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Pharoah Sanders Solo at Grace Cathedral
by: Harry S. Pariser
jazzreview.com
April 22, 2006
"...his flat-top styled hair and trim goatee have turned to grey, but he still commands an immense stage presence."
Tenor saxophonist Pharoah Sanders burst through the gates in John Coltrane's group. At 65, he's going strong.
San Francisco Chronicle
Daniel King, Staff Writer
Wednesday, April 19, 2006
"Few musicians, if any, can match it. The volume is so high, the tempo so fast and the tension so thick, Pharoah Sanders puts down his saxophone, screams and then returns to it for his sprawling improvisation."
The Ascension of Pharoah Sanders
By Bill Forman
April, 2006
"John Coltrane's musical and spiritual collaborator talks about a few of his favorite things"
Perfect Pharoah
Diverse, gutsy and downright unconventional,
music’s Pharoah Sanders sets his sights on the Kuumbwa stage
by Peter Koht
April 13, 2006
"It’s a rare artist who can overcome the transitory nature of organized sound to make a song truly resonate within the human heart. Pharoah Sanders is one of the chosen few whose music still can affect listeners long after the coda has drifted off and the house lights have come up."
Legend of the Pharoah
By Jennifer Odell
Dec 8, 2004
"Over the course of five decades or so, tenor saxophonist Pharoah Sanders, 64, has never been afraid to change it up. He has employed bands with yodelers, sitars, tablas, ouds and kotos and has recorded long squawking vamps, ballads, ”cosmigroove” and even disco. But the common denominator has always been the spiritual energy that fuels his improvisation. It's an energy that seems to be predicated on a human intuition, a natural sense of human relationships and languages as they relate to pure feeling. "
Pharoah Sanders at the Jazz Bakery
November 21, 2004
LeRoy Downs
"Pharoah Sanders sound is free, modal and very impressionistic. I have few of my favorite things as well and one of them is music played with passion and love in the spirit of Trane. ... You have to appreciate some one who takes an instrument to its limits and then says now let's see what you can do."
Sound hieroglyphs
By Seth Jordan
April 8, 2004
"...when Pharoah Sanders blows his mighty tenor sax, you know you're hearing an originator. One of the last remaining musical pioneers from the fertile New York jazz scene of the mid-'60s - which included Miles Davis, Ornette Coleman, Don Cherry and John Coltrane - Sanders' special soaring contribution to the period is undeniable."
Pharoah Sanders Band
Summerstage, Central Park, NYC
http://www.rootsworld.com
June 15, 1996
"It was the kind of afternoon that only comes occasionally, a warm, sunny day in Central Park, NYC that made the perfect vibe for a near perfect concert. Headliner Pharoah Sanders pulled together one of those quantum bands that you only dream of seeing, the Afro-centric saxman joined by a band that included Indian percussionist Badal Roy, drummer Adam Rudolph and Foday Musa Suso on kora. The normally serene, introspective and cosmic Sanders was in a rare mood, energetic, almost lighthearted, and he danced this band through a phenomenal set of tunes and improvisations that included long improvisations from not only African themes but also some Asian vibes. At one point they even pulled out a harmonium a la Fateh Nusrat Ali Khan (now there's a dream-team that would inspire!), layering it at first with Indian rhythms, but eventually letting it expand into a full blown Afro-jazz number."
My Conversation with Pharoah Sanders
By Fred Jung
All About Jazz
1999
"I'm not a jazz artist. Don't get me wrong now, it's all music to me. I just played music and if it's likeable, someone liked the sound, then fine, but I'm not interested in being a jazz musician. I don't consider myself a jazz musician. I don't have anything to do with that word."