Pharoah Sanders Quartet; photo Jim Kyriakidis
Pharoah Sanders is regarded as the best tenor sax player alive, and with good reason. He’s seventy-four years old now and shuffles slowly onto stage while the band get the rhythm going, but as soon as he puts the sax to his lips you say a little prayer of thanks for every one of those years. The rest of his body may have slowed but the parts needed to play the sax work just fine. He may not have the power and playing fervour that he once did but in its place age has given him something else. A style all of his own, played with a natural ease that only experience can produce.
Sanders brings a little old-world charm to the stage with his squared white beard and panama hat. His gentle jiving and sing back routines got the audience to find their voice and a wry smile showed that even after forty years the love of performing is still there. His playing was virtuoso and polished but the brazen wailing and rough edges for which he’s famous were missing. Age it seems has brought refinement and calm.
There was a sense of passing the torch and Sanders left much of the free jazz explorations to the other members of the band. Long-time collaborator William Henderson cuts a humble shape at the piano. His lightning hands and ability to give the other instruments space create the platform for the wild solos on bass and drums.
And what solos they were. No part of the drum kit was left unplayed and no tempo unexplored in some truly incredible riffs. There was something delightfully playful, even cheeky at times, in this showboating but it never felt overdone or out of control. Bass was equally impressive and adventurous. He threw in some rock-esque slides and bluesy chords in his daring solos and crafted a vibrant, meaty bassline when the others re-joined. Together they did the work of the apprentices in the master’s workshop, ​with Sanders adding the finishing touches.
He may no longer be the man who rolled out of a smoky studio beside John Coltrane and he may need to take a seat on stage every now and then but Pharoah Sanders still has the power to bring a crowd to its feet.
Rating: 4.5 out of 5 stars
Pharaoh Sanders Quartet
Melbourne Recital Centre
Melbourne International Jazz Festival
May 28 – June 7
melbournejazz.com
