Pharoah Sanders possesses one of the most distinctive tenor
saxophone sounds in jazz. Harmonically rich and heavy with
overtones, Sanders' sound can be as raw and abrasive as it is
possible for a saxophonist to produce. Yet, Sanders is highly
regarded to the point of reverence by a great many jazz fans.
Although he made his name with expressionistic, nearly anarchic
free jazz in John Coltrane's late ensembles of the mid-'60s,
Sanders' later music is guided by more graceful concerns. In the
free-time, ultra-dense cauldron that was Coltrane's last
artistic stand, Sanders relied heavily on the non-specific
pitches and timbral distortions pioneered by Albert Ayler and
further developed by Coltrane himself. The hallmarks of Sanders'
playing at that time were naked aggression and unrestrained
passion. In the years after Coltrane's death, however, Sanders
explored other, somewhat gentler and perhaps more cerebral
avenues -- without, it should be added, sacrificing any of the
intensity that defined his work as an apprentice to Coltrane.
Pharoah Sanders (a corruption of his given name, Ferrell
Sanders) was born into a musical family. Both his mother and
father taught music, his mother privately and his father in
public schools. Sanders' first instrument was the clarinet, but
he switched to tenor sax as a high school student, under the
influence of his band director, Jimmy Cannon. Cannon also
exposed Sanders to jazz for the first time. Sanders' early
favorites included Harold Land, James Moody, Sonny Rollins,
Charlie Parker, and John Coltrane. As a teenager, he played
blues gigs for ten and 15 dollars a night around Little Rock,
backing such blues greats as Bobby "Blue" Bland and Junior
Parker. After high school, Sanders moved to Oakland, CA, where
he lived with relatives. He attended Oakland Junior College,
studying art and music. Known in the San Francisco Bay Area as
"Little Rock," Sanders soon began playing bebop, rhythm & blues,
and free jazz with many of the region's finest musicians,
including fellow saxophonists Dewey Redman and Sonny Simmons, as
well as pianist Ed Kelly and drummer Smiley Winters. In 1961,
Sanders moved to New York, where he struggled. Unable to make a
living with his music, Sanders took to pawning his horn, working
non-musical jobs, and sometimes sleeping on the subway. During
this period he played with a number of free jazz luminaries,
including Sun Ra, Don Cherry, and Billy Higgins. Sanders formed
his first group in 1963, with pianist John Hicks (with whom he
would continue to play off-and-on into the '90s), bassist Wilbur
Ware, and drummer Higgins. The group played an engagement at New
York's Village Gate. A member of the audience was John Coltrane,
who apparently liked what he heard. In late 1964, Coltrane asked
Sanders to sit in with his band. By the next year, Sanders was
playing regularly with the Coltrane group, although he was never
made an official member of the band. Coltrane's ensembles with
Sanders were some of the most controversial in the history of
jazz. Their music, as represented by the group's recordings --
Om, Live at the Village Vanguard Again, and Live in Seattle
among them -- represents a near total desertion of traditional
jazz concepts, like swing and functional harmony, in favor of a
teeming, irregularly structured, organic mixture of sound for
sound's sake. Strength was a necessity in that band, and as
Coltrane realized, Sanders had it in abundance.
Sanders made his first record as a leader in 1964 for the ESP
label. After John Coltrane's death in 1967, Sanders worked
briefly with his widow, Alice Coltrane. From the late '60s, he
worked primarily as a leader of his own ensembles. From
1966-1971, Sanders released several albums on Impulse, including
Tauhid (1966), Karma (1969), Black Unity (1971), and Thembi
(1971). In the mid-'70s, Sanders recorded his most commercial
effort, Love Will Find a Way (Arista, 1977); it turned out to be
a brief detour. From the late '70s until 1987, he recorded for
the small independent label Theresa. From 1987, Sanders recorded
for the Evidence and Timeless labels. The former bought Theresa
records in 1991 and subsequently re-released Sanders' output for
that company. In 1995, Sanders made his first major-label album
in many years, Message From Home (produced by Bill Laswell for
Verve). The two followed that one up in 1999 with Save Our
Children. In 2000, Sanders released Spirits -- a multi-ethnic
live suite with Hamid Drake and Adam Rudolph. In the decades
after his first recordings with Coltrane, Sanders developed into
a more well-rounded artist, capable of playing convincingly in a
variety of contexts, from free to mainstream. Some of his best
work is his most accessible. As a mature artist, Sanders
discovered a hard-edged lyricism that has served him well. ~
Chris Kelsey, All Music Guide