is Karma by Pharoah Sanders the best record ever?

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)

literally dying for him to come play in the uk. last shows were in 2008 and i was totally un-sanders-revelated back then.

he's notoriously patchy/indifferent live these days, sadly - obv dude is pretty old now, v. hard to sustain that kinda blowing intensity. in the uk he was adopted by the acid jazz crowd, thanks mainly to some of his more funky 70s/80s tunes, and he generally plays the jazz cafe in london w/ frankly mediocre backing groups that are not well-versed in free/fire music. i guess what im saying is, just don't expect the jazz composers orchestra if you go see him

Anyone have any idea who 'For Big George' from 'Shukuru' is about?

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