The Pharoah Sanders Quartet will perform at the Kimo Theatre Saturday at 8 p.m. as part of the New Mexico Jazz Workshop's 25th Anniversary Season Guest Artist Series.
This concert is a must for jazzheads. As the musical heir to John Coltrane, tenor saxophonist Pharoah Sanders is a jazz great. His type of playing is usually filed into the categories of free jazz, avant-garde or "out there." But, if we must put a label on his music, it should be "good."
Born to a musical family in Little Rock, Ark., Sanders picked up the clarinet in junior high school before switching to tenor sax in high school. He cites saxophonists Coltrane, Sonny Rollins and Charlie Parker as early influences, but his sound is all his own. After playing the blues and jazz club circuit in Little Rock while still a minor, he moved to Oakland, Calif., to study music and art at Oakland Junior College.
Always sitting in with different players and constantly listening and learning, Sanders developed a diverse way of blowing his tenor, which is rooted in discipline and control. Some critics and skeptics write off Sanders' work as part of the late '60s free jazz movement that they would like to forget, but his body of work is anything but the screeching noise that jazz purists might have you believe. Though most remembered for his work with Coltrane from 1965-67, Sanders has played with everyone from Don Cherry and Ornette Coleman to the conscious hip-hoppers, The Last Poets according to Rolling Stone magazine's Web site.
In a recent interview in Downbeat magazine, Pharoah said that, for him, making music is like a prayer. His song "The Creator Has a Master Plan," from the CD Karma, which was released by Impulse Records, the CDs Rejoice and Crescent With Love, both on the Evidence recording label, are some of the best musical prayers ever recorded.
Do not miss the Pharoah Sanders Quartet. Tickets are still available and cost $30 for orchestra and mezzanine seats and $25 for balcony seating. However, students can purchase half-price tickets starting at 7 p.m. Saturday at the Kimo box office. Contact Ticketmaster at 883-7800 or stop by the Kimo box office for tickets. New Mexico Jazz Workshop members can call 255-9798.
Rounding off the New Mexico Jazz Workshop's 25th Anniversary Season will be the Ahmad Jamal Trio on March 24, and Elvin Jones and the Jazz Machine on April 21. Both will be held at the Hiland Theatre.
