Pharaoh Sanders - Back to the 60s

At the end of Pharaoh Sanders’ two hour set at the Toronto Jazz Festival last Saturday, he spoke for the first time, and introduced his band. On piano, the great William Henderson; on drums, the great Joseph Farnsworth; on alto, his special guest, the great Kenny Garrett. I didn’t catch who had played bass, but I do recall that he too was great. But the truth is that Sanders’ characterizations were wild understatements. Great doesn’t come close to describing what we saw or heard in Toronto this weekend. Both the band and the evening left ‘great’ way behind. Electrifying, or transcendent, or spectacular would have been much closer to the mark. In the sixties, when Sanders was recording Karma, we would have said cosmic, which sounds trite, but is actually the correct scale, because it most closely approximates the vastness, the enormity of this playing. Another sixties descriptor was “out of sight”, a saying that long ago passed from cliché to parody. But Sanders and Garrett’s music was, in fact, out of sight, because one could barely keep track of it after a time. In any event, when all these other introductions were finished, Sanders closed the evening by telling the audience, “My name is Pharaoh Sanders.” The ultimate understatement. And that was it. The band was gone, and even ten minutes of rhythmic clapping couldn’t bring them back.

It seemed we had been transported back in time. For two hours, Sanders treated his audience to the intensity and challenge of John Coltrane’s live performances from the mid-sixties. There was enough energy to power all of Ontario. Melody, and rhythm, and structure were all stretched to the breaking point. But Sanders has the ability to make the most chaotic and dissonant music sound beautiful at the same time. And of course, there is that distinctive haunting sound of his horn, which is unmistakable, and which brings a kind of beauty and majesty to all of his playing.

We’ve seen some terrific jazz this spring, but this concert was special. And Sanders was right on the money in calling Farnsworth, Henderson, and especially Garrett, great. Kenny Garrett is probably the only young player I can think of who could have kept up with Pharaoh Sanders on this night. Garrett played the role of Eric Dolphy, seeming to push Sanders, to egg him on, just as Dolphy seemed to take Trane’s music to newer and uncharted places. In fact, as the night wore on, and Sanders seemed to tire a bit, Garrett took the lead from him, and began to set the tempo. I can’t blame Sanders though, because the group played at ludicrous speed, for close to two hours, even on Coltrane’s beautiful ballad, Say It, which began slowly, then began to smoke, and eventually burst into flames. For almost thirty minutes. The two-hour concert featured only three numbers, another feature of Trane’s playing, when sometimes a single song would last for the entire concert.

Toronto has fiddled around with its jazz festival over the years, and when we first arrived, I wasn’t sure I liked the current set-up. The main stage for most of the headliners was a tent on the city hall plaza. Because there were no reserved seats, we had to arrive more than an hour early and stand in line. But on this night, the weather was threatening, so the venue was opened early and we got seats long in advance. There were chairs set up in the middle of the tent, but to the side, there were long tables; so we sat down at one of the tables close to the center, had a sandwich and a drink, and couldn’t have been more comfortable all evening. (In Eastman, we get reserved seats, and can arrive moments before the show. But one can’t get a drink, and worse, one needs to be a contortionist to sit there all evening. A two-hour set without any break would leave the audience crippled.) The feeling at Toronto was that of being in a club- sitting not far from the performance, feeling relaxed, all in all a great atmosphere for jazz.

For the record, the evening began with a short set by pianist and vocalist Leila Biali. She’s just a kid, and has enormous talent -- her playing, her compositions, and her vocals. But she needs to find herself. She seemed to be all over the map: singing standards one minute; or torch songs; then veering off into new-agey compositions, and even playing a couple rearranged pop tunes. But because she’s just a kid, and is also pretty cute, I think she has a big future some day.