is Karma by Pharoah Sanders the best record ever?

lets talk about these lps

i've only ever listened to Live at the East once or twice. kinda whatever. (actually i take that back.listening now. it's what you'd expect from a prime period PS album except you can hear people clapping in the background).

Pharoahs First, even though it's on ESP was boring. remember it being just bop.

i only got Elevation recently. weird that i didn't even know it existed because he's one of my fave artists. it's pretty good. some of the same players on the later albums (village, wisdom). not as much sax also.

fuck. just buy or download them all. except First and the Pharoah & Latin Jazz Quartet album.

This might be a stupid question, but how did those Pharoah Sanders albums that have tunes longer than 25 minutes work on vinyl? Did the tune fade out at the end of side A and the fade in at the beginning of side B? Did they only become available in their intended form after they were released on CD?

yes. http://www.discogs.com/release/873261

Def. one of the huge benefits of CD.

everyone should own two copies of each pharoah album!

-- vahid (vahid), Saturday, May 28, 2005 1:49 AM

i am working on this as we speak.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY, FARRELL PHAROAH SANDERS!!!

and i was just singing "the creator has a master plan" to myself today before i found out. made me feel damn in tune, lemme tell ya. also i'm in little rock, his birthplace! gotta listen to some this eve in his honor.

oh and jaxon, interesting cover of it you put up on the blog recently.

I wish someone would reissue the CD version of "Izipho Zam", it's impossible to find even a used copy at a reasonable price.

not enough love for colors here -- i like the way the singer sings "puuuuuuuuuurple"...

happy birthday! i'm so glad i got to see you play within my lifetime!

to paraphrase neal cassady, "thembi" beats "karma"

The Louis Armstrong duet with Leon Thomas on "The Creator Has a Master Plan" is kinda fun, though Armstrong doesn't really put much effort to it.

Gareth do you still have that live set?

this record is killing me right now:
http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_S6slEGoLEz0/SMlQxHOcb6I/AAAAAAAAAZw/T7SiAscNQdY/s200/Trance+of+Seven+Colors.jpg

Went and saw the man perform at Birdland a few weeks ago and he delivered the goods.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y7EGQzn8e1k

Just found this awesome live performance on Youtube, what an incredibly beautiful solo! Does anyone know if this is available on record?

thanks tuomas. that video was amazing. the circular breathing at around 5minutes was breathtaking (heh)

Phenomenal! Thanks for that Tuomas.

It looks like that song (though not the same version as in the video) is available this CD, which still in print. I just ordered it online, will report back once I get to hear it.

To be honest I'd always seen Sanders as more of a "groove"/"cosmic" type of player, so I've stayed away from the later albums with smoother, extended solos. However, that video convinced that he might be equally good at that sort of setting.

ya. there are so many of his albums i've never heard. everything from 1973-2000! i see a bunch of those around too. love will find a way, journey to the one, rejoice. i have Spirits, his 2000 record with Hamid Drake and Adam Rudolph and it's ridiculously beautiful.

It's nice that those Theresa/Evidence albums are still easily available, as this doesn't seem to be case with many other late 70s/early 80s jazz albums. A while ago I bought this great album by Idris Muhammad, which also features some pretty, smooth playing by Sanders (though there's some shrieking and wailing as well).

His collabs with Alice Coltrane are absolutely transcendent, esp. 'Ptah, The El Daoud' & 'Journey in Satchidananda.'

Not sure if you're including these in your 1973-2000 range jaxon but Elevation and Love In Us All (both from 1973) are possibly my two favorite albums by him, Elevation being my definite favorite.

i have elevation, but not love in us all.

wow great clip

It's Sonny Sharrock's birthday this week so WKCR is playing some great Sonny and Pharoah right now.

Man, I went looking for live Pharoah on YouTube around his birthday, especially Creator, and totally couldn't find anything satisfying.

picked up a cheap copy of 'love will find a way' but haven't been able to listen to it yet because every time i do, mrs jaxon asks me to turn it off during the first song. too smooth. we'll see...

This is awesome - Louis Armstrong (w/Leon Thomas) sings "The Creator Has A Master Plan", with arrangement by Oliver Nelson:

http://destination-out.com/?p=474

!

I'm really hoping that's not one of these: Britney's cover of Funkadelic's "Red Hot Mama"

I already mentioned it upthread. It's a okay version, but not as awesome as it sounds on paper. I think it ends a bit abruptly and too soon, and Satchmo doesn't really put much effort into it. The reason this version exists is that Armstrong and Leon Thomas were both on Bob Thiele's label, Flying Dutchman, at that time. I think it was Thiele's idea to have Satchmo record it.

Sorry, didn't scan the thread, and sure hadn't heard it. Neat little curio.

No problem, now others get to hear it too.

I think Thomas's own solo version of it on his debut album is clearly better though, as fun as it is to hear Satchmo on this version.

Thiele was an interesting cat, "discovered" Buddy Holly, married to Theresa Brewer, had song written about him by George Coleman's wife, Gloria, called "Funky Bob." Think he maybe wrote some songs himself.

Also, in Thomas's version you actually get to hear the verses too - even though the verse lyrics were printed in the liner notes of Karma, they aren't sung in the Pharoah version (nor in the Satchmo version).

(x-post)

xxpost I think Thiele wrote "What A Wonderful World" of all things. Or am I thinking of someone else?

I think so, yes.

No, that's exactly right. (xp)

And I just checked, his wife's name was Teresa, no 'h.' Although she was born Theresa Breuer.

I've got to pull out that Ashley Kahn book about Impulse.

Wikipedia says:

Some of the songs Thiele wrote, for example "What a Wonderful World", are credited to George Douglas or Stanley Clayton[2]. These are pseudonyms Thiele used, made from the names of his uncles, Stanley, Clayton, George, and Douglas.

Btw, Leon Thomas's albums on Flying Dutchman are all more or less great, and everyone who digs his collabs with Pharoah, or soulful jazz in general, should check them out.

Just been thinking about Pharoah and Sonny Sharrock because of that No Guitar Solo threads and how those two guys had the abiility to consistently solo from a deep place and not just be filling/making time.

Thanks for the reccs, Tuomas - never heard those Flying Dutchman records of Leon Thomas'. Will track 'em down!

In the liners for the new Coltrane box set, Bob Weinstock disses Thiele and Impulse for stealing all of his artists after he made them big. From what I've read, though, Impulse paid their artists waaaay better than Prestige.

The first two (Spirits Known and Unknown and The Leon Thomas Album) are especially worth hearing if you like Thomas's collabs with Sanders, as they're quite close to that sound. Sanders even plays on SKaU. The third and fourth albums (Blues and the Soulful Truth and Full Circle) are probably closer to soul than jazz, but they're still pretty great - especially BatST, which IMO is one of the finest sould albums ever made.

(x-post)