1. Pharaoh SandersKarma
I bought Karma on a spiritual-jazz splurge, which also included Alice Coltrane’s Journey In Satchidananda and Sun Ra’s Disco 3000, maybe eight years ago. Of all those records, which I love deeply, this one is so breathtakingly direct, melodic and rich. I can’t think of another song that is as jubilant as ‘The Creator Has A Master Plan’. It’s an album that has found its way back into my life in the loveliest and most surprising ways, most recently when I was working with Kurt Vile at Rancho de la Luna in Joshua Tree two years ago. We had that, "Holy shit, you love it TOO?" moment with it. We were playing it in the control room during the day, watching these insane desert sunsets while Leon Thomas transitions from yodelling to yelping. It was pretty perfect. I think it rubbed off on the music we were making there.
I was lucky enough to see Pharoah play in Los Angeles recently (a pleasant surprise as I assumed that he was no longer with us) and it was as strange and soulful as I could ever imagine. He still rips, but is too frail to sit through the rounds of band soloing – once he was done shredding, he’d leave the stage, only to return 15 minutes later when they were done with their business. What a treasure. Long live Pharoah!
