Pharoah Sanders

Pharoah Sanders was one of jazz’s great tenor saxophonists, born in Little Rock, Arkansas in 1940. Working across jazz and free jazz, he developed a searching, full-bodied sound that could move from fierce collective improvisation to deep calm without losing its sense of purpose.

His catalogue gives a good measure of that range: Karma, Thembi, Black Unity and Love in Us All remain key landmarks in a body of work that joined spiritual focus to open-ended playing. Late in his career, Promises, made with Floating Points and the London Symphony Orchestra, introduced that same patience and clarity to a new audience. Sanders died in Los Angeles in 2022.