UKC

There have been a few BBC radio tributes to Pharoah Sanders - another of the jazz greats who sadly died recently. This is the most immersive, sampling selected releases from the 1960s to 2021 during its last 50+ minutes:

https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m001c57v (Benji B, R1, track list included)

https://www.theguardian.com/music/2022/sep/24/jazz-legend-pharoah-sanders-d...
 

Wow.

Somehow or other he’d passed me by, despite me being a massive Coltrane fan. I’ve had him on shuffle on Spotify this morning and I’ve got that good feeling of having scratched the surface of underlying riches. Discovery beckons.

RIP indeed. 

Yeah, amazing tracks in the tribute (especially the instrumentals), which were all new to me; aside from an Ornette Coleman LP, I only know Pharoah's releases with John Coltrane, who’s a favourite of mine, too. He seems to have produced quite a bit more as sideman, with many others besides them, & a lot more as leader - loads to explore!

So far, I’ve been enjoying his LPs with Alice Coltrane & with Floating Points, plus the Medley on his Tauhid LP. There’s a YouTube video of Kazuko performed in an abandoned tunnel, which is worth checking ...

Have you unearthed many gems on Spotify?
 

I've had him on shuffle a couple of times in the background, can't pick anything out name wise but quite a breadth of style and certainly a lot more to discover, which always brightens one's day  

yup - "promises" was quite some swansong . .

youtube.com/watch?v=h8GHGw8sSms&

Yeah, absolutely!

Lovely clip - thanks very much for that: his first take playing along to music he hadn’t heard before became the opening of an LP rated No.1 in several best of 2021 lists* - brilliant!

 *https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Promises_(Floating_Points,_Pharoah_Sanders_...
 

Two standout tracks I love from his work as band leader are The Creator Has A Master Plan (from Karma album) and Astral Travelling (from Thembi).

Here's a link to The Creator Has a Master Plan: 30+ minutes of searing free jazz spiritual voyaging: youtube.com/watch?v=QZ6lB7FKxi8&

And here's some contrastingly gorgeous Astral Travelling: youtube.com/watch?v=T4nAGtdkU88&

Yeah, those are real gems – thanks for the links. Quite a range of styles across Pharoah’s catalogue – as reflected by these, & as mentioned above by 65. Often on the same LP, too – after the relative calm of Astral Travelling, Thembi’s Red, Black & Green was quite a surprise ...