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estebanana -> RE: RIP Pharoah Sanders (Oct. 12 2022 11:00:28)
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I saw Sanders a couple times. At the Kumbwa Jazz Center in Santa Cruz. I took my dad, or talked him into going. We drove from Monterey, where I was studying saxophone and anthropology. We had to stop in Salinas, my dad had to go to his heroin connection in a Mexican part of town. He said park here and don’t get out of the car, I’ll be back in fifteen minutes. These guys might look tough, but they won’t hurt you because I brought you here. I waited while some guys smiled at me sitting in the car.
He came out and we drove a few blocks away. He cooked the dope and it went smoothly. We called our dad The Donkey because he could take big hits and not get kicked down. After a few minutes we started back on the drive to Santa Cruz. I bought the tickets at the door and we got a table and a couple beers.
Pharaoh Sanders walked out on stage with about 15 feet of heavy rusted chain. He had his horn in one hand on the strap around his neck, and in the other he was holding up a two big loops of chain, shaking them hard and humming. Then he started playing the tenor with one hand while shaking the chain with the other. After a couple minutes of this solo line weaving the drummer and bass player moved into his groove. They played harder and Sanders threw the chain down on the stage, I was 12 feet away. He began playing with both hands and the band went out into Coltrane Kuiper belt orbit. They brought it back home and the drummer dropped out. They played quietly between the bass and tenor. Then the bass dropped out. Sanders stopped blowing air into the mouth piece in a long diminishing breathy sigh.
Then he played the keys dry with no breath, loudly getting soft, finally ending with no sound and only fingers silently tracing notes and chords on the mute tenor. He opened his eyes and looked around the room. Everyone was clapping. For a long pause he fixed his owl eyes on my dad in peculiar way. I says why is he looking at you like that. My dad said he knows how high I am and is impressed I’m sitting up straight.
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