JAZZ REVIEWS : Pharoah Sanders

When tenor saxophonist Pharoah Sanders walked on stage for his first set at Catalina Bar & Grill, he was greeted by a front row of listeners containing no fewer than five young men wearing ponytails and tie-dyes. The symbolism was inescapable. Sixties revivalism has finally embraced the decade’s most clangorously radical new music.

How ironic, then, that Sanders’ performance Tuesday night retained few of the radically innovative qualities that marked him in the mid-’60s as one of John Coltrane’s most gifted legatees. The intervening years appear to have softened Sanders’ sound and his vision with somewhat ambivalent results.

His willingness, for example, to play a lovely ballad (on which he turned the improvising over to bassist Jeff Lilton and pianist William Henderson), as well as a jaunty West Indian piece and a straight-ahead blues, resulted in vigorous, if not particularly startling, contemporary jazz.

But it remained for Sanders’ occasional forays (usually undertaken at the close of a piece) around the outer limits of his tenor saxophone’s capabilities to provide far too-brief reminders of the genuinely revolutionary qualities of his earlier playing. During those moments, as well as during the improvisational passages in which he responded and interacted with drummer Wayne Wright’s multilevel carpet of complex rhythms, Sanders came close to reviving the spirit of the ‘60s.

More often, he stepped aside to allow his excellent rhythm section to dominate the proceedings. Making the most of the opportunity, were bassist Lilton with his feathery dynamics, drummer Wright and his articulate brush work and Henderson whose dense piano chording was more than worth the price of admission.

Still, it would have been nice to have heard a bit more from Sanders. Revolutionary or not, he continues--when he so chooses--to be one of the world-class players on his instrument.

The Sanders group will be at Catalina Bar & Grill through Saturday night.