Back catalogue: Funk Soul & Jazz

Review: Pharoah Sanders' Wisdom Through Music stands as a testament to his exploratory spirit in the jazz world, recorded in 1972 and released a year later by Impulse! Featuring a stellar ensemble including flutist James Branch, pianist Joe Bonner, and bassist Cecil McBee, the album brings together some of the most innovative players of the time. The production by Lee Young, brother of the legendary Lester Young, frames Sanders' vision with a spiritual and deeply rhythmic soundscape. The track 'High Life' captures the essence of West African musical tradition, combining ecstatic drumming with vibrant flute work, creating an atmosphere of joyous celebration. 'Love Is Everywhere', a staple of Sanders' live performances, radiates raw emotion and soul, with Sanders leading the charge before allowing Bonner and the rest of the ensemble to take the song to new heights. The album is a powerful snapshot of Sanders' 70s output, showcasing his ability to blend spiritual jazz with global influences, making it a vital piece of his extensive discography.

Review: Pharoah Sanders recorded Thembi in the winter of 1970-71, amid sessions with Alice Coltrane that would culminate in her seminal Journey In Satchidananda album. The same profound spirituality that imbued Coltrane's masterpiece with an aura of serene majesty also permeates Thembi. One of the standout tracks, 'Astral Traveling,' originated from a serendipitous encounter with a Fender Rhodes electric piano. Upon arriving at the California studio, while his bandmates set up their instruments, Sanders noticed the piano and, driven by curiosity, began experimenting with its sounds. This track, with its ethereal quality and innovative use of the electric piano, captures the exploratory spirit and transcendent quality that define Thembi, making it a cornerstone of Sanders' discography and the blueprint to the serendipitous magic of musical experimentation. Thembi offers something very unique for the time in jazz music.

Review: Finally reissued for its 50th anniversary, Love In Us All is a cosmic, uncompromising statement from legendary jazz cat Pharoah Sanders. This vital piece of the free jazz canon was released as his final Impulse! album and starts with 'Love Is Everywhere' which radiates transcendent beauty with layered horns, cascading piano and a repeated vocal mantra evoking the spirit of Coltrane's seminal 'A Love Supreme'. The flip, For John' is raw, chaotic and a furious outpouring of free jazz energy. Long out of print but here remastered, this essential release showcases Sanders' vision in its most fearless, spiritual form.

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: In the field of spiritual jazz, there are few albums as seminal as Pharoah. Originally released in 1977 and serving as a landmark for the genre as well as Pharoah Sanders himself, it remains a towering work of understated beauty, using negative space and patient pauses as potent as the notes played. Sanders sadly passed on to the next realm in 2022 amidst a wave of renewed appreciation for his work, and Luaka Bop have taken on the task of reissuing this otherworldly classic in fine style. As well as the original album, a second record features two previously unreleased live versions of 'Harvest Time', and the package comes with a 24-page booklet featuring a wealth of additional material to round out the experience of one of the all-time greatest jazz albums.

Review: Pharoah Sanders' 1970 album is an intense spiritual jazz offering, recorded in New York's A & R Studios. The title, which translates from Arabic as "Deaf Dumb Blind," is a reference to the Sura Bakara from the Qur'an, suggesting a deep, metaphysical exploration of faith and enlightenment. The album blends African musical influences with Sanders' signature improvisational style, offering a bold statement of musical and philosophical depth. The performance is raw and hypnotic, characterised by Sanders' powerful saxophone work, with the music pushing boundaries of both jazz and spiritual exploration.

Review: Elemental Music's latest release brings a long-awaited reissue of Pharoah Sanders' 1973 album Village of the Pharoahs, finally available on vinyl after decades. This record stands as one of Sanders' most groundbreaking works, blending spiritual jazz with free improvisation. The album is a masterclass in musical exploration, featuring a stellar lineup including Joe Bonner, Cecil McBee, and Stanley Clarke. Side-1 launches with the pulsating title track, a three-part suite that immerses listeners in complex rhythms and modal saxophone lines. Side-2 continues with the ethereal 'Mansion Worlds,' before shifting into the balladic 'Memories of Lee Morgan,' and concluding with the lively 'Went Like It Came,' a surprising, foot-tapping closer. Considered one of his best releases by the majority, this listen is ideal for both seasoned jazz lovers and those new to the genre.

Review: Although "Africa" is not one of the harder Pharoah Sanders albums to find on vinyl, jazz heads have long complained about the sound quality of the original single-vinyl edition of the 1987 album. It's for this reason that this Tidal Waves Music reissue, which stretches the set across two slabs of wax and adds two previously CD-only tracks ("Heart To Heart" and "Duo"), will simply fly off the shelves. That and the fact that it remains a superb album: a bright, breezy, contemporary jazz masterpiece that sees the legendary saxophonist accompanied by drummer Idris Muhammad, pianist John Hicks and bassist Curtis Lundy. Highlights include the arguably definitive version of Sanders' classic "You've Got To Have Freedom" and a superb update of John Coltrane standard "Naima".

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: Pharoah Sanders' Izipho Zam (My Gifts) was first recorded in 1969 but wasn't released until 1973; a monumental yet, despite the name, little-received jazz work, we can still hear the legendary jazz-musical theocrat push the boat ever further out psychically and sonically here. Produced by Stanley Cowell and Charles Tolliver's Strata-East label, the album was recorded at Town Sound Studios, two years after Sanders' mentor John Coltrane's death. Coltrane's passing marked a significant turning point for Sanders, who saw in the saxophonist the unopened buds of a spiritual path for music, expressible in jazz. The Zulu phrase used in the title is regularly heard in Mozambique, Eswatini and Zimbabwe, reflecting the cultural emphasising of gifting in East Africa.

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.