A riotous, squalling free jazz racket
The freedom of Pharoah Sanders
Hello! Thank you for signing up for, or stumbling on, this no-news-newsletter written by me, Ashley Clark. If you do subscribe—and it’s free—you’ll receive occasional bulletins about whatever happens to be loitering in my head at any given moment (usually some combination of art/film/music/literature/football.) If that sounds good, hit the button!
I normally like to kick off with a quick recommendation of something I’ve been enjoying recently, but this has been an especially hectic week in non-free-Substack land, and therefore the recommendation is the long and the short of the newsletter.
It’s a good one, though: the sensational (mostly) live LP “Elevation” (1974) by the Arkansas-born saxophonist and composer Pharoah Sanders. Sanders, now 81, enjoyed a recent critical hit with last year’s astounding “Promises”, which was made in collaboration with Floating Points and the London Symphony Orchestra, and released by the excellent Luaka Bop record label, which was responsible for presenting the rediscovered oeuvre of Nigerian synth funk maverick William Onyeabor to the world.
It might be a bit uncool to admit this, but I first discovered Sanders’ music by Shazaming it while trying to get some writing done in the upstairs cafe at the Ritzy Picturehouse in Brixton, probably about a decade ago. The person working the bar was controlling the music from their phone, and was playing, at eardrum-bludgeoning volume, “Elevation”’s fifth track “The Gathering”, which steadily builds into what can only be described as a riotous, squalling free jazz racket. Thrilling stuff, but hardly conducive to meeting a deadline. Before I flounced out in a huff, I made sure to hold my phone up to the speaker and find out what it was, and “Elevation” has been in steady rotation for me ever since.
My favorite track on the LP, “Greeting to Saud (Brother McCoy Tyner)” is the only studio cut, and—strikingly counter to the restless energy of the rest of “Elevation”—might be one of the most purely relaxing songs ever recorded: a twinkling, crystalline, piano-led dreamscape that has helped to put my spirit at ease on more than one testing occasion. I’ve never been able to track down a vinyl copy of “Elevation”, so if you ever spot one, please give me a shout! Or buy it for yourself and don’t tell me!
Sanders has an extraordinarily rich back catalog, both solo, and as a sideman for the likes of John and Alice Coltrane, Don Cherry, and the aforementioned McCoy Tyner. If you’ve got some time, dive in, and if you want some further reading about Sanders, I personally enjoyed this interview in the New Yorker from January 2020. This is really just the tip of the tip of the iceberg of an incredible career, though.
Thank you for reading. Please consider subscribing to this newsletter if you’ve yet to do so, or, if you have, spreading the word. I appreciate it!
I've found myself listening to Alice Coltrane for the first time this week- truly listening. This post came at a perfect time. Diving into Pharoah on this gloomy Sunday morning!