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Few musicians, if any, can match it. The volume is so high, the tempo so fast and the tension so thick, Pharoah Sanders puts down his saxophone, screams and then returns to it for his sprawling improvisation. – Daniel King, SF Chronicle

Pharoah Sanders possesses one of the most distinctive tenor saxophone sounds in jazz. Harmonically rich and heavy with overtones, Sanders' sound can be as raw and abrasive as it is possible for a saxophonist to produce, and he made his name with expressionistic, nearly anarchic free jazz in John Coltrane's late ensembles of the mid-'60s. In the decades after his first recordings with Coltrane, Sanders developed the capability of playing convincingly in a variety of contexts, from free to mainstream, and as a mature artist he has discovered a hard-edged lyricism that has served him well.

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