PHAROAH SANDERS QUARTET
PHAROAH SANDERS QUARTET
Krakow, July 12, 2018
KRAKOW SUMMER JAZZ FESTIVAL
Pharoah Sanders is one of the last jazz greats. He's 77 now but keeps working, touring and recording. And he's always been around. He gained enormous experience playing with blues musicians, with modern jazzmen like Benny Golson or Art Davis, a visionary pianist Randy Weston, Larry Young, Sonny Sarrock, with avant-gardists like Sun Ra, Don Cherry, Ornette Coleman, Africans Bheki Mseleku and Mahmoud Guinia, heavy rockers like Living Colour's Will Calhoun, Chicago/São Paulo Underground or even punk rocker Jah Wobble.
Pharoah Sanders famously worked with John Coltrane at the end of Trane's life, when he entered his most experimental free jazz period. But just as Coltrane's, his career has been complex and multifaceted. He explored various musical territories starting from blues and R&B, through bebop, hard bop, modern mainstream, through world music and ending with avant-garde and free jazz.
His great artistry was admired and respected by other jazz giants like Ornette Coleman, Albert Ayler, Don Cherry. And he has always been known for his sophisticated use of extended techniques of overblowing, multiphonics or key clicks.
When Sanders entered the Krakow stage with his quartet he brought an atmosphere of a special celebration. A night of unusual entertainment combined with some kind of deeper understanding. Pharoah was dressed in dark blue apparel which may have been African inspired and was wearing a black baseball cap back-to-front and pianist William Henderson wore a black robe.
Pharoah seemed to have a walking problem but as soon as he started playing he regained his powers. He was speaking, chanting, crying, singing. The concert 100 minutes and the band played five or six compositions. They lasted between fifteen minutes and half an hour. So there was plenty of time for each musician to express freely. Bassist Oli Hayhurst and drummer Gene Calderazzo played long appealing solos completing the creative and captivating statements by Sanders and Henderson. Pharoah's solos were not as long or hard as in his youth, but they were mature, melodic and passionate.
The program was a cool mix of attractive, dynamic songs and enchanting ballads. the big hit of the evening was sanders' great song co-written with avant-garde jazz singer Leon Thomas "The Creator Has a Master Plan". This ode to peace and happiness appeared on his album Karma in 1969 and still remains fresh and vital.
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