Five years ago the late John Coltrane recorded a highly personal album of religious music—A Love Supreme. It remains one of the most satisfying experiences in any jazz listener's collection. Shortly after the album was made Coltrane added to his orchestra a young protege with a similar approach to the tenor
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saxophone and to human spirituality, Pharoah Sanders. Like his former mentor, Sanders believes that there is a beneficent diet who watches over the universe offering an eternal grace to each man. His new album,
Karma, is a beautiful expression of this conviction. Anyone who enjoyed
A Love Supreme will certainly find this music pleasurable and rewarding.
Although the record jacket and label fail to notice it, almost all of both sides are taken up with a single composition. "The Creator Has A Master Plan" borrows the bass line and rhythmic pattern of Coltrane's "Acknowledgement" and extends them in new directions. The piece begins with a ringing crescendo of sleigh bells, cymbals and flutes accompanying the forceful affirmation of faith by Sander's tenor. From there it moves through a series of moods—some quiet and reverent, others tormented and frantic—which impress the listener with their unpretentious depth. The voice of Leon Thomas enters the sphere of sound twice with a short benediction. "The creator has a master plan—peace and happiness for every man. The creator makes but one demand, happiness through all the land."
Maybe I'm getting soft, but I find Sanders' message really pleasant and in spiring. There are times when I like to be told above all of the absurdity, violence and flux there is a divine force waiting to take his solo on the last chorus. In the first two days after I purchased Karma I listened to it twenty-one times. (RS 44)
LANGDON WINNER
