Pharoah Sanders - Love in Us All '1973 [2007]

Tracks list

Recorded near the end of Pharoah Sanders tenure at Impulse, Love in Us All
consists of two extended compositions. Together, they serve as an aural
representation of the way Sanders music polarized the jazz world at the time.
Like many of his New Thing peers, the saxophonist sought the sound world beyond
the constraints of conventional harmony. This often translated into music played
at the grating, far reaches of his instrument. To John finds Sanders in this
territory. His solo begins with Coltrane-isms of short motive development before
stretching out into a more personal sound. Finding himself engulfed by a rising
musical tide, he plays like hes fighting desperately to stay above it. Soon his
saxophone takes on a sorrowful tone as if admitting inevitable defeat. With
little optimism apparent, it ultimately communicates a sense of emptiness.
However, the often one-dimensional criticism of Sanders as an angry,
confrontational musician fails to take in the ragged beauty of a work like Love
Is Everywhere. The song offers little explanation as to what the furor was all
about. It begins with an exquisite bass vamp that the song builds from. Love is
everywhere is repeatedly and passionately shouted as the music escalates into a
disorienting swirl of sound. Sanders enters midway through with a surprisingly
restrained and lyrical solo on soprano. These two songs hardly seem to belong on
the same album and are best approached separately. Many of the players who took
musical and philosophical inspiration from John Coltrane failed to translate it
into resonant works of their own. Sanders unsuccessful attempt on To John falls
in this category. Yet, in a way, Coltrane himself never created a work as
emotionally direct as Love Is Everywhere.

Tracks:

01. Love Is Everywhere (Sanders) - 19:55
02. To John (Sanders) - 20:42

Personnel:

Pharoah Sanders - tenor saxophone, flute
Joe Bonner - piano
James Branch - flute
Cecil McBee - bass
Norman Connors - drums
Lawrence Killian, James Mtume, Badal Roy - percussion

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