Pharoah Sanders - 1967 - Tauhid

Pharoah Sanders

1967

Tauhid

01. Upper Egypt & Lower Egypt 17:00
02. Japan 3:29
03. Aum / Venus / Capricorn Rising 14:52

Bass – Henry Grimes
Drums – Roger Blank
Guitar – Sonny Sharrock
Percussion – Nat Bettis
Piano – Dave Burrell
Tenor Saxophone, Alto Saxophone, Piccolo Flute, Vocals – Pharoah Sanders

Original stereo pressing with orange & black labels, "A Product of ABC Records Inc.", and VAN GELDER stamp in runouts.

This album has been enormously influential and important over the years to not only jazz-lovers as a whole but also to many musicians/arrangers/producers from across many genres. It is also an excellent example of the results of complete artistic freedom. Such was the context given to the artists that Impulse producer Bob Theile afforded them, when they came to do their thing in the studio for this ABC/Paramount label in the 60's.

This album has a feel of confidence and charge which allows it an accessibility and artistic integrity that shines through immediately upon each listening some 44 years after its original release. Sublime arrangements and playing abound it in it. From the swooping and ritualistic blowing of Sanders horn to the grooves in the double bass to the beautifully placed guitar of Sonny Sharrock and multifarious percussion this is just one mighty recording.

It is clear to understand how it pushed and enlivened the creativity and exploration by the Detroit scene of the late 60's a la MC5 and Stooges, let alone the countless other artists and players who have heard it since. One special note to be made is that of the piano used to brilliant counterpoint usage with its delicate opening to the the calm from the storm of 'Upper Egypt & Lower Egypt'. The chordal placements of the piano are used with much grace and restraint and amply demonstrated in the dynamics and voicings used throughout. 'Tauhid' is a true classic with a beauty, import and urgency that shines as clearly now as it did in 1967.

Conventional wisdom has it that saxophonist Pharoah Sanders' signature, late-1960s astral jazz recording is "The Creator Has A Master Plan" from Karma (Impulse!, 1969). But conventional wisdom is rarely to be trusted. Clocking in at an unhurried and mesmerising 32:45, "Master Plan" is certainly definitive Sanders of the time; yet "Upper Egypt And Lower Egypt," from Sanders' own-name Impulse! debut, Tauhid, recorded in November, 1966, is arguably the finest statement in his astral oeuvre.

At a relatively brief 16:16, "Egypt" has all the elements which characterised Sanders' astral excursions—explicit spiritual references, vocal chants, a rolling bass ostinato, "exotic" percussion, out-there but lyrical tenor saxophone, and extended vamp-based collective jamming—and crucially, was played by an edgier and more challenging band, including guitarist Sonny Sharrock and pianist Dave Burrell, than was assembled for Karma. The later album was made by a distinctly more blissed-out line-up, lacking Sharrock, in which the comfort-zone pianist Lonnie Liston Smith and vocalist Leon Thomas figured large.

With Tauhid, however, Sanders—at the time a regular member of saxophonist John Coltrane's band and revelling in his first album as leader since the sock-peeling Pharoah's First (ESP Disk, 1964)—was still stretching the envelope. Of all Sanders' Impulse! albums—he stayed with the label until late 1973, when he fell victim to cost-cutting imposed by corporate bosses ABC Records—Tauhid, produced by Bob Thiele, who also produced Karma before quitting Impulse! in the summer of 1969, also has the best sound.

"Egypt" takes a long time to get to the point, and therein lies much of its charm. Divided into two distinct sections, "Upper Egypt" and "Lower Egypt," the first part is a long, teasing introduction, always seemingly on the brink of resolving itself and giving way to the main theme, but avoiding doing so for almost 9 minutes. Henry Grimes' propulsive post-"Love Supreme" bass ostinato enters at this point, the tempo picks up and the vamp changes—but it's another 3 minutes before Sanders, previously heard only on piccolo, enters on tenor with the unfolding-sunrise main theme, which he reiterates, reconfigures and improvises around for the final 4 minutes, over a fat piano and percussion groove and Sharrock's raggedly crystalline chord work.

"Upper Egypt And Lower Egypt" is so perfect that the rest of Tauhid tends to get forgotten, but the four shorter tracks which complete the album, totalling another 18:08, are also magnificent. "Japan," inspired by Sanders' tour of the country with Coltrane's band in the summer of 1966, is as pretty as pink lotus blossom. "Aum" and "Venus," the first with Sanders on alto, are tougher and further out, before the concluding "Capricorn Rising" re-establishes the album's peaceful opening vibe.

Over the next few years, Lonnie Liston Smith, already worryingly jazz-funkish on Karma, played a key role on Sanders' albums, which became increasingly codified and formulaic. In retrospect, the first cut was indeed the deepest, and for many devotees Tauhid remains Sanders' astral jazz muthalode, and "Upper Egypt And Lower Egypt" his finest (quarter) hour.

With Coltrane, Sanders continued to explore the outer limits of saxophonics. But on Tauhid, recorded in 1966 and the first of 11 albums which Sanders released on Impulse! before leaving the label six years later, he shifted into a mellower gear. From Tauhid onwards, Sanders tempered his multiphonics and high harmonics with catchy tunes, serene vamps, exotic wind and percussion instruments, a meditative vibe and a gruff rather than paint-stripping tone. Tauhid remains the best of Sanders’ Impulse! recordings, largely for the exquisite beauty of its opener, the 16-minute ‘Upper Egypt & Lower Egypt’. Free-jazz guitar pioneer Sonny Sharrock shines on what, sadly, was to be his only Sanders date other than 1969’s rambling Izipho Zam (unreleased until 1973, when Strata-East picked it up).