PHAROAH SANDERS Vinyl & CDs

Review: Journey in Satchidananda was the fourth solo album by Alice Coltrane and it might be her best-known work. Some of the tunes here were recorded live at the Village Gate while the rest were recorded at her home studio in Dix Hills in New York, and all of them were released in 1971. The album has grown ever more mythical in status and store since then with its transcendental spiritual jazz sounds with layered-up bells, tambourine, tanpura and more into a sound that leans heavily on Coltrane's love of Middle Eastern and North African music and culture. Earthy, bluesy, steeped in musical mantra and utterly absorbing, it's one of the most enthralling records of the era.

Review: Last October, acclaimed saxophonist Pharoah Sanders turned 80 years young, and his input on this album is testimony to the fact he has clearly aged like a fine wine. Not that this is to suggest preceding outings were anything less worthy than this collaborative project, which sees Sam Shepherd, the British electronic artist better known to most as Floating Points, write nine spectacular arrangements which are then performed by said brass legend, alongside The London Symphony Orchestra.

The results are spectacular, and wildly far-reaching, albeit firmly rooted in jazz with classical undertones. From the movements that made this final cut, some are whisper quiet and delicate to the point of risking breaking off if you were handling haphazardly. Others are booming loud, musical jumbo jets landing at the end of another great crescendo. Whether hushed or monumental, though, we can feel every note and bar of this masterpiece.

Review: RECOMMENDED
Last October, acclaimed saxophonist Pharoah Sanders turned 80 years young, and his input on this album is testimony to the fact he has clearly aged like a fine wine. Not that this is to suggest preceding outings were anything less worthy than this collaborative project, which sees Sam Shepherd, the British electronic artist better known to most as Floating Points, write nine spectacular arrangements which are then performed by said brass legend, alongside The London Symphony Orchestra.

The results are spectacular, and wildly far-reaching, albeit firmly rooted in jazz with classical undertones. From the movements that made this final cut, some are whisper quiet and delicate to the point of risking breaking off if you were handling haphazardly. Others are booming loud, musical jumbo jets landing at the end of another great crescendo. Whether hushed or monumental, though, we can feel every note and bar of this masterpiece.

Review: Over the years, Sam Shepheard's work as Floating Points has become increasingly ambitious, moving further away from his dancefloor roots and closer to spiritual jazz, new age and neo-classical. Even so, it was still a surprise when Shepheard announced Promises, a 46-minute piece in 10 "movements" featuring the London Symphony Orchestra and legendary saxophonist Pharoah Sanders. It's an undeniably remarkable piece all told; a constantly evolving fusion of neo-classical ambience, spiritual jazz and starry, synthesizer-laden soundscapes notable not only for Sanders' sublime sax-playing and Shepheard's memorable melodic themes, but also the intricate, detailed nature of the musical arrangements. It's a stunningly beautiful and life-affirming piece all told, and one that deserves your full attention.

Review: Pharaoh Sanders has many high-points in his illustrious career, but Black Unity is a truly special, long-form body of work stretching out over 37 minutes of mesmerising, sustained groove. Widely hailed by critics as one of Sanders' most revealing works, he's joined on the 1971 session by Marvin Peterson on trumpet, Carlos Garnett on flute and tenor sax, Joe Bonner on piano, Stanley Clarke and Cecil McBee on bass, Norman Connors and Billy Hart on drums and Lawrence Killian on percussion. Between them, the ensemble guide us through ebbs and flows of majestic power, all elements flowing into one another in a true expression of the unity Sanders spelt out in the title.

Review: Here's something to set the pulse racing of any serious jazz enthusiast: a recently rediscovered recording of a live performance made by the Pharoah Sanders Quartet at the Grand Auditorium at Studio 104, Paris, in 1975. The tenor saxophonist is undoubtedly the star of the show throughout, though the fluidity of the double bass playing, the loose-limbed drumming and the rush-inducing breeziness of the piano parts - especially on "Love Is Here" parts one and two, which reminded us of another Sanders classic "You've Got To Have Freedom" - are all equally as ear-catching. Musically, it's as inspired as you'd expect, nestling somewhere between the great maestro's greatest "astral jazz" recordings and more traditional forms of jazz.

Review: Recorded in 1969 but first released in 1973, "Izipho Zam (My Gifts)" remains one of Pharoah Sanders' most expressive, out-there and enjoyable sets. As this fresh, heavyweight vinyl pressing proves, the album has lost none of its charm. It sees Sanders and his expansive backing band (including Lonnie Liston-Smith on piano) offer up a fine saunter through spiritual soul-jazz ("Prince Of Peace") before going all-out free jazz via two of the most intense and mind-altering workouts you'll ever hear. While the 13-minute "Balance" is a cacophonous and paranoid romp through free-jazz/experimental rock fusion, it's near 30-minute B-side "Izipho Zam" that stands out. Seemingly in a constant state of flux, the piece moves from densely percussive Afro-jazz to wall-of-sound noise-jazz insanity without skipping a beat.

Review: We write this just a few days after the sad passing of Pharoah Sanders, one of the great jazz musicians of his generation. It lends the music an extra air of potency, not that it really needed it. This one is an album that is noted for being the one that reunited Sanders with vocalist Leon Thomas, who in years previous appeared on some of Sanders' most endearing tunes. Many tunes here are defined by the use of Henderson's synthesizer but for opener 'Shukuru' and closing funereal piece 'For Big George'. Both are some of the album's highlights.