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My second of two concerts on June 30th, 2006 was Pharoah Sanders at The Spectrum in Montreal (the first of the day was Gomez, also at The Spectrum. Gotta love Jazzfest!). It was my first time seeing Pharoah Sanders and I was excited.
I discovered Pharoah Sanders (1940-2022) at the right time. His long, groove-based explorations meshed perfectly with the jamband scene that I had recently discovered, and the sitar-like buzziness and microtonal experiments of his side players like Alice Coltrane and Leon Thomas sat well with my newly acquired taste for Indian music. I was also going out to see a lot of local acid-jazz shows at Ottawa venues like The Pit and The Cave courtesy of players like Rob Frayne and Wayne Eagles so I was good and ready when this music first hit me, and it hit me pretty hard.
I don’t remember a lot of specifics about the show but I can see Pharoah Sanders in my mind’s eye, standing up on the stage forcing the most god-awful squeaks and squonks out of his saxophone in a way that was both beautiful and transcendent. The man played as if music was the most important thing in the world, and of course he was right, especially when the music in question is being played by a guy who feels like it’s the most important thing in the world. He just poured his whole physical and psychic being into that horn and amazing things came out of it as a result.
I guess Pharoah was a musical shaman – he certainly looked the part. Some musicians play chords, others play the music of the gods. I don’t think it has to do with what you’re doing as much as how and why you’re doing it, and talking (or writing) about it afterwards doesn’t mean very much. A musical shaman addresses what’s happening in the now, and they make music by stringing together a succession of those nows.
Maybe the fact that I don’t recall much of this concert is my mind’s reaction to his in-the-moment sort of playing. Could it be that Pharoah pulled the shaman-listener out of me? Regardless, I remember being quite thrilled with the show and was very happy to have seen it in such an intimate venue, and one I had seen so many great shows in before.
Nobody knew it at the time but The Spectrum was about a year from closing it’s doors at that point, and I believe that when I walked out into the hot Montreal night after this concert with my soul tilted towards the heavens it was my last time walking through the doors of The Spectrum.
Todd Man Out 