Pharoah Sanders - Great Moments with Pharoah Sanders (2023)

Tenor saxophonist Pharoah Sanders was among the most important contributors to the evolution of spiritual jazz, creating emotionally complex and uncompromisingly passionate music for over 60 years. Sanders got his start playing alongside John Coltrane in the mid-'60s, just as Coltrane's playing was turning to more chaotic free jazz expressions, and Sanders carried over some of that same euphoric upheaval into his own albums. Across multiple classics he recorded for the Impulse label in the late '60s and early '70s, however, Sanders incorporated elements of world music and even more pop-adjacent vocalizations into his sometimes chaotic style, crossing over to audiences who weren't primarily jazz listeners with the poetic mysticism of 1969's Karma or the sociopolitical sentiments of 1971's Black Unity. He remained highly active throughout the '80s and '90s, his sound mellowing somewhat into patient but no less powerful form on albums like 1987's Oh Lord, Let Me Do No Wrong. Though his output slowed in the new millennium, Sanders would continue performing and recording into his eighties, collaborating with electronic producer Floating Points and the London Symphony Orchestra on 2021's critically acclaimed album Promises.