PHAROAH SANDERS

SAVE OUR CHILDREN

  1/  Save Our Children                          (Sasnders,Oyewole,Mboup)      7.51
  2/  Midnight In Berkeley Square                (Sherwin,Maschwitz)           9.17
  3/  Jewels Of Love                             (Sanders)                     14.00
  4/  Kazuko                                     (Sanders)                     10.15
  5/  The Ancient Sounds                         (Sanders)                     10.51
  6/  Far-Off Sand                               (Hussain,Sanders)             9.09
 
          Recorded and Mixed at Orange Music, West Orange, New Jersey
          Engineering: Robert Musso
          Studio assistance: Diabel Faye, Steve O. and Chaz
          Produced by Bill Laswell
          Production coordinators: Patrick Votan and Beverly Harris
          Material, Inc.: John Brown
          Axiom input: Bill Murphy
          Invasion: Steven Saporta

Pharoah Sanders: tenor & soprano saxophone, double reed, bells, percussion, voice; William Henderson: piano, harmonium; Bernie Worrell: organ, electric piano, synthesizers; Tony Cedras: harmonium; Jeff Bova: synthesizers & programming; Alex Blake: acoustic bass; Zakir Hussain: tablas, wooden box, mbira, voice; Trilok Gurtu: drums, tablas, percussion; Abdou Mboup: talking drum, voice; Abiodun Oyewole: voice; Asante: voice.

          1998 - Verve (USA), 7197 (Promo Vinyl)
          1998 - Verve (USA), 314 557 297-2 (CD)

Note: Bill Laswell does not play on this album.

REVIEWS :

With an all star line up that includes names such as Zakhir Hussain and Trilok Gurtu on tablas,mbira,percussion and drums, as well as Bernie Worrell on organ, electric piano, Jeff Bova on synth and programming, Alex Blake on bass, Tony Cedras on harmonium,William Henderson piano, as well as the voices of Abdou Mboup, Abiodun Oyewole and Asante, plus of course Pharoah Sanders on tenor and soprano sax, double reeds and voice, throw in the talented Bill Laswell as producer and you should have an interesting recording. In all fairness if you bought Sander's last release on Verve Message From Home, you will probably enjoy this.It's far less African and more Indian on this release. What I have a problem with is that west coast sound that Pharoah Sanders manages to coax out of his chosen instrument from time to time, especially on a track like Midnight In Berkeley Square. It's a bit too syrupy for my liking. I'm pretty much a newcomer to Sander's music so I don't have his musical ghosts to judge him by. This recording is a tad conservative for my liking, though when Trilok and Zakhir Hussain get going I get excited. There are some interesting things happening here, mainly the interplay between the electric piano, tablas and harmoniums on a track like Jewels Of Love. My favorite here is Kazuko, very contemplative very eastern. There's not too much of an all out sonic assault here, though on a track like Far-Off Sand he does let himself go. The album is divided in a one third African-two thirds Indian musical ratio. Tight production by Laswell, with lots ofspatial atmospheres and percussive passages scattered throughout the album. At times this is reminiscent of some of the terrains the Mahavishnu Orchestra covered. I read somewhere that this may be Sander's most blissful album to date and it certainly comes across as such, but it's just that west coast sound that does my head in.

Hans Stoeve (courtesy of the Nadabrahma website)