.
i haven't stopped thinking about it for 2 days! i mean, on and off, but still. it's really good!!

Never heard of Bardo Pond, who is he/she/they?

you can buy the mp3s on amazon! not cheap tho... http://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B00B1OANS8/ref=dm_sp_alb?ie=UTF8&qid=1366639187&sr=8-1

they are a band from philadelphia usa

Jazz band?

Nope, they're a rock band (drone/psych/spacerock)

BTW I'm probably v. late with this, but I only got round to picking up the reissue of Don Cherry's Organic Music Society fairly recently and I would totally recommend it to all. Really good version of Creator Has A Master Plan on there too! Worth buying the physical product cos the packaging is lovely but here's a spotify link anyhow:

http://open.spotify.com/album/2ODX5qfcDBR0FaMJGhAZIs

Bardo Pond and Organic Music Society both very good - thanks thread!

haven't heard the organic music society version, but there's also a nice performance of it on the live in ankara album recorded in 1969. this song always makes me happy, so i'm kind of curious to see what bardo pond have done with it (given i've not kept up with their output for a long, long time).

i heard a cover of Colors I was really into but i dont know who its by

I listened to this at lunch today for the first time. it's fun, kind of sloppy/sketchy in places but in a fun way.

Karma is great, but I prefer Tauhid, mostly for sentimental reasons though.

i've always felt that pharoah's best work is on journey to satchidananda, better than his solo albums or even his playing with coltrane (john)

Anyway, I'd still love to hear if anyone who has the Izipho Zam CD can confirm whether it has the glitch on "Prince of Peace" or not?

― Tuomas, Tuesday, 27 November 2012 10:00
This 'glitch' appears to be present on the latest reissue which you can hear on Bandcamp. It could very be from the same needle-drop as earlier reissues, possibly cleaned up (de-noised and faded earlier) slightly.

* very well

thanking u again for not deleting karma et al from the Sansa Clip you sent me, noel

Not to appear unappreciative of the expressed gratitude but I genuinely have no idea to what you refer.

I've got that izipho cd, I'll check for the glitch later

xpost whoops! I have transposed you with ilxor Niels sorry!

https://www.nts.live/shows/black-classical-history-of-spiritual-jazz/episodes/tales-from-the-mothership-creator-has-a-master-plan-12th-october-2018

A lovely set of different versions of The Creator Has a Master Plan, none of which I'd heard before. This Jef Gilson and Malagasy one is pretty immense.

oh nice, thanks

cheers

sweet

LP version (Creator split across two sides with a break in between where you have to flip the record over and wonder what cosmic madness the musicians are up to before the music starts again) vs. CD or streaming version, ie, one glorious unbroken track?

CD version for sure

yes
thank you for that link

A lovely set of different versions of The Creator Has a Master Plan, none of which I'd heard before.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KwafWDmW4oU

Yes, there are definitely ones it left out. I like the Bardo Pond version, for one. Will give the Jeri Brown one a listen, thanks for sharing.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HXB1l2M0fSk

the bardo pond version is the only cover i've heard! that is why i am looking forward to the others. then again, BP and the original are so good idk if i want to ruin it...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4M0EX5KBU2Y

https://tuluumshimmering.bandcamp.com/track/the-creator-has-a-master-plan

is this the longest one?

I was familiar with some of them, but didn't know Jamaaladeen Tacuma recorded a version too, have to check it out. However, despite what the description says, it's missing at least one version of the song, the one Jeri Brown did with Leon Thomas. It's quite good!

― Tuomas

nucleus also did a version with leon thomas. and king crimson did a version too!

THere's a snippet on the Gun Club's Las Vegas Story too. I think there may have been a few live versions, I know they used to do a song they called A Love Supreme too, there's a European cd called Death Party (not to be confused with the extended E.P. cd) with a 9 minute version of that from late 83. I think they had swapped over to Creator for some of 84.

holy shit @ the Krokodil one! thanks.

sun ships adamant love for this record at the thread's start is really great

The Jef Gilson & Malagasy version, my favorite from the one hour collection above, for those who didn't play it through.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R9vbDmFa4Mw

gonna bump this one too, just in case any PS fans weren't aware of the new collab with Floating Points which is wonderful

Elevation is great too, sounds like the band are levitating the venue.
Would love more stuff like that.

I thought the mid 70s 20 minute track from I think Montreux was still pretty good but I think it was taken down from Youtube.

or had last time I looked
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qYZTgkjdBko

i was unjustly sceptical about the floating points/LSO thing, this kind of project often turns out awkward at best (and i thought pharoah peaked 50 years ago). but it does sound great so far. FP even sounds sort of like alice (on harp or organ) on occasion

so that we don't bounce between artist specific threads:
Floating Points and Pharoah Sanders and London Symphony Orchestra - Promises (2021)

RIP

Seconded

RIP legend. I'm glad he got to have a last surge of attention from the Floating Points album.

oh shit

Promises is a great parting gift.

RIP

RIP - I'm grateful to have had the chance to see him. far too few jazz musicians of his generation even made it to old age

I get the impression that jazz critics have always been a bit sniffy about him for some reason- maybe it's the open spirituality or the association with coltrane going off the deep end (in their minds) or maybe it's the relative "conservatism" of his later work (which I want to spend more time with now) - but he deserved better. I'm glad he had a renaissance recently and I hope it encouaged some people to explore more of his music

I think I'll listen to "meditations" now

RIP

Absolutely vital to my getting into jazz in the first place, so he's always been a keystone for me

Good to know that Karma alumni Lonnie Liston Smith, Reggie Workman, Ron Carter, Richard Davis, James Spaulding and Billy Hart are still with us. RIP Freddie Waits, Julius Watkins and Leon Thomas.

A real special guy.

RIP

RIP, he was my favorite of all the modal jazz folks

I think this might be the best music ever recorded

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T4nAGtdkU88

in a very different vein his solo on "consequences" is bone chilling

it's definitely up there. sad day!

Floating Points: Pharoah...

Pharoah Sanders: Huh?

Floating Points: Were you asleep? I'm sorry...

Pharoah Sanders: No no... I was listening... and dreaming... and listening to music in my head...

Floating Points: Oh wow. Sorry.

Pharoah Sanders: Many times, people think I might be asleep... but in fact, I am just listening to music in my head. I'm always listening... to the sounds around me... and playing, in my mind... and sometimes I dream.

Floating Points: What were you dreaming about?

Pharoah Sanders: I'm on a ship. In the ocean. Bears coming around smoking cigars. The bears are singing, 'We have the music. We have what you're looking for.'

rip, hope he’s out there astral traveling with some cigar smoking bears who are giving him the music

shame taht 20 odd minute track from Montreux has gone still quite levitating in 1978. Seems to only be represented by a minute long clip.
Do enjoy his Impulse material and Coltrane sideman years.

RIP to a giant

Going to spin Karma and Thembi later. He will always be a legend.

"Ask the Ages" remains all time for me.

"Ask the Ages" remains all time for me.

GREAT album, I finally got a physical copy earlier this year. That and Coltrane's Ascension are probably my favorite albums featuring Sanders.

Was wondering when that one would come up. And thinking that the last two of those guys passed away this year.

just listened to Pharoah on India Navigation. side 2 skews towards a soul r’n’b vibe and is really really excellent

Currently jamming Wisdom Through Music and the title track is gorgeous

I’m listening to Thembi. First album I heard from him and still my favorite. Opening track alone “astral travelling” hits the spot.

Not his best I’d agree but a personal favorite.

I don't know if it's considered a great one or not but I really love Wisdom Through Music

RIP

Absolutely vital to my getting into jazz in the first place, so he's always been a keystone for me

― rob, Saturday, September 24, 2022 10:51 AM (eleven hours ago) bookmarkflaglink

yeah this. when i was figuring out what about jazz was interesting to me he was right in the center of it. his late 60s/early 70s aesthetic and overall vibe stands unmatched.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LDjDCiTfUnU

omg

Yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah ye-ah.

Wow.

Sounds like a mash up but it's apparently real. There's a wikipedia entry on it mentioning a couple of other tracks from teh sessions with Leon Thomas on and a few other unexpected artists like Ornette coleman. Apparently it's about Louis Armstrong's last but one session and he was too weak to play trumpet but sang ok.
It's up on Spotify as the full original lp if you want to hear any more.

I discovered that Louis track via this excellent NTS show from a few years ago (maybe even posted on ILM?) thats an hourlong mashup of a bunch of different covers of "Creator", lots of great versions

Really nice appreciation of Pharoah by Kamasi Washington in the Guardian.

Pharoah reissued and streaming

a blessing

http://www.pharoahsanders.com/harvesttime/2023/9/14/its-harvest-time

i love this record but have to say that $55 for a "box set" (actually just a 2XLP with booklet) is highway robbery

otm

bet $5 that a year from now there will be a single-LP version

(for $30)

i have a bootleg repro that i'm happy with, and it sounds like they are posting photos and essays online so

same!

The bootleg's been so expensive for ages, so I'm happy to be able to pick up a copy. The live stuff's great too.

streaming on Bandcamp fwiw

cool origin story that I did not know:

This record’s origin story is as elusive as Pharoah himself. It was born out of a misunderstanding between Pharoah and the India Navigation producer Bob Cummins, and was recorded with a group of musicians so unlikely that they were never all in the same room again. There was the guitarist Tisziji Muñoz, who would go on to become a spiritual guru, the organist Clifton “Jiggs” Chase, who would leave jazz to take a job at Sugar Hill Records, where he would co-write and produce “The Message” for Grandmaster Flash and the Furious Five, and Bedria Sanders, Pharoah’s wife at the time and a classically trained pianist, who would play the harmonium on this record even though she had never seen a harmonium before.

i'm glad it's back in print, and i see now that it's also available on CD or digitally, which is great.

i love this record but have to say that $55 for a "box set" (actually just a 2XLP with booklet) is highway robbery

I'm selling mine — mint, sealed — on Discogs for just $50 plus shipping. A bargain!

Is the cover photo not to your liking? 8)

Spiritual Satch
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=afaebblA5rk

wonder if it's included in
https://aquariumdrunkard.com/2024/06/27/master-planners-interpretations-of-pharoah-sanderss-magnum-opus/

So good. I remember discovering it via a similarly-themed mix on NTS at one point

When I interviewed Billy Harper I asked him about that session but apparently his part was overdubbed so he didn't get to meet Armstrong.

nice

https://www.elemental-music.com/jazz-treasures/4919-pharoah-sanders-love-is-here-8436569196052.html

1. IMPROVISATION WITH PIPE ORGAN 9:05

<3

apparently this earlier version is heavily edited?

https://transversales.bandcamp.com/album/live-in-paris-1975

Seems like, yeah. I know the guy who produced the 2CD version and have reached out for a copy. Will report back. Interesting that it's not on the label's Bandcamp page...

https://elementalmusicrecords.bandcamp.com/