Music Monday: Pharoah Sanders and Some Easy Listening

One of my favorite late 1970s Pharoah Sander’s dates Pharoah (also sometimes known as Harvest Time) was re-released this past week by David Byrne’s Lukka Bop label. Evidently it is the spiritual predecessor to Sander’s final album, Promises, which was a collaboration with Floating Points. It was one of the early releases on the India Navigation label (which I’ve blogged about before).

Critics of this album have called it “watery new age muzak,” but that misses the point entirely. It does not replicate the fiery playing that characterized Sander’s early sound, but reveals his pivot to more reflective forms of spiritual music. It is keeping with the broader pivot in mid-1970s spiritual jazz. While Coltrane’s Ascension and Meditation will always be favorites, part of the point of these albums (and the work of the immediate post-Coltrane period) was to explore the tonal possibilities of saxophone in new ways. Archie Shepp, Sanders, Ayler, and Marion Brown, if nothing else, explored the sound of their instruments in different arrangements, contexts, and settings. This album is deep and while it doesn’t appeal to someone predisposed to be uninterested the range of the musical expression of Black spirituality in the 1970s, if you like Sander’s mid-70s and early-80s output, you’ll like this re-release.

One of the cool things about the Lukka Bop release is that they paired the original India Navigation album with two contemporary live performances of “Harvest Time” from Germany. Both provide a window into the range of interpretation of this “watery new age muzak” and demonstrates how this recording produced a  foundation for improvisation and exploration.

Here’s the original album:

The playing on “Love Will Find a Way” is just great.  

For something decidedly less spiritual (I think?) and more fun, I’ve enjoyed two newer releases. Some of the tracks on Joshua Redman’s latest release, where are we, will continue to carve some time out of my rotation. I have to admit that Joshua Redman has not always been high on my list of favorites and I’ve sometimes found his music a bit uninspiring. I’m not saying that this is a fair assessment, and it may be that my appreciation of his father, Dewey Redman’s work, has led me to see Joshua, despite his impressive career, as the “the Lesser Redman”.

That all said, Redman and Gabrielle Cavassa perform a nice version of “Streets of Philadelphia” which reinforces Springsteen’s place in my list of musicians whose songs beg to be covered. 

The rest of the album is really solid and enjoyable. 

Along similar lines, I’ve been enjoying Allison Russell’s latest album, The Returner (h/t to Bret Weber!). Bluesy, folksy, Canadian R&B! What’s not to love?

You can listen to a good chunk of it here.