The holy breath of the tenor saxophone: Who is Pharoah Sanders?

Emphasizing the connection between jazz and spirituality, the artist's contact with beliefs such as Islam in his albums since the second half of the 1960s caused his music to be described as 'spiritual jazz'. In his first solo album, "Tauhid", he declared that he believed in the oneness of the Creator.

Pharoah Sanders, who passed away in September 2022, was known in the music world as the musician who 'breathed the holy breath' to the tenor saxophone. By this, it was meant to be expressed that his music was nourished by different religious traditions and cultures and that he opened his soul to different worlds of belief. Indeed, throughout his career, he has always created his music with spiritual strength and spiritual energy. He emphasized the connection of music, especially jazz, with spirituality. Starting from his solo albums in the second half of the 1960s, he came into contact with different religions and beliefs, including Islam, in order to understand the Transcendent Presence and grasp its truth. This is why his music is described as 'spiritual jazz'.

Pharoah Sanders (born Ferrell Lee Sanders; October 13, 1940 – September 24, 2022) was an American jazz saxophonist. Known for his overblowing, harmonic, and multiphonic techniques on the saxophone, as well as his use of "sheets of sound", Sanders played a prominent role in the development of free jazz and spiritual jazz through his work as a member of John Coltrane's groups in the mid-1960s, and later through his solo work. 

Born in 1940 in Little Rock, Arkansas, he was the only child in his family. He started playing in clubs on West Ninth Street, known as 'Little Harlem', in his home city when he was only fifteen years old. However, Little Rock was a place where segregation was visible and palpable in every aspect of life. He wanted to get out of there as soon as possible.

After graduating from school, he moved to New York, where he met and joined John Coltrane. He contributed to Coltrane's late albums, especially Ascension, which can be considered a testament to young musicians seeking innovation in jazz. In these albums, Coltrane continued his spiritual search, which was evident in Ascension as well as Love Supreme.

Coltrane experienced a spiritual awakening in the late 1950s. It was a time when the civil rights movement began when blacks were loudly voicing their demands for racial equality. In those days, many musicians around Coltrane understood and embraced Islam as liberation theology. More importantly, Coltrane's first wife, Naima, was a Muslim. The beliefs of the people around him were influential in his spiritual awakening. This awakening and seeking experience inspired the album 'Love Supreme'.

As Coltrane continued his spiritual and spiritual quest at Ascension, he was also paving the way for a radical new trend that would soon be called free jazz. Sanders was the youngest member of the community. Coltrane and Sanders were two tenor saxophonists from different generations, playing opposite each other on a single forty-five-minute track, joining hands in the creation of innovative music and collaborating perfectly. Sanders stood out as a mature and technically competent musician at a young age. (Archie Shepp, who would be among the pioneers of avant-garde jazz for years to come, was featured on the album as the third tenor saxophonist.)

IT AFFECTED THE DETROIT SCHOOL

With his late albums, Coltrane had bequeathed the musicians in his ensemble to recognize the spiritual dimension present in jazz music and to play this dimension with consideration. Sanders fulfilled his will with his solo albums. Spirituality in post-Coltrane jazz found its most intense expression in his music. He realized that there is a strong spiritual dimension in jazz that brings dynamism to the musician.

In 1994, he made the album 'The Trance of Seven Colors' with the Moroccan Gnawa musician Maleem (Master Musician) Mahmut Guinie. He was performing sufi music, based on a deep-rooted tradition of the Gnawa people living in Morocco. Throughout Pharoah Sanders' entire music career, his never-ending spiritual pursuits and orientations led him this time to the music and culture of black Muslims in Morocco.

The Gnawa people, who were brought to Morocco from West Africa as slaves, accepted Islam and adopted the black muezzin Bilal-i Habeshi, who was once a slave, as their spiritual leader. In his original and interesting work Black Morocco, Chouki El Hamel compares and finds similarities between the slavery experiences of the Gnawa people and African-Americans. According to Hamel, Gnawa's music is similar to the blues-based music of black Americans. Gnawa music also expresses the suffering of people who were once enslaved. However, it should not be forgotten that Gnawa's music is purely mystical. This music is performed in religious rites that last all night, following predetermined rules and divided into different phases.

PRAYER FOR UNIVERSAL PEACE: HUM ALLAH HUM

Pharoah Sanders' second solo album 'Karma' was also based on religious concepts. His style had matured and his spiritual orientation was intensified. This album featured one of the most important and interesting compositions in the history of jazz. The words "The Creator Has a Master Plan" written by vocalist Leon Thomas, Thomas sang with vocal techniques he developed based on the music of African tribes, making rapid transitions between pitches. Sanders played the clarinet, flute, and piano in addition to the tenor saxophone on his 1969 album Jewels of Thought. The most striking piece of this album was titled “Hum-Allah-Hum-Allah-Hum-Allah”. Sanders stated that it was a "universal prayer for peace." On the vocals, Leon Thomas repeats the phrase "Hum-God, hey", or rather, the name of the entity that is always kept in mind, that is, the name of Allah.