PHAROAH SANDERS — Tauhid (review)

PHAROAH SANDERS — Tauhid album cover Album · 1967 · Avant-Garde Jazz Buy this album from MMA partners
3.5/5 ·
Sean Trane
In the 60’s, there were dozens of black jazz artistes that expanded their musical universe to non-occidental musics, partly in their mind to escape the pure jazz realm that they thought had been annexed by the white music industry. Indeed some of those artistes thought about the Civil Rights movement of those years, and chose to break the musical rules they thought imposed by the musical industry, by either going to dissonant improvised music or by going to “world” type of musics. Among these musicians, Pharoah Sanders probably went much further than most by doing both the dissonant and the world things. It’s probably safe to say that his revolt pushed him to search further his African roots than most, as Sanders converted to Islam and wore African-made clothes. In some ways in his quest, he happily mixed Sub-Saharan Africa, Egypt and Middle East influences, and even went well beyond sometimes reaching as far as Eastern Asia influences. Another impeccably-produced album from the Thiele-Van Gelder team, really.

Apparently, this is Pharoah’s second solo album (that was news to me), but it’s clear that most of his works for the next few years would bear the Coltrane sign, even in the most “world-influenced” moments, but like most ‘or all) of his works bazck then, there is a strong spiritual dimension to it. The musicians he gathered for this 1967 album are rather different than the ones you’re used to hear around Sanders in the next few years, but you wouldn’t really notice it. Indeed, Burrell’s piano is well within the Alice/McCoy and Liston-Smith line, which definitely gives it the Trane Galaxy sound. In the opening Lower & Upper Egypt that starts on those typical piano lines, Pharoah plays some seldom-heard (then) instruments like the piccolo, while Bettis’ superb percussions abound, Sharrock’s discreet electric guitar giving much-needed oomph when necessary. After the Nile song is dying out slowly, we’re unfortunately faced on the flipside with the Far-Eastern influenced Japan, which I find quite boring and totally out of context from the rest of the album, but thankfully it’s rather short. Much more in line with the usual Sanders universe is the Aum/Venus/Capricorn piece, a full-blown dissonant improvisation (Sanders says they’re written though) track, which does give you some brief recuperation spaces to catch your sanity (or what’s left of it anyway)

Well Tauhid is probably one of my favourite Pharoah releases, even though he would expand musically much further in albums like Jewels Of Thought, but I’ve always preferred his calmer expression than his full dissonant revolt against oppression. If only for the opening track and its impressive piano-guitar intro of Lower Egypt, this album is a must-hear.

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