is Karma by Pharoah Sanders the best record ever?

No, these days I think you can actually get it cheaper on vinyl than on CD. AFAIK it was reissued on CD in Germany in the early 90s, and the only CD reissues after that have been in Japan, so even the cheapest used copy I could locate at Amazon is 24 quid.

But can you tell me, does your CD copy have that glitch with "Prince of Peace"?

I don't know, I'll have to look out my copy, don't know where it's from, they were almost giving it away in the shop I got it (4-5 years ago)

Dunno when it was issued (1990s I think), but this Charly CD edition of Izipho Jam is extremely common in the UK, and (as Tom D) sells for peanuts. Don't remember hearing a digital glitch on it.

sorry, this edition:

http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/51SWIC3-WlL._SL500_AA300_.jpg

Well, it might've been cheap once, but it doesn't look like it's anymore, at least not on the UK Amazon (though of course some UK record stores might still sell it for cheap):

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Izipho-Zam-Pharoah-Sanders/dp/B00000BICI/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1353933990&sr=8-1

The glitch I'm talking about doesn't sound like a digital glitch to me, more like there's something wrong with the master tape. That's why I was wondering whether it exists on the original album as well.

I don't have the album at hand, so I can't check it, but IIRC it sounds like some of the channels suddenly cut off, but you can still hear part of the sounds.

Is there much Strata East on cd or reissue vinyl? Seems like all of my SE albums are vinyl rips I found on blogs awhile back.

Like his records but find his actual sax playing often very boring.

I think most of the Strata East/Tribe/Black Jazz stuff got reissued on vinyl 10 or so years ago.

Lot of the Strate East stuff was reissued on CD by Charly back in the 90s: I have a couple of Charles Tolliver and Stanley Cowell CDs released then. Though it seems all of those reissues have been long out of print, judging by the prices they sell for now.

Anyway, I'd still love to hear if anyone who has the Izipho Zam CD can confirm whether it has the glitch on "Prince of Peace" or not? I've considering buying the album despite the steep price, but if the flaw is there too I'm not sure if I want it, the glitch is so blatant it kinda ruins my listening experience.

Gilles Peterson played a version of "The Creator ... " on his show last Sat.: shorter, with more vocals. Does anyone know where it's from? - he didn't say. It was part of his brief interview with Lonnie Liston Smith, about an hour in, iirc.

this, from the first Leon Thomas solo album?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ipRZEHRx6ow

aha. Thanks.

Thomas' first two solo albums on Flying Dutchman are well worth getting if you're a Pharoah Sanders fan... The sound is pretty similar, and they have many of the same players as on Pharoah's Impulse! albums (including Pharoah himself, under the pseudonym "Little Rock"), though the focus is obviously more on Thomas' singing. His two later Flying Duthchman records are more soul/R&B than jazz, but they're good too, especially Blues and the Soulful Truth, which shows Thomas was just as good with more straightforward material as he was with avant-garde stuff.

Oh man, I forgot to listen to this to see if it has the glitch Tuomas speaks of

my downloaded copy doesn't seem to have it. Not that that helps much

OK, my CD copy has the glitch - I don't know how I didn't notice before - but that's Charly for you, buncha cowboys

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OofJ2-AkBAg

at what timecode is the glitch on "prince of peace"?

i have the strata east LP on which i've never noticed a glitch and the sunspots CD reissue. i listened to the CD today and if there was a glitch in the first half of the song i didn't hear it.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3JvxMlir8Ks

You can hear it here, on the left speaker, starting from 0:18. It's not as bad as I remembered though, it seems to affect only the piano. Which makes me suspect it's a flaw in the recording process itself. This vinyl rip also has it:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_AAELC5Kzno

Anyway, since I already have "Prince of Peace" on the Leon Thomas comp, and it looks like there's no unglitched version of it, is the rest of Izipho Zam worth the 25 quids that I'd have to pay for it?

Sorry, the glitch is on the right speaker, not the left one.

afaict my sunspots CD doesn't seem to have that glitch!

either that or i am deaf - i can hear what you're talking about on the youtubes but i don't hear it on the cd. haven't got my turntable set up so i can't tell you whether the LP has it or not.

if you like karma, i'd say you should need izipho zam. whether you want to spend 25 quid on it or you want to download mp3s i can't really say.

ignore that "should"

I know there was a 9 minute edit of Creator that was on a couple of compis, I think including the yellow covered 2cd Pharaoh compi thta came out around 10 years ago. I couldn't find that compi when I put the tracks on my walkman at the start of the year or it woul ddegfinitely have featured, & interface between that player & my computer has meant I haven't edited the content since. Keeps wanting to totally wipe what's on there (reformat) and have you start again.

Was also on an Impulse sampler i picked up a couple of years earlier I think.

But as far as i know that was just a shorter edit not a different version. Is there a different version on an lp by LLS? I'm not as familiare with his solo material as I might be. Do like Expansions though.

The shorter version of "Creator" is on Leon Thomas's debut album, not on Lonnie Liston Smith's. And yeah, it's a different recording, and it also has Thomas singing the verses of the song, which don't appear on the version Karma (though the lyrics to the verses are in Karma's inner sleeve). Someone posted a Youtube link to it upthread.

Lonnie Liston Smith's debut album has a different, shorter version of "Let Us Go Into The House Of The Lord" though, which is quite good (as is the whole album, well worth checking out if dig Pharoah).

"on the version on Karma"

22 minute version by Sanders.

My Favorite Things

Or not. Scroll down the list on the right until you see Sanders from 2008.

Today "The Gathering" off Elevation is sounding like the best thing ever.

i am drooling over the bardo pond cover of master plan
hope i find one tomorrow!

hey thanks for reminding me!

and maggot brain!! but mostly want to hear alternate version of master plan. i've heard other maggot brains.

this was gonegonegone at every store i went to today
BUT
apparently it's on emusic so at least i can still hear it

i think any fan of the original should hear this. it's on spotify too. totally worth your 15 min.
i haven't stopped thinking about it for 2 days! i mean, on and off, but still. it's really good!!

Never heard of Bardo Pond, who is he/she/they?

you can buy the mp3s on amazon! not cheap tho... http://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B00B1OANS8/ref=dm_sp_alb?ie=UTF8&qid=1366639187&sr=8-1

they are a band from philadelphia usa

Jazz band?

Nope, they're a rock band (drone/psych/spacerock)

BTW I'm probably v. late with this, but I only got round to picking up the reissue of Don Cherry's Organic Music Society fairly recently and I would totally recommend it to all. Really good version of Creator Has A Master Plan on there too! Worth buying the physical product cos the packaging is lovely but here's a spotify link anyhow:

http://open.spotify.com/album/2ODX5qfcDBR0FaMJGhAZIs

Bardo Pond and Organic Music Society both very good - thanks thread!

haven't heard the organic music society version, but there's also a nice performance of it on the live in ankara album recorded in 1969. this song always makes me happy, so i'm kind of curious to see what bardo pond have done with it (given i've not kept up with their output for a long, long time).

i heard a cover of Colors I was really into but i dont know who its by

I listened to this at lunch today for the first time. it's fun, kind of sloppy/sketchy in places but in a fun way.

Karma is great, but I prefer Tauhid, mostly for sentimental reasons though.

i've always felt that pharoah's best work is on journey to satchidananda, better than his solo albums or even his playing with coltrane (john)