Pharoah Sanders - Deaf Dumb Blind

Pharoah Sanders' next album after Jewels of Thought was Deaf Dumb Blind/Let Us Go Into The House Of The Lord. These two extended free jazz pieces are quite different from each other.

Deaf Dumb Blind features the over blowing and crazy extended techniques he's best know for, and is essentially a trio of soloists over a chaotic percussive ensemble. The soloists aren't really the focus though. The real power of the piece comes from how the ensemble as a whole builds and releases tension without ever actually coalescing. Each instrument sets up its own musical home base, so to speak, then extends out of it and returns. When two or more parts seem to return to their respective bases, it really does feel as though the chaos is retreating. To me at least, it sounds like a panning back and forth between the identifiably musical and an a menagerie of animal sounds. Almost as if the ensemble itself is slowly breathing.

Into the house of the lord, on the other hand, is almost exclusively tonal, albeit non-metrical, jazz. The piece has a clear harmonic rather than rhythmic foundation, and the solo lines are much more soloistic in a traditional sense.

The two pieces really do sound earthly and spiritual, respectively. Sanders' works are overtly religious/spiritual in their conception, but i think they are also meant to be interpreted in the more abstract context of thought vs feeling, or physical vs philosophical. Humans can both explore/expand the physical limits of an idea AND psychologically operate beyond their own physical limitations.

Though i'm not specifically influenced by free jazz, i imagine that a lot of my own music stems from that same feeling of highly personal improvisation that this ensemble conveys.

Regardless, this is a fascinating listen just in terms of how different the same ensemble can sound depending on the nature of what the rhythm section is playing. I'm getting spoiled on vinyl and i really wish i had more of his albums.

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