{"id":78367,"date":"2022-09-26T07:34:13","date_gmt":"2022-09-26T07:34:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/harchi90.com\/phaorah-sanders-legendary-jazz-saxophonist-walked-among-us\/"},"modified":"2022-09-26T07:34:13","modified_gmt":"2022-09-26T07:34:13","slug":"phaorah-sanders-legendary-jazz-saxophonist-walked-among-us","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/harchi90.com\/phaorah-sanders-legendary-jazz-saxophonist-walked-among-us\/","title":{"rendered":"Phaorah Sanders, legendary jazz saxophonist, walked among us"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n
\n
\n

It’s not like we expected him to materialize in a coil of stardust, but it still felt surprising to watch Pharoah Sanders take the bandstand late in life. I saw him perform twice \u2014 at Bohemian Caverns in 2011 and at Blues Alley a few years later \u2014 and each show began with a titan of American jazz plodding his way through the crowd, navigating a miniature maze of cocktail tables, his gait unforgettably heavy, his posture hunched, as if his world-changing music was something he carried around on his back. Then he’d find his place under the lights and start blowing bravura phrases through his saxophone until Earth’s gravity started to loosen.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

\n

Is that why people called his music \u201cspiritual jazz?\u201d Because it made us feel like we were being released from the physical world? Sanders \u2014 who died in Los Angeles on Saturday at 81 \u2014 often described his work as a search for something that couldn’t be found, a quest toward the unknowable that he’d committed himself to since joining John Coltrane’s side in 1965. When Coltrane died two years later, many were quick to nominate Sanders as his heir: \u201cPharoah has incredible power, and incredible tenderness soulfulness,\u201d the critic Amiri Baraka (known as LeRoi Jones at the time) wrote in the Cricket magazine in 1968, \u201clike a love of playing, of sound, that will spread your consciousness dazzled among his notes.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

\n

Obituary: Pharoah Sanders, piercing jazz saxophonist, dies at 81<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

\n

That’s high praise and solid advice. Embracing Sanders’s expressive range as a metaphor for expanding consciousness is a very good place to begin to understand how this music can make you feel as if you’re taller than a house, or as if you’re swimming in the ozone layer, or any other exemptions to the laws of physics that his recordings might so generously offer. Across a sensational run of albums from the late 1960s through the mid-’70s \u2014 \u201cTauhid,\u201d \u201cKarma,\u201d \u201cJourney in Satchidananda\u201d with Alice Coltrane just for starters \u2014 Sanders used his horn to lay all kinds of brayed melodies and ecstatic squeals on God’s doorstep.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

\n

But ultimately, his search for transcendence may have simply been a pursuit of contentment. The vocal refrain of his signature composition, \u201cThe Creator Has a Master Plan,\u201d has always suggested as much, envisioning \u201cpeace and happiness for every man\u201d \u2014 one of those sweeping, cosmic, utopian ideas that may only manifest through the mundane. \u201cI listen to things that maybe some guys do n’t,\u201d Sanders told the New Yorker in 2020 when asked about his current influences. \u201cI listen to the waves of the water. Train coming down. Or I listen to an taking airplane off \u2026 I’ve always been like that, especially when I was small. I used to love hearing old car doors squeaking.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

\n

Maybe higher planes aren’t higher. Maybe they’re small and all around us. You do n’t have to squint your ears too hard to hear the implication in last year’s \u201cPromises,\u201d a collaboration album with British producer Floating Points that allowed Sanders to play some of the most delicate phrases of his life. If anything, the intimate melancholy of \u201cPromises\u201d suggests that transcendence is something we can only ever yearn for. That’s why we listen, then, now and tomorrow.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

It’s not like we expected him to materialize in a coil of stardust, but it still felt surprising to watch Pharoah Sanders take the bandstand late in life. I saw him perform twice \u2014 at Bohemian Caverns in 2011 and at Blues Alley a few years later \u2014 and each show began with a titan …<\/p>\n

Phaorah Sanders, legendary jazz saxophonist, walked among us<\/span> Read More »<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"site-sidebar-layout":"default","site-content-layout":"default","ast-global-header-display":"","ast-main-header-display":"","ast-hfb-above-header-display":"","ast-hfb-below-header-display":"","ast-hfb-mobile-header-display":"","site-post-title":"","ast-breadcrumbs-content":"","ast-featured-img":"","footer-sml-layout":"","theme-transparent-header-meta":"","adv-header-id-meta":"","stick-header-meta":"","header-above-stick-meta":"","header-main-stick-meta":"","header-below-stick-meta":"","spay_email":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_is_tweetstorm":false,"jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true},"categories":[5],"tags":[],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":77187,"url":"https:\/\/harchi90.com\/pharoah-sanders-jazz-saxophonist-dies-at-age-81\/","url_meta":{"origin":78367,"position":0},"title":"Pharoah Sanders, jazz saxophonist, dies at age 81","date":"September 24, 2022","format":false,"excerpt":"\"We are devastated to share that Pharoah Sanders has passed away,\" Luaka Bop wrote on Twitter. \"He died peacefully surrounded by loving family and friends in Los Angeles earlier this morning. Always and forever the most beautiful human being, may he rest in peace.\"In an email to CNN, Sanders' representative,\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Entertainment"","img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":76895,"url":"https:\/\/harchi90.com\/jazz-legend-pharoah-sanders-dead-at-81-music\/","url_meta":{"origin":78367,"position":1},"title":"Jazz legend Pharoah Sanders dead at 81 | music","date":"September 24, 2022","format":false,"excerpt":"Pharoah Sanders, the revered American jazz saxophonist, has died aged 81. The news was confirmed by Sanders' label, Luaka Bop, on Twitter.\u201cWe are devastated to share that Pharoah Sanders has passed away,\u201d the label's statement read. \u201cHe died peacefully surrounded by loving family and friends in Los Angeles earlier this\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Entertainment"","img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":79567,"url":"https:\/\/harchi90.com\/a-church-with-open-doors-the-ecstatic-power-of-pharoah-sanders-jazz\/","url_meta":{"origin":78367,"position":2},"title":"A church with open doors: the ecstatic power of Pharoah Sanders | Jazz","date":"September 27, 2022","format":false,"excerpt":"John Coltrane, speaking to jazz musician Albert Ayler, once described himself, Pharoah Sanders and Ayler as \u201cthe father, the son and [the] holy ghost\u201d. Sanders played sideman to Coltrane on many crucial recordings, and, like Coltrane, Sanders could cut it both ways: roll out a spiritual groove that landed like\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Entertainment"","img":{"alt_text":"A crucial connection \u00e2\u0080\u00a6 Pharoah Sanders.","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/i.guim.co.uk\/img\/media\/405dd56111e8b4ff11c27052850e22565c019aca\/0_0_5184_3110\/master\/5184.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":57526,"url":"https:\/\/harchi90.com\/joey-defrancesco-jazz-organ-and-trumpet-player-dies-at-51\/","url_meta":{"origin":78367,"position":3},"title":"Joey DeFrancesco, jazz organ and trumpet player, dies at 51","date":"August 26, 2022","format":false,"excerpt":"Jazz Times once hailed Joey DeFrancesco as \"the best B3 player on the planet.\" For obvious reasons.DeFrancesco died on Thursday, Aug. 25. He was 51. His wife and manager, Gloria DeFrancesco, broke the news on social media. She did not provide a cause of death.\"The love of my life is\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Entertainment"","img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":57318,"url":"https:\/\/harchi90.com\/jazz-motivated-to-trade-donovan-mitchell-before-start-of-training-camp\/","url_meta":{"origin":78367,"position":4},"title":"Jazz Motivated To Trade Donovan Mitchell Before Start Of Training Camp","date":"August 26, 2022","format":false,"excerpt":"The Utah Jazz and New York Knicks are widely expected to eventually agree to a Donovan Mitchell trade, but the two sides continue to haggle over the terms. The Jazz traded Patrick Beverley to the Los Angeles Lakers this week in what was their first major move after trading Rudy\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Sports"","img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":8037,"url":"https:\/\/harchi90.com\/utah-jazz-trade-rumors-is-another-trade-coming-for-the-utah-jazz\/","url_meta":{"origin":78367,"position":5},"title":"Utah Jazz trade rumors: Is another trade coming for the Utah Jazz?","date":"July 8, 2022","format":false,"excerpt":"It has been nearly a week since the news broke that the Utah Jazz were trading All-NBA center Rudy Gobert to the Minnesota Timberwolves That trade became official Wednesday \u2014 the Jazz's trade of Royce O'Neale to the Brooklyn Nets was official on June 30 \u2014 and since then it\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Sports"","img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]}],"fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/www.washingtonpost.com\/wp-apps\/imrs.php?src=https:\/\/arc-anglerfish-washpost-prod-washpost.s3.amazonaws.com\/public\/7K63RMB45EI63DDOSODL27GYEY.jpg&w=1440","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/harchi90.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/78367"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/harchi90.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/harchi90.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/harchi90.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/harchi90.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=78367"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/harchi90.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/78367\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/harchi90.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=78367"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/harchi90.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=78367"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/harchi90.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=78367"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}