Black Unity [Original recording remastered]

Pharoah Sanders | Format: Audio CD

Product Details

• Audio CD (April 8, 1997)
• Number of Discs: 1
• Format: Original recording remastered
• Label: Grp Records
• ASIN: B000003N9G
• Also Available in: Audio CD  |  Vinyl  |  MP3 Download
• Average Customer Review: 4.9 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (14 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #159,724 in Music (See Top 100 in Music)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

12 of 12 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Continued evolution., October 13, 2005

By 

Michael Stack (North Chelmsford, MA USA) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Black Unity (Audio CD)

By late 1971, Pharoah Sanders was on a search for new sounds-- his flavor of spiritually infused free jazz had been widely explored over several albums in the previous couple years. Sanders began soaking his music in world rhythms-- eschewing the previous layer of free jazzish percussion in exchange for a more traditionally rooted percussion sound-- with drummers Norman Connors and Billy Hart along with percussionist Lawrence Killian, Sanders was able to develop an almost Afro-Latin vibe. This was further accentuated with the presence of two bassists-- a very young Stanley Clarke (on upright) and journeyman Cecil McBee. Clarke (and Connors) brought with him a deep sense of groove and a working knowledge of r&b and funk musics that helped push Sanders into a groove-oriented direction. The final piece, I suspect, in the evolution of his music was the departure of pianist Lonnie Liston Smith and his prelacement with Joe Bonner-- Smith's voice was far more distinctive, almost as much as Sanders, whereas Bonner provided a different pallete for the horns (in this case, Sanders and Carolos Garnett on tenor and Hannibal Marvin Peterson on trumpet) to work.

So the piece itself-- a 37 minute track-- opens with a dueling bass cadence over percussion before a funky piano riff and balphone drone takes over, setting the stage for something different. The theme is picked up by tenor (Garnett I suspect) and trumpet-- like many of Sanders' themes, there's an undercurrent of a Monk root to the riff. Eventually a brief collective improv gives way to individual solos supported by a neverending array of inventive percussion. The results are something.

As intriguing as it is though, "Black Unity" is lacking in some unknown quantity for me-- it's a great album, but something stops me from thinking of it in the same light I think of Sanders' best.

15 of 17 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Where it all comes together for Pharoah, November 7, 2001

By 

A. Benjamin (Goodwell, OK United States) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Black Unity (Audio CD)

Of all of Pharoah's albums, this ranks among my favorites. The album consists of a single 37+ minute track of African-inspired percussive grooves and ace free-form jamming by Pharoah and his sidemen. Like much of his late 1960s-early 1970s work, the piece alternates between anarchistic cacaphony and sheer mellow bliss but seems to work as an organic whole a bit more effectively than his other excellent albums of the time. Note the bass-line from "The Creator Has a Master Plan" reprised toward the end of the piece -- nice touch. Definitely well-worth picking up and grooving to for fans of adventurous spiritual jazz, avant-garde jazz, acid jazz, and world music fans who want to explore fusions of world and jazz idioms. World fusion with teeth? Yeah. Dig it.

If you like this, make sure to check out the rest of Pharoah's label mates on Impulse! A shame that the conglomerate that owns the Impulse! label is no longer interested in reissuing the Impulse! back catalog on cd, and is threating to delete those Impulse! gems that are currently in print.

11 of 13 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars CHANGED MY LIFE, May 8, 2000

By 

Ligament (Chicago) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Black Unity (Audio CD)

I am a DJ of over a decade experience and collecting. I have listened to tens of thousands of albums and this is one of the handful that was powerful enough to actually take me by the soul and change me, helping me GROW for the better. I pull it out on special occasions in my life when things are overwhelming. This is an AMAZING album, my favorite of Pharoah's and one of my favorite of all time, of any genre. BUY BUY BUY.