Pharoah Sanders • Izipho Zam (My Gifts)
 ack in the day, when brick-and-mortar record shops were still plentiful
(and not yet staffed by pirates ready to plunder the incoming stock for resale on eBay),
knowledgeable jazz collectors flipping through bins would always pause when a release from
Strata-East appeared. Not only were Strata-East finds pretty uncommon, but titles from the
small US label were always adventuresome, making for an automatic purchase. Founded in
1971, the label issued about sixty LPs during the 1970s, exemplified by musicians like
Pharoah Sanders. Sanders came to prominence recording with John Coltrane during the last
phase of Coltrane’s career before his untimely death in 1967, a period when Coltrane
was taking jazz into the avant-garde, playing in large groups with lots going on that did
not often sit well with lovers of more traditional jazz. Sanders’ hard-blowing ways
continued when he carried Coltrane’s mantel after his death, but he harbored some
latent strands that soon reflected Sanders had a more contemplative side -- his embrace of
African-American rhythms and Eastern spiritual music.
Sanders’ first participation on a Coltrane recording was on the 1965 Impulse release Ascension, an album so out there that even dedicated jazz fans required some stamina to listen to it. In late 1966, Sanders recorded Tauhid, his first as a leader for Impulse and a much less combustible example of his playing. Within a few years, the softer side of Sanders showed through even in his album titles and cover photos, like 1969’s Karma and 1971’s Thembi, with a photo of Sanders playing flute and walking against an idyllic backdrop. Izipho Zam straddles these periods in every way. Recorded in January of 1969 with Clifford Jordan as producer, and eventually released by Strata-East in 1973 (after its formation in 1971), this album reflects Sanders’ Afro rhythms and spiritual influences, if not in full flower, then in full development. This was only the second album Sanders recorded as a leader, but its delayed release put it on record-store shelves next to recordings made several years later for Impulse. Yet the older recording seemed right in line with what Sanders was up to in the 1970s. Izipho Zam features a 14-piece band. Sanders plays tenor sax, flute, percussion and adds vocals, although the most recognized vocal on this as on many Sanders’ recordings is the stylized yodeling of Leon Thomas, who also fills in on percussion. Sonny Fortune plays alto sax and Howard Johnson tuba. Lonnie Liston Smith plays piano, and Sonny Sharrock is on guitar. Cecil McBee and Sirone (Norris Jones) are on bass. Percussion is supplied by Billy Hart on drums, Chief Bey on African drums, and Nat Bettis and Tony Wiles on other percussion instruments. The album has only three numbers, all of which Sanders composed, each highlighting a somewhat different side of his musical persona. Side A opens with "Prince Of Peace," heavy with bells and the singing and yodeling of Leon Thomas. I recently attended a sold-out series of performances at Yoshi’s in Oakland, California, with Sanders still blowing hard at the age of 79. Sanders grew up in Oakland before moving on to New York and has a dedicated fan base there. What most often had the crowd to their feet were numbers very much like "Prince of Peace," with incantations and yodeling, the type of music that Sanders turned to with regularity on his Impulse releases in the 1970s. "Balance," the second cut on side A, has fierce horn lines supported by a bass line that includes Howard Johnson’s tuba. The odds are that most jazz fans asked to identify musicians who played tuba would come up with a single name -- Howard Johnson. Johnson played with Mingus and Rahsaan Roland Kirk, and there was a time when my record-collecting habits took me down several completist rabbit holes, when I aimed to collect any record on which Johnson played tuba. One listen to this LP and you’ll understand. A little tuba goes a long way, but when applied the right way, it’s much more than an acquired taste. This song shows Sanders’ uncompromising avant-garde side, with the screeching horn lines and unlimited energy that were his hallmarks during the Coltrane years, and which he still integrates into his performances, albeit with intensity commensurate with his age. Side B is the masterpiece of the LP, one whole side dedicated to the title number, opening with flute and drums, then layering in sections devoted to yodeling accompanied by guitar and horns; then percussion again, then guitar, then horn and back to percussion, capped by a section of African chants and cries, and then a bit of cacophony of horns. The whole 28-minute piece gathers steam as it goes, building the transcendental, meditative feel of tonal exploration until it builds to a riotous end. Few recordings are as much fun as side B here. It’s easily among Sanders’ finest performances on record. Unlike most Strata-East recordings (which were recorded
at Minot Sound Studio), Izipho Zam was recorded at Town Sound Studios, which
closed shop in 1970 before Strata-East was formed. The recording engineer, Orville
O’Brien, recorded quite a few avant-garde titles in the late 1960s and throughout the
1970s, initially for Blue Note and Prestige, then mostly with Strata-East, Flying Dutchman
and Impulse. Fourteen-piece bands are not the easiest ensemble to capture, especially when
playing new jazz, and you can’t expect many of these recordings to sound like Gil
Evans’ Out of the Cool, one of Rudy Van Gelder’s greatest sonic
achievements. That said, the recording quality here is quite good, with the instruments
fairly well balanced and clearly recorded, if not set in a particularly deep or
well-defined soundstage. The perfectly flat, quiet Pallas pressing, however, takes the LP
up a notch from its original incarnation, released during the 1973 oil embargo, when
nobody accused anyone’s vinyl of being virgin. |
