Joe Bonner

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.

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.

Ethnic Expressions by Roy Brooks & the Artistic Truth is one of two recordings drum master Roy Brooks cut for the tiny Afrocentric New York imprint Im-Hotep. Released in 1973, it has been one of the most sought-after "Holy Grail" recordings on the collector's market, with copies selling at auction for over $1,200. The reason is not merely its rarity, but the stellar quality of its music and the focus of its vision reinventing the unity of African-American self-determination through music. Recording at Small's Paradise in Harlem on the tenth anniversary of the assassination of John F. Kennedy, this large collective of musicians created a positive, musically sophisticated, emotionally powerful performance that epitomized 1970s jazz as it incorporated the free, progressive, and spiritual jazz elements of the 1960s in a setting that also included soul and blues expression…

Billy Harper - Black Saint (1975) {Black Saint 120001-2 rel 1993}
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© 1975, 1993 Black Saint | 120001-2
Jazz / Modal Music / Post-Bop / Saxophone

Tenor saxophonist Billy Harper helped launch the Italy-based Black Saint jazz label with this 1975 release. And not only does this represent the inaugural outing for the label, it also signifies one of the finest modern jazz releases of the '70s. Influenced by tenor sax giant John Coltrane, Harper proceeded to mold a distinctly personalized sound awash with slight inferences of R&B and hard bop. Additionally, the saxophonist's melodic gifts come to the forefront throughout this often-invigorating studio date.

Pharoah Sanders - Live At The East (1971) {2007 Japan Mini LP 24bit Remaster UCCI-9133}
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© 1971, 2007 Impulse! / Universal Japan | UCCI-9133 | 24bit/96kHz remaster | LP AS-9227
Jazz / Modal Music / Post Bop / Progressive Jazz / Saxophone

Cardboard sleeve (mini LP) reissue from Pharoah Sander featurign 24-bit/96kHz remastering and original LP replica Cardboard sleeve (mini LP) jacket design. Part of an eleven-album Pharoah Sanders Cardboard sleeve (mini LP) reissue series featuring the albums "Tauhid," "Kahma," "Jewels of Thought," "Summum Bukmum Umyum," "Thembi," "Black Unity," "Village of the Pharoahs," "Live at the Easty," "Love In Us All," "Elevation," and "Wisdom Through Music." One of the most spiritual albums recorded by Pharoah Sanders for Impulse – an open-ended and free-thinking exploration of ideas, all very much in the late John Coltrane mode! The group's a largeish one – filled with spiritual soul jazz luminaries who include Hannibal Marvin Peterson on trumpet, Harold Vick on tenor, Carlos Garnett on flute, Joe Bonner on piano and harmonium, Cecil McBee and Stanley Clarke on basses, Norman Connors and Billy Hart on drums, and Lawrence Killian on congas and percussion – all working together beautifully, with some of the same spirit as the larger jazz ensembles on the Strata East label!