Joe Bonner

A Colorado-based legend, pianist Joe Bonner (joined by an unidentified bassist on two of the six songs) for the first time is heard doubling on electric piano. The music (five originals, including "Primal Scream" and "Ode to Trane," plus Thad Jones' "A Child Is Born") is intense at times and displays Bonner's roots in 1960s-type modal music and his earlier association with Pharoah Sanders.

Joseph Bonner - Triangle (1975) {Whynot WNCD79405 rel 2009}
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© 1975, 2009 Whynot / Candid | WNCD79405
Jazz / Post Bop / Piano Trio

A fine pianist who was originally heavily influenced by McCoy Tyner, Joe Bonner is an excellent interpreter of modal-based music and advanced hard bop. He studied music at Virginia State College and early on played with Roy Haynes (1970-1971), Freddie Hubbard (1971-1972), Pharoah Sanders (1972-1974), and Billy Harper (late '70s). Bonner, who recorded as a leader for Muse, Theresa, and most prominently Steeplechase, has been based in Colorado since the 1980s and remains a talented improviser.

Pharoah Sanders - Journey To The One (1979) {Evidence ECD-22016-2 rel 1994}
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© 1979, 1994 Theresa Records / Evidence Music | ECD-22016-2
Jazz / Post Bop / Mainstream Jazz / Standards / Saxophone

Formerly a Theresa double LP, this single CD contains all ten of Pharoah Sanders's performances from the sessions. As usual, Sanders shifts between spiritual peace and violent outbursts in his tenor solos. The backup group changes from track to track but often includes pianist John Hicks, bassist Ray Drummond and drummer Idris Muhammad. Sanders really recalls his former boss John Coltrane on "After the Rain" (taken as a duet with pianist Joe Bonner) and a romantic "Easy to Remember"; other highpoints include "You've Got to Have Freedom" (which has Bobby McFerrin as one of the background singers) and the exotic "Kazuko" on which Sanders is accompanied by kato, harmonium and wind chimes.

Pharoah Sanders - Black Unity (1971) {Impulse! IMPD-219 rel 1997}
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© 1971, 1997 Impulse! / MCA Records / GRP Records | IMPD-219 (AS-9219)
Jazz / Avant-Garde Jazz / Modal Music / Post Bop / Progressive Jazz / Saxophone

By 1971, Pharoah Sanders had taken the free thing as far as he could and still live with himself. He was investigating new ways to use rhythm – always his primary concern – inside his music and more tonally strident ways of involving the front line in extrapolating tonal and harmonic diversions from the melodic framework of his music. To that end, he entered into a more groove-laden arrangement with himself and employed some funkier players to articulate his muse. Along with Cecil McBee and Billy Hart, who were frequent Sanders sidemen, a young Stanley Clarke fills the second bass chair, and Norman Connors fills out the second drum seat.

Elevation, Pharoah Sanders' final album for Impulse!, is a mixed bag. Four of the five cuts were recorded live at the Ash Grove in Los Angeles in September of 1973, and the lone studio track, "Greeting to Saud (Brother McCoy Tyner)," was recorded in the same month at Wally Heider's studio. The live date is fairly cohesive, with beautiful modal piano work from Joe Bonner, Pharoah playing tenor and soprano as well as a myriad of percussion instruments and vocalizing in places, and a percussion and rhythm section that included Michael Carvin on drums, bassist Calvin Hill, and hand drummers John Blue and Lawrence Killian…

Pharoah Sanders - Village Of The Pharoahs & Wisdom Through Music (2011) {Impulse! 2-on-1 Remasters Series rec 1971-1973}
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© 1971-73, 2011 Impulse! / Verve / Universal | 06007 5334702
Jazz / Avant-Garde Jazz / Soul Jazz / Modal Music / Saxophone

The albums packaged in this Impulse two-fer – Village of the Pharoahs and Wisdom Through Music – were both released in 1973, but only the latter was recorded as an album. They share the same basic personnel – pianist Joe Bonner, bassist Cecil McBee, drummer Norman Connors, and percussionist Lawrence Killian – while Village, because it was recorded at three different sessions over three years, also contains numerous other players, including vocalist Sedatrius Brown, bassists Stanley Clarke, Jimmy Hopps, and Calvin Hill, percussionists Hannibal Peterson and Kenneth Nash, and flutist Art Webb. Wisdom Through Music simply adds Mtume and Badal Roy to the percussion section, with Killian and flutist James "Plunky" Branch (founder of spiritual jazz-funk pioneers Oneness of Juju).