As it was for scruffy scousers in the early '60s, based on this ongoing series of archive concert releases, in the '80s Hamburg looks like it was the place to be for jazzers. And that’s no Fabrikation! This week brings a 1980 recording by the Pharoah Sanders Quartet out of the drawers. And it is Sanders looking quite old on the cover but displaying no age related restraint in the music. In fact it is, largely, 70 minutes of joy, swing, energy, screaming, screeching, blueswailing fun. I don’t know whether it was exceptionally well recorded back in 1980 or if the sound is the result of some analogue to digital cleaning up, but this recording leaps out of the speakers. I first played it whilst driving on the A1 and Ferrybridge has never seemed such a joyous place.
Most of the music (four
of five tracks) is from Sanders’ then newly released Journey To The One; the exception being the ‘greatest hit’ The Creator Has A Master Plan from the Karma album which came out in 1969.
Hicks and Muhammad were both featured on the Journey album whilst Lundy looks to have been brought on board for
live dates.
We’re thrown into the
roiling melee from the off with John Hicks' heavyweight left hand introducing You’ve Gotta Have Freedom. In fact Hicks
is a player of contrasts, his right hand plays some lovely melodies whilst the weight
of his left hand block chords sound like he’s trying to smash the piano apart.
Sanders, meanwhile takes the tenor to places it doesn’t usually go offering up
high pitched growls, wails and snarls. There’s a furious, full-blooded drum
solo that keeps things kicking along at the same level to revel in. A slow,
bluesy coda leads us out with Sanders circular breathing and playing against
echoes of his own notes. The crowd, and quite reasonably so, goes absolutely
bonkers. It’s been 18 minutes (nearly three times as long as the studio
version) and everyone wants to celebrate.
Second piece, the ballad It’s Easy To Remember is a Rodgers and
Hart composition for the 1935 Bing Crosby film Mississippi but it is more likely that it came into Sanders’ orbit
through hearing John Coltrane’s recording on his Ballad album which came out in 1962. It opens with a lovely,
romantic duet between Sanders and Hicks, with Hicks playing what’s left of his
piano after the first tune. He plays especially lyrical, long, elegant, dancing
runs. Just a lovely piece.
Dr.
Pitt
is at that point where, in the sixties, the new soul met jazz and both parties
partied; all it needs is a hopeful Gil Scott-Heron vocal over the top. If Easy…. showed the tender side of the
band, Dr. Pitt is all aggression. Sanders swings his way through some
early choruses over absolutely rock solid percussion from Muhammad and Hicks
then he takes off, running through his whole repertoire of wails, grunts, shrieks,
yells and growls. As with the first track, Dr.
Pitt is given a greatly extended workout but there’s not a wasted moment.
The
Creator Has A Masterplan is truncated from the 30 minute
studio original. It has a lovely melody, intended to invoke the spiritual
heights of A Love Supreme. For all
its brevity, this is another powerful performance with Sanders displaying the
full range of the tenor’s voice from powerful, impassioned shrieks, suggestive
of a Southern Baptist preacher, to lovely elegant lines. This version is for
those of you who were stunned by the free jazz wigout on the studio version.
To close we have Greetings to Idris which sounds like a
celebration as if the band know how good they have been across the previous
hour and now want to party and just swing the evening out. And why not?
These Fabrik releases
have received universally positive reviews and I hope that this re-issue series
continues. This one covers the period in Sanders’ career after he had been
dropped by Impulse, for which label he had recorded his best known work. This Live At Fabrik album suggests that
Impulse had made a bad decision and that he was still capable of outstanding work.
He picked up many fans with his collaboration with Floating Points shortly
before he died and this live album is as good a place for any who first heard
of him then to continue their journey into his music.
Now I’ve got half an hour before tea so we’ll be listening to the studio version of The Creator Has A Masterplan, wigout included. Dave Sayer
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