Pharoah Sanders: Elevation [VERVE]

Why you'll love it

This 180g pressing comes in a gatefold jacket and was pressed in Germany. Four of its five pieces were caught live at the Ash Grove in Los Angeles in September 1973, with Sanders leading a percussion-heavy band through spiritual jazz and Nigerian highlife.

This edition

• 180g vinyl
• Gatefold jacket
• Pressed in Germany

About the album

Denzel Washington grew up with this album, and when he made Roman J. Israel, Esq., he suggested the title track to the director himself. That's a fair endorsement for a record that spends its first side on an 18-minute spiritual jazz climb.

Sanders plays tenor and soprano, shakers and bells, with Joe Bonner on piano and harmonium, Calvin Hill on bass and tambura, Michael Carvin on drums and Lawrence Killian on congas, and everyone sings. Ed Michel produced, and "Greeting To Saud (Brother Mc Coy Tyner)" was cut at Wally Heider's studio in San Francisco with Michael White on violin and Sedatrius Brown on vocals. Bonner also plays cow horn and wood flute, and John Blue and Jimmy Hopps add extra percussion. "Ore-Se-Rere" is a Nigerian juju highlife tune by Ebenezer Obey, and "The Gathering" builds over nearly 14 minutes before "Spiritual Blessing" brings the set home.

All About Jazz compared its ambience to Alice Coltrane's Journey In Satchidananda, which Sanders also played on, and it sits comfortably beside his Impulse! classics Thembi and Karma. File it under lifting, in every sense.

Also at Kops: more Pharoah Sanders on vinyl · browse Modern Jazz

Tracklist

Listen

On Impulse! / Verve (cat# AS-9261), a reissue of the 1973 live album.