Pharoah Saunders

Some of us went to see Pharoah Sanders in Dirtroit last week at Baker's Keyboard Lounge on Eight Mile and Livernois, which is really a good place to go to get blown away by space/energy jazz. Bakers will be bringing in other free jazz musicians over the next while. If you go beware the cost: Friday, Saturday and Sunday nights the cover charge is S3.50, plus $1.50 a drink which you have to order at least once each set. Tuesday through Thursday nights there's no cover charge, so you'll probably want to go then.

Pharoah did four dynamite sets that Saturday night. Don Hopps on drums was the sensation of the evening next to Pharoah's wailings, pounding out rhythms the intensity and complexity of which you don't get to feel here in the Mid-west nearly often enough. Ginger Baker was never like this! The second set ended with a tune from Pharoah's latest album, BLACK UNITY, the band chanting "Love is Everywhere, Love is Everywhere." Phew! Pharoah's other likker albums Tauhid, Karma and Jewels of Thought are available on Impulse records.

You need to hear them to understand what words cannot express about this music.