I was only vaguely aware of Pharoah Sanders, until a friend recommended the album Promises he made with Floating Point shortly before his death last year. That lovely album is on the 'to get' list and will feature here one day. Until then, here's my impressions of my first delve into Sanders' earlier work, picked up for a decent price at Oxfam in Market Harborough.
Opening tune, Astral Traveler is a gentle sax piece, accompanied by bird noises and easy percussion. It's a very gentle introduction. Red, Black and Green, on the other hand, comes as something of a shock to follow. A full scale aural assault, it's an atonal squawk of sax and percussion, settling after a couple of minutes to hint at a melody, without ever getting there, and gradually drifting away from it - a definite nod to Ornette Coleman.
After that storm comes the far more straightforward Thembi, which starts in an orthodox manner, the piano and drum accompaniment remaining constant as Sanders' sax become more free. Love is a bass solo by composer Cecil McBee, more percussive than melodic, ending with a rather odd bowed section. The album ends with two pieces running together - Morning Prayer starting with some plucked string noises, developing into a flute and piano piece which move into and out of African sounding rhythms, the pianist (Lennie Liston Smith) keeping things grounded in Western jazz, until Sanders can't stop his sax letting rip as the piece moves into Bailophone Dance, a cacophony of African drumming, flute, and presumably bailophone (apparently a kind of thumb piano).
I've enjoyed this, even if after listening, I'm still not really sure what Pharoah Sanders is all about, it's an interesting stroll through both the gentler and wilder sides of jazz and I will revisit it.
4* - perhaps a generous rating, but justified because I'm certain this will deliver more with every listen
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