Pharoah Sanders achieved international recognition when he exploded onto the Jazz scene during his tenure with John Coltrane from 1964-67. The innovative music they played left such a commanding impression that nearly thirty years after the fact, many critics and listeners still think of Pharoah Sanders as that screaming tenor man hell bent on ravaging all manner of musical convention. To once and forever dispel that erroneous myth, these twelve selections powerfully and compassionately recall the majestic spirit of the Coltrane era, while also providing unequivocal sonic testimony to the serenity and grace that Pharoah Sanders' music has always personified.

Sanders is often remembered for his work with Coltrane, but his recordings and appearances in the past thirty years have distinguished him as a musician who is both instantly recognizable and distinctive. A man whose deeply passionate playing is always scrupulously disciplined, Sanders' creativity encompasses a wide range of musical expression. Anything but the shrieking charlatan that skeptics labeled him back in the turbulent sixties when he delivered stunning, emotionally charged Improvisations as part of the Coltrane ensemble, Sanders possesses absolute control of his instrument. His remarkably fluent, potent tenor saxophone has influenced generations of musicians as a result of his extending the range of the tenor by overblowing into the highest registers of the instrument. At the same time, his playing has continued to summon his early bebop and R&B influences while never failing to include the same intensity of feeling and spirituality that Coltrane's music embodied.

Ferrell (Pharoah) Sanders was born in Little Rock, Arkansas on October 13, 1940 to a musical family. Sanders' father taught math and music in the public schools, and his mother and aunts sang and gave music lessons. Young Pharoah started with the clarinet, but switched to the tenor in high school, at the insistence of his band director Jimmy Cannon, who also introduced him to Jazz. Sanders was taken by such saxophonists as Harold Land and James Moody, as well as John Coltrane, Sonny Rollins and Charlie Parker.

Young Sanders' attraction to the tenor was immediate: "In Little Rock, there were a lot of blues jobs and they always asked for tenor saxophone," he recalls. "The tenor had a certain range, and full, rich sound that I really liked. It seemed to fit me. I just kind of fell in love with it."

Although he was underage, he started working ten and fifteen dollar-a-night gigs behind Bobby Blue Bland, Junior Parker and other mainstays of the late 50s R & B circuit at clubs on 9th Street in Little Rock. "I was just a side person to fill in whatever needed to be filled."

After graduation from high school, he moved to Oakland, California, where he had relatives, to attend Oakland Junior College, studying art and music. "Little Rock" as he was known, quickly became a fixture on the Bay Area Jazz scene, playing R & B, bebop and free Jazz, inspired by local hornmen Sonny Simmons and Dewey Redman. He often worked with contemporaries pianist EdKelly and drummer Smiley Winters.

A rather shy, private person, he was always sitting in, absorbing musical knowledge and skills from other players, and experimenting with his horn. He remembers that every weekend we'd start out in Oakland at Dean's Club at 9 p.m., go to San Francisco, and sit in at Jimbo's Bop City, The Plantation and Soulville and come home at noon the next day.

It was during this period, in early 1961, that he met visiting tenorman John Coltrane, and the two frequented pawn shops and music stores in search of reeds and mouth pieces. Sanders' constant search for the right reed and mouthpiece has proven to be a lifelong quest.

In late '61, Sanders moved to New York. Unable to work consistently upon his arrival in the Jazz Mecca, Sanders survived by pawning his horn and doing non-musical jobs, sleeping on the subways or in stairwells because he was unable to afford living quarters. Sanders recalls that "I met (drummer) Joe Chambers on the street. We rode the subway till the next morning when the sun came up." While working at The Kitchen, a restaurant in Greenwich Village, he occasionally sat in with Sun Ra, who was playing upstairs. During these early days in New York, he also worked with Don Cherry and Billy Higgins.

Pharoah Sanders formed his first group in 1963, which included pianist John Hicks (who continued playing with Sanders off and on into the 90s), bassist Wilbur Ware and drummer Billy Higgins. Sanders remembers, "Coltrane, Eric Dolphy, Roland Kirk and many others used to drop by the Village Gate just to check us out.

Obviously Coltrane heard something in Sanders' playing, and asked him to sit in with his quartet in late '64. By the following year, he was working with Coltrane on a regular basis, although he was never officially considered a member of the group.

Looking back on his first gigs with Coltrane, Sanders sheepishly recalls that "I said, 'Yeah I'll play,' but goodness, I wasn't ready to come out and play with John, I was still learning, trying to get myself together."

"John never came right out and asked me to join the band," Sanders > says. "When we came to the end of a job, I'd think that would be that. But the next gig would come up and he'd call me and it kept going on like that. At one point, I guess he just felt like I was part of the band."

Coltrane and Sanders turned the Jazz world on its head, creating music that polarized audiences and critics alike. As a member of the Coltrane group, Sanders recorded: Ascension, Meditations, Live At The Village Vanguard Again, Om, Cosmic Music, Live In Seattle, and Live In Japan. All have been reissued on CD and are musical images guaranteed to survive the ages.

A few months before Coltrane's untimely passing, he told writer Kofsky, "I like to have strength in that band... Pharoah is very strong in spirit and will.. There's always got to be somebody with a lot of power."

After Coltrane's passing in 1967, Sanders worked with the late saxophone master's wife Alice briefly before concentrating on his own music. Since the late 60s, Sanders has toured and recorded with his own ensembles.

Pharoah Sanders' first recording was for ESP Records in 1964. Thanks to his association with John Coltrane, Sanders released a series of successful recordings on Coltrane's label, Impulse Records. The framework for his music ranged from swirling, rasping, guttural explosions to pastoral, spiritual, pan-African expression, embracing the entire Jazz spectrum from bebop to spontaneous improvisation. "I like to be an all-around musician," Sanders reports.

His late 60s, early 70s recordings Karma, Thembi and Tauhid were prized by audiences and critics alike, with The Creator Has A Master Plan, featuring vocalist Leon Thomas, gaining particular notoriety. In the mid-70s, Sanders produced his only "commercial" effort, Arista Records' Love Will Find A Way, but quickly disavowed any interest in sanitizing his creativity. The album, however, did introduce Sanders to many listeners who were previously unaware of his more non-commercial efforts.

In the late 70s, Pharoah moved to Allen Fittman's tiny Theresa Records label and recorded two of the most critically acclaimed albums of his career, Journey To The One and Rejoice. Utilizing a powerhouse New York rhythm section that included pianist John Hicks, bassist Ray Drummond, and drummer Idris Muhammad, the rejuvenated Sanders once again began creating powerful music that combined all of his diverse influences, and bore his personal > seal of integrity and musical mastery. More excellent Theresa recordings followed, including Heart Is A Melody, a live recording at San Francisco's legendary Keystone Korner, and A Prayer Before Dawn, Pharaoh's last for the label in 1987. All but one of Sanders' Theresa recordings are now available as CDs on Evidence Music, who bought the label in 1991.

According to poet/critic Amiri Barka, "For at least the last decade and a half, Pharoah Sanders has produced some of the most significant and moving, beautiful music identified by the name Jazz."

A popular performer worldwide, Pharoah Sanders continues to tour, playing clubs and concerts with his quartet, which features keyboard wizard William Henderson, a colleague of the saxophonist for almost two decades. No matter what the setting or personnel, the music of Pharoah Sanders continues to inspire and exhilarate.

Joel Chriss Co.