Pharoah Sanders Quintet – Pharaoh Sanders Quintet 1970 (ESP)
Label : ESP Value : Early work from Pharoah Sanders -- an important debut as a leader, cut before he rose to greater fame in the group of John Coltrane! If you think that Pharaoh Sanders' genius as a leader first blossomed during his post-Coltrane years on Impulse, you owe it to yourself to check out this early album for ESP -- a startlingly great session that offers a whole new side of his talents! The album features 2 side-long tracks -- each of them great in their own ways, both in ways that are far different from the later Sanders sound on Impulse! Pharoah's tone here isn't nearly as raspy as on his more famous sides -- it's more straightforward, almost Coltrane-esque -- and as the long tracks unfold, there's almost a Sonny Rollins-like sense of spontaneous invention, especially on "Bethera", which takes up all of side two. And while we love the spiritual sensibilities of Sanders' classic albums, we also really like the pointednes...
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