Pharoah Sanders
Jan 29, 2015 – Feb 01, 2015
Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts
10 Lincoln Center Plaza (Broadway, between 62nd & 65th Sts.)
Telephone: (212)875.5456
“If there’s anyone who has that quality of freedom, it’s Pharoah. He’s probably the best tenor player in the world.”
—Ornette Coleman
Legendary saxophonist Pharoah Sanders first rose to fame in the 1960s after joining the Sun Ra Arkestra and John Coltrane’s later ensembles. An essential (and essentially divisive) component of free jazz’s early days, Sanders was first recognized for his notoriously aggressive and huge tenor sound. Without losing any of his raw power–or his ability to quite literally make his instrument scream–Sanders quickly began to further expand upon and refine his craft into a more patient, melodic, and spiritually peaceful sound, working a unique beauty into the psychedelic spaciousness of Sun Ra, alongside the improvisational chops and compositional courage of contemporaries like John and Alice Coltrane. Virtuosic, harsh, and one-of-a-kind, Sanders still has the rare qualities that propelled his career for half a century, plus more tricks up his sleeve than ever.
With William Henderson, Nat Reeves, and Joe Farnsworth