Pharoah Sanders

1940—

Jazz musician

In 1965 legendary jazz pioneer John Coltrane astonished critics, fans, and fellow musicians when he invited a second tenor saxophonist—Pharoah Sanders—to join his quartet. Over the next three years Coltrane and Sanders made some of the most controversial music in the history of jazz, breaking down musical barriers and essentially inventing "free" jazz. During the subsequent four decades Sanders continued his musical experimentation. His improvisational style had a profound influence on avant-garde jazz, the acid-jazz movement, and rock musicians such as the Grateful Dead and Santana. He experimented with Asian and African music, composed ballet scores, performed solo in cathedrals, and delighted mainstream club audiences with standard ballads. A master of multi-phonics, or split tones, Sanders could play multiple notes simultaneously. He was famous for his circular breathing, whereby he filled his sax with air and removed his mouth while the instrument continued to play on its own.

"No tenor saxophonist emulates the human voice with more vivid presence and dramatic weight…," wrote Ted Panken in Down Beat in 2005. "One larger-than-life note from Sanders' saxophone can permeate a room." Saxophonist Ornette Coleman told Daniel King of the San Francisco Chronicle in 2006: "If there's anyone who has that quality of freedom, it's Pharoah. He's probably the best tenor player in the world." Sanders was equally adept on the alto and soprano saxophones. By the twenty-first century he had become both a living legend and cult figure. Yet his recordings and performances continued to garner lukewarm reviews. In an interview with Fred Jung for the All About Jazz Web site, Sanders responded to his critics, saying "I'm not a jazz artist…It's all music to me. I just played music and if it's likeable, someone liked the sound, then fine, but I'm not interested in being a jazz musician. I don't consider myself a jazz musician. I don't have anything to do with that word…I let my music speak for itself."

Driven to Succeed in Music

Ferrell Sanders was born on October 13, 1940, in Little Rock, Arkansas. His father taught music in public schools. His mother gave piano lessons and sang in clubs with his sisters. The family was very religious, and Sanders brought his intense spirituality to his music.

Sanders first played drums in his high school band and then tuba, baritone, flute, and clarinet. As a young man, Sanders took his interest in music very seriously. "I bought a clarinet from a guy at church…," he told Panken. "I gave him 20 cents every other Sunday until I could buy it." At the urging of his band director Jimmy Cannon, Sanders switched to tenor saxophone and began listening to jazz—Harold Land, James Moody, Sonny Rollins, Charlie Parker, and his idol, John Coltrane. Sanders played in blues clubs for $10 a night and backed up such famous players as Bobby "Blue" Bland and Junior Parker. In a 1995 Down Beat interview with Martin Johnson, he recalled: "I was only in high school, but I would dress up—put on a suit, put a little thing here like I had a mustache and some dark shades, and sneak into the club. I had to walk a little different and talk a little different, but I met some good players…." Sanders toured briefly with a band called The Thrillers. But his father saw no future for him in music. Sanders told Panken: "I had to go to a friend's house to get in an hour or two of practice or there'd be conflict."

After high school Sanders moved to Oakland, California, where he lived with relatives while studying art and music at Oakland Junior College on a music scholarship. Although he planned on becoming a commercial artist, he continued playing in rhythm-and-blues clubs. As his musical interests expanded, Sanders—known as "Little Rock"—began playing with saxophonists Dewey Redman and Sonny Simmons, drummer Smiley Winters, and pianist Ed Kelly.

With his newfound passion for progressive jazz Sanders moved to New York City in 1961. He played with Ornette Coleman and Don Cherry and rehearsed daily with Sun Ra's Arkestra. It was Sun Ra—the flamboyant bandleader and Egyptologist—who dubbed him "Pharoah" with the nonstandard spelling. However once Sanders left the Arkestra's commune on Manhattan's lower east side, Sanders was out on the streets, working odd jobs, sleeping in the subway, and even pawning his instrument. He told Johnson that "I met quite a few other musicians on the streets. It was hard times. Everyone who stayed in New York City struggled till daylight came. I used to give blood to make five dollars. Since a slice of pizza was only 15 cents and a candy bar cost only a nickel, if I had a dollar, that would take care of you and me all day long!"

Joined Coltrane

Sanders formed his first group in 1963 with drummer Billy Higgins, bassist Wilbur Ware, and pianist John Hicks. He would continue to play with Hicks on into the 1990s. Coltrane heard the group at the Village Gate and invited Sanders to sit in with his band. Although he never formally joined the group, Sanders played regularly with Coltrane. In the liner notes to Meditations Coltrane said of Sanders: "What I like about him is the strength of his playing, the conviction with which he plays. He has will and spirit, and those there are the qualities I like most in a man." However the accolades were hardly universal. In a 1966 New Yorker review quoted by King, Whitney Balliet called Sanders' solos "elephant shrieks, which went on and on and on [and] appeared to have little in common with music." After Coltrane's death in 1967, Sanders played and recorded with his widow, the pianist Alice Coltrane. Four decades later he would play with their son, saxophonist Ravi Coltrane.

Between 1969 and 1973 Sanders recorded a series of free-form highly charged albums for Impulse that reflected his growing interest in non-Western musical forms. His theme was a tune called "Pisces Moon" and he asked singer Leon Thomas to write lyrics for it. The result was Sanders' best-known composition, the 32-minute "The Creator Has a Master Plan," for his 1969 album Karma. Although Karma was mostly ignored by the critics, it topped the Billboard jazz chart for 12 weeks.

At a Glance …

Born Ferrell Sanders on October 13, 1940, in Little Rock, AK; married Thembi (divorced); married Shukuru. Education: Oakland Junior College, studied music and art.

Career: Composer, band leader, musician, tenor and alto saxophones, flute, percussion, 1957-; Little Rock, AK, played blues clubs and toured with The Thrillers, 1957-59; San Francisco Bay Area, played rhythm and blues and jazz, 1959-61; New York City, played with Sun Ra's Arkestra and others, 1961-63, formed own group and recorded first album, 1964, performed and recorded with John Coltrane, 1965-67, performed and recorded with Alice Coltrane, 1968-71, performed and recorded as leader, 1971-; San Francisco, CA, composed for the Lines Ballet, 1992-2005.

Awards: Grammy Award with McCoy Tyner, David Murray, Cecil McBee, and Roy Haines for best jazz instrumental performance by a group for Blues for Coltrane, 1988; Arkansas Black Hall of Fame, 2004.

Addresses: Agent—Martine M.J. Urbach, Lady U Productions, LLC, 484 West 83rd St., Suite 29F, New York, NY 10036.

The Impulse recordings marked the zenith of Sanders' career. He told the Washington Post about his band members from those days: "Those guys seemed to understand the way I played. They understood right away that I wasn't confining them to [chord] changes, that I didn't want them to be so intellectual, that I wanted them to play whatever they felt…the band I had back then, those were spiritual musicians, and they came to give." Nevertheless Sanders told the London Independent: "When I was with Impulse, the engineer wasn't right, and my sax sound was never right…They didn't get nothing from me, and it was like they didn't want me to be heard. I didn't like that sound at all; it's just a bad feeling when you can't even hear yourself and it's your record date. They're just beginning to get close to it now."

With Coltrane's death and the rise of rock music, the audience for progressive jazz all but disappeared. Sanders' most commercial album, Love Will Find a Way, garnered him new fans. However his spiritual-psychedelic performances at the Keystone Korner in San Francisco—with Hicks, Idris Muhammad on drums, and Walter Booker on bass—were legendary and his 1979 "You've Got to Have Freedom" became an acid-jazz anthem. Over the next decades, as Sanders split his time between New York and Oakland, he recorded and performed less.

Toured Africa

In the 1990s Sanders moved to back to California, dividing his time between Los Angeles and the Bay Area. Many of his recordings were reissued and his career revived. He toured Africa for the U.S. State Department and recorded The Trance of Seven Colors in Morocco with a group of Gnawan musicians. The trip inspired Message From Home, Sanders' first major-label recording in many years. He also performed and recorded with Indian musicians.

Sanders collaborated with the Lines Ballet of San Francisco, performing and composing the scores for Alonzo King's 1992 "Ocean," his 1997 "Three Stops on the Way Home," and his 2005 "Before the Blues," based on early archival field recordings from the Deep South.

Still Sanders was plagued with mixed and negative reviews. The years of criticism—he was too far out, too harsh, too soft, he had lost his fire—made him reticent. During gigs he sometimes left most of the playing to his sidemen or left the stage altogether. He told Jung that he had a hard time finding work.

As of 2007 Sanders continued to tour, playing clubs, concert halls, and festivals, solo, with orchestras, with pianist Randy Weston, with the McCoy Tyner Trio, or with his own group that usually included his longtime pianist William Henderson. He continued to experiment with world music and wild improvisations, while keeping alive the music of John Coltrane, bebop, and mellow standards. Sanders told the San Francisco Chronicle in 1996: "I'm more comfortable playing modes, Japanese or Egyptian scales. I might take it out where a lot of players wouldn't. That's what I do best—take it on out. I want to take the audience on a spiritual journey, I want to stir them up, excite them. Then I bring them back down with a calming feeling. A ballad is like a prayer. I'm still a blues player, no matter how outside I get."

Selected discography

Albums (as Leader)

Pharoah's First, ESP-Disk, 1964.

Taudid, Impulse, 1966, 1993. Jewels of Thought, Impulse, 1969, 1998.

Karma (includes "The Creator Has a Master Plan,"), Impulse, 1969, MCA, 1995.

Summum Bukmun Umyun (Deaf Dumb Blind), Impulse, 1970, 1998.

Thembi, Impulse, 1970, 1998.

Black Unity, Impulse, 1971, MCA 1997.

Live at the East, Impulse, 1971.

Village of the Pharoahs, Impulse, 1971.

Wisdom through Music, Impulse, 1972.

Elevation, Impulse, 1973.

Love in Us All, Impulse, 1973.

Pharoah, India Navigation, 1976, 1996.

Love Will Find a Way, Arista, 1977.

Journey to the One (includes "You've Got to Have Freedom"), Theresa/Evidence, 1979, 1994.

Live (includes "You've Got to Have Freedom") Theresa, 1981.

Rejoice, Theresa/Evidence, 1981, 1992.

Shukuru, Theresa/Evidence, 1981, 1992.

Heart Is a Melody, Theresa/Evidence, 1982, 1993.

Africa, Timeless/Bellaphon, 1987.

Oh Lord, Let Me Do No Wrong, Dr. Jazz, 1987.

A Prayer Before Dawn, Evidence, 1987, 1993.

(With McCoy Tyner, David Murray, Cecil McBee, Roy Haines) A Tribute to John Coltrane—Blues for Coltrane, Impulse, 1987.

Moon Child, Timeless, 1989.

Welcome to Love, Timeless/Bellaphon, 1990, Evidence, 1996.

Crescent with Love, Evidence, 1992.

(With Maleem Mahmoud Ghania) The Trance of Seven Colors, Axiom/Island, 1994.

Message from Home, Verve, 1995.

Save Our Children, Verve, 1999.

(With Alan Rudolph and Hamid Drake) Spirits, Meta, 2000.

Albums (with John Coltrane)

Ascension, Impulse, 1965.

Kulu Se Mama, 1965, Polygram, 2000.

Live in Seattle, Impulse, 1965.

Meditations, Impulse, 1965, GRP, 1996.

Om, 1965, MCA, 1989.

Infinity, Impulse, 1966.

Live at the Village Vanguard Again, Impulse, 1966.

Live in Japan, Impulse, 1966, 1991.

Expression, Impulse, 1967.

The Olatunji Concert: The Last Live Recording, 1967, 2001.

Guest Appearances

(Sun Ra) Gods on Safari, 1964.

(Ornette Coleman) Chappaqua Suite, 1965.

(Don Cherry) Symphony for Improvisers, 1966, Blue Note, 2005.

(Don Cherry) Where Is Brooklyn?, 1966, Blue Note, 2005.

Jazz Composers Orchestra, 1968.

(Alice Coltrane) A Monastic Trio, 1968, GRP, 1998.

(Leon Thomas) Spirits Known and Unknown, 1969, BMG International, 2002.

(Alice Coltrane) Ptah, the El Daoud, Impulse, 1970, GRP, 1996.

(Alice Coltrane) Journey in Satchidananda, Impulse, 1971, 2007.

(Various) Stolen Moments: Red Hot + Cool, Red Hot Org/GRP Impulse, 1994.

(Kenny Garrett) Beyond the Wall, Nonesuch, 2006.

Films

Pharoah Sanders: Live in San Francisco (1981), 2007.

Sources

Periodicals

Down Beat, April 1995, p. 20; March 2005, pp. 34-39.

Evening Standard (London), July 25, 2006, p. 38.

Independent (London), August 6, 1998, p. 10.

San Francisco Chronicle, May 12, 1996, p. 44; April 19, 2006, p. E1.

Washington Post, April 24, 1998, p. N5.

On-line

"The Ascension of Pharoah Sanders," MetroActive,http://www.metroactive.com/metro-santa-cruz/04.19.06/sanders-0616.html (October 16, 2007).

"My Conversation with Pharoah Sanders," All About Jazz,http://www.allaboutjazz.com/iviews/sanders.htm (October 15, 2007).

"Pharoah Sanders," Jazz Supreme,http://www.jazzsupreme.com/pharoah.sanders/ (October 15, 2007).

Pharoah Sanders Official Web Site,http://www.pharoahsanders.net (October 16, 2007).

"Pharoah Sanders Page," Soulwalking,http://www.soulwalking.co.uk/Pharoah%20Sanders.html (October 2, 2007).