is Karma by Pharoah Sanders the best record ever?

Could be Big George Brock, who settled in St Louis, where the song's co-writer Leon Thomas was born. If I could figure out a better way to put that, I wouldn't, because I'm writing from my phone.

Cool, that makes sense, thanks.

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

― EZ Snappin, Wednesday, October 28, 2009 4:44 PM (1 year ago) Bookmark

(if not, that is ok, I will just keep ~vibin'~ to Karma)

Here you go!

I have it on my home comp, I can upload it once I get home. IMO it's not as awesome as it sounds on paper, though it's not bad or anything. I'd recommend checking out Leon Thomas's solo version of "The Creator has a Master Plan" that appears on his debut album... That one is awesome, and you can hear all the verse lyrics that were printed to the album sleeve of Karma but didn't appear on the Pharoah version. The rest of the album is great too, and Pharoah plays on it.

(x-post)

Well, I guess I don't have to upload it, then.

dang, i've slept on Shukuru. i used to see it all the damn time, but passed because of the year. title track is beautiful. rest is good?

was just reading about how pharoah doesn't like this album because the engineer didn't put his sax higher in the mix! which seems weird.

(i mean, his sax sounds pretty loud on it, doesn't it?)

It's maybe more restrained than most of his stuff, but that has nothing to do with volume. 'For Big George' sounds oddly...Scottish. Lovely piece.

has it been mentioned that tauhid >>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>> karma?

ha, mayyyybe. but i might say jewels of thought is better than both of those!

That Armstrong cover of "Creator" is cool but also kinda sad.

Karma might not be "the best" by some sort of technical standards, but emotionally, for me, it's the best. Always always always inspires me. Mother nature seems to love us.

Saw a large Armstrong bio in a charity shop today, but then noticed it was auf deutsch. :(

feel like "Karma: Classic or Dud?" might come down to where you stand on "Colors"

(I used to think it was kinda cheesy... like, the first two times I heard it. then I realized it was fucking awesome. because it is.)

I haven't listened to Jewels in a while; I remember "Hum-Allah-Hum" but am blanking on what "Sun In Aquarius" sounds like

I love Live At The East almost as much as I love Karma.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qwl55i6VDrk

Has he really not cut an album since 2003?

no, i don't think so. any reasons why?

It's got soul, man. And some heavy metal sax.

I listen to this every Thanksgiving during dinner. It's the best tradition!

i can't believe izipho zam is still unavailable

listened to that earlier! it's all pharaoh all day here.

last pharoah i listened to was live at the east -- so good! that is weird that izpho zam is out of print. that one rules too.

Prince of Peace from Izipho Zam has become one of our holiday season tunes over the years. Great album. Speaking of maddening OOP Sanders, why can't I find "Harvest Time" anywhere? I love that record.

Speaking of Izipho Zam, I have a Leon Thomas compilation that includes the version of "Prince of Peace" from Izipho Zam, and at least on that comp it has a very obvious and irritating sound glitch towards the beginning of song. I've never gotten Izipho Zam because of the high price you have to pay for it, but can you who own the album tell me whether this glitch is there too?

High price on vinyl you mean? I got a CD of it for like £2 or something.

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