Gig review: Pharoah Sanders, Glasgow Old Fruitmarket

Published on 28/06/2012 02:11

The foundation of US saxophonist Pharoah Sanders’s titanic reputation is his two-year stint in the 1960s playing with John Coltrane’s band, which helped engender some of the most groundbreaking recordings in jazz history, as well as epic live performances where single numbers would often extend to over an hour.

Since then, Sanders’ work has ranged across the jazz spectrum from trance-seeking collaborations with Moroccan musicians to occasional populist forays like his 1970s duet with Phyllis Hyman on Love Is Here.

Throughout his career, however, Sanders’s most revered hallmark has been his music’s intensity in striving simultaneously towards a spiritual dimension and an authentic connection with his audience. Both elements, however, seemed somewhat thinly in evidence at this Glasgow Jazz Festival show, despite a hero’s welcome from the crowd. Sanders is now 71, after all, and cut a frail figure as he made his way on stage, so the nakedly visceral aggression of his playing with Coltrane was discernible only in glimpses.

His playing in a mostly standards-based selection was often richly authoritative, mercurially versatile and age-defyingly agile, beautifully complemented by pianist William Henderson in particular, with drummer Gene Calderazzo and bassist Oliver Hayhurst also in support. A couple of ethereal yet sensuous ballads saw Sanders displaying a wonderfully tender less-is-more touch, but overall this performance never quite caught fire.

Rating: ***