Pharoah Sanders-Black Unity

Pharoah Sanders -Black Unity

That a vinyl LP is essentially one long, continuous groove is probably nowhere more evident than listening to Pharoah Sanders’ Black Unity. This album was recorded and released during the peak of his creative power with a cast of ensemble players that are notable for their work in the avant-garde/free jazz space. There’s a whole lotta music packed into these grooves and trying to make sense of this album is not to listen in studied fashion—better to absorb it as a whole than to concentrate on its parts or look for some over-arching theme.

The music is there, but it’s like listening to sounds in nature—they are obvious, sometimes startling, but don’t necessarily make sense if you are expecting something predictable. The album has been characterized by other reviewers as “chaos,” but it is more than a jumble of discordant notes- instead, it pushes you to take in the sounds and let them move you. Repeated listening bears rewards. Here’s what I found.

The album, essentially a single track carried over from one side to the other (both marked as “Side One”), is an exploration of sounds and its power derives from its eclecticism—no trite themes or standard riffs, but instead, a continuum of pushing limits, crackling with energy.  The multi-phonic squawk, a signature of Pharoah Sanders, appears, but it is only part of the flow; the other musicians, including Carlos Garnett, Cecil McBee and Stanley Clarke as well as Billy Hart (no relation) let themselves open up with equal abandon and that’s what makes this album interesting. It is in some ways a model of spiritual jazz, blending various afro and eastern sounds with more experimental techniques and follows a path that isn’t guided by melody or rhythm, but instead, flows with its own sense of direction which is far from predictable.   It isn’t an easy introduction to so-called “spiritual jazz” but is in some ways a culmination of what those schooled in the genre could achieve. It is raw, powerful, and full of interesting segues that seem to meld without interruption.

The copy I secured was, interestingly, a late Impulse from the mid-90s that was part of a special series that was sourced from the tapes. More about that here. https://www.discogs.com/label/335286-The-Impulse!-Reissue-Series?page=1 (This series may prove over time to be a hidden bargain as more reissues revert to digitized sources).

This is an adventurous listen, but I suspect it will endure as a representation of what some of the top artists, working together in a niche genre, were able to produce during a period when they were all in top form. Recommended, with the caveat that it is for those comfortable in the spiritual jazz medium.

Bill Hart

August, 2024