SFJAZZ presents Pharoah Sanders Quartet
2015-01-08
Miner Auditorium
SFJAZZ Center, 205 Franklin St, San Francisco, CA
7:30 PM, Thursday, January 8, 2015

Back to the previous event! ☸ Up to the 2015 yearbox! ☸ Up to the 2015 event list! ☸ On to the next event!

[7:33 PM lights down, announcements]

1. [7:34 PM] You've Got to Have Freedom
2. [7:49 PM] ?Polka Dots and Moonbeams
3. [8:05 PM] The Creator Has a Master Plan
   [set ends 8:15 PM]

[8:42 PM lights down]

1. [8:43 PM] ?
2. [9:09 PM] ?
3. [9:25 PM] Medley: Save Our Children/Yeah-yeah
   [show ends 9:35 PM]

• Joe Farnsworth: drums;
• William Henderson: piano;
• Nathaniel "Nat" Reeves: contrabass;
• Pharoah Sanders: tenor saxophone, percussion, vox;

I was pretty excited to see Pharoah again – after all, it's been about a year since his last visit – but I'd forgotten how much his stamina has slipped over the past few years, and ultimately, I was slightly disappointed with the show.

Pharoah started out plenty strong, honking through the head of Freedom with mighty blasts of his horn that careened edgily between controlled power and atonal chaos. Hooray, the lion king still roars! All too soon, though, he dropped his horn, then slowly walked off into the shadows, leaving his band to carry out the exposition and solo sections of the tune. Ten or twelve minutes later he ambled back to the mic, signalling the return to the head, and after a bit of that, the tune was done.

The next tune – a standard I ought to recognize (Polka Dots is my wild guess) – followed much the same layout, though this time Pharoah stayed out a bit longer, taking time to develop a mellifluous solo for us before bowing out.

And so the show unraveled. The Creator was a bit briefer than the first two tune, possibly because Pharoah started it as if it would simply be the Theme, but then decided to take time to dance and do his jive-shouting routine before (after?) introducing the band. Even so, it was a short set, at barely 40 minutes (and Pharoah sat out at least half of it!).

The second set continued in the same manner, offering up little to differentiate it from the first, save that the brief head sections obviously featured differing melodies. Fun, but also a bit of a let down. If it's thought more about it,I wouldn't have been surpassed, since this has been the style got pariahs shows over the past couple years, but entering instead with fresh expectations I was somewhat disappointed in the end.adj eel, at least I got to see plenty of strong outings from him over the past thirty years!

Back to the previous event! ☸ Up to the 2015 yearbox! ☸ Up to the 2015 event list! ☸ On to the next event!