Sanders, Pharoah
Live At Antibes Jazz Festival, July 21, 1968
Pharoah Sanders recorded live at the Antibes Jazz Festival in Juan-les-Pins, July 21, 1968. Pharoah Sanders' status began to rise upon joining John Coltrane's band in 1965, where his discordant solos formed a strong contrast to Trane's more melodious sound, though each player had a strong impact on the other's subsequent work. Following Coltrane's untimely death in 1967, Sanders formed a quartet of his own with former Jazz Messengers pianist Lonnie Liston Smith, bassist Norman 'Sirone' Jones of the Untraditional Jazz Improvisational Team, and drummer Majeed Shabazz. For this blistering performance, given at the Antibes Jazz Festival of 1968 and broadcast on French radio station WDR3, the quartet moves through various Sanders free-jazz workouts, taking in 'Venus' from the 'Tauhid' album and 'The Creator Has A Master Plan' from 'Karma' along the way, with the rhythm section holding down the fort as Sanders blows himself into the stratosphere.