Pharoah Sanders @ Vivid
Grammy Award-winning American jazz saxophonist Pharoah Sanders, who has performed with jazz icons including John Coltrane, Don Cherry and Sun Ra, will perform his ground-breaking works for one night only, exclusively at Modulations.
Born Farrell Sanders in Little Rock, Arkansas, he began his professional career playing tenor saxophone in Oakland, California. He moved to New York City in 1961 after playing with rhythm and blues bands. He received his nickname “Pharoah” from bandleader Sun Ra, with whom he was performing. After moving to New York, Sanders had been destitute:
“He was often living on the streets, under stairs, where ever he could find to stay, his clothes in tatters. Sun Ra gave him a place to stay, bought him a new pair of green pants with yellow stripes (which Sanders hated but had to have), encouraged him to use the name ‘Pharoah’, and gradually worked him into the band.” Space is the Place – The Lives & Times of Sun Ra
Sanders came to greater prominence playing with John Coltrane’s band, starting in 1965, as Coltrane began adopting the avant-garde jazz ofAlbert Ayler, Sun Ra and Cecil Taylor. Sanders first performed with Coltrane on Ascension (recorded in June 1965), then on their dual-tenor recording Meditations (recorded in November 1965). After this Sanders joined Coltrane’s final quintet, usually performing very lengthy, dissonantsolos. Coltrane’s later style was strongly influenced by Sanders. Amiri Baraka lays claim to naming him Pharaoh in an early sixties Down Beatreview upon hearing him introduce himself as Farrell Sanders and thinking he said “Pharaoh Sanders”.
Although Sanders’ voice developed differently from Coltrane, Sanders was strongly 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 the 1970s, Sanders pursued his own recordings and continued to work with the likes of 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” yodelling, and Sanders’ key musical partner, pianist Lonnie Liston Smith, who worked with Sanders from 1969-1971. 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.
Who: Pharoah Sanders
Where: Carriageworks
When: Friday 5th of June
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