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A prodigious talent like Pharoah Sanders wasnt meant to live in Little Rock, Arkansas.
The racism in his hometown was too thick, too stifling, too on the nose.
You had to play behind the curtain, the tenor saxophonistonce said.
They didnt want to see Black people.
Most of the jobs I played, a lot of parties and weddings, thats how it was.
And I listened to him.
I didnt have no suit.
I dont know how I survived, Sanders once recalled of those years in New York.
He was also broke.
Sanders took that money and bought small hamburgers, 15-cent pizza slices, and wheat germ.
Sanders introduced himself to the eccentric pianist and bandleader, telling him he played saxophone.
He looked at me and said, I already have somebody, Sanderssaid.
Hed venture to the Five Spot jazz club on Third Avenue but couldnt go inside because he looked raggedy.
People were just getting out of their limousines in suits and ties and all that.
Im on the street, with the shoes Id been walking around with, hair messy.
In his earlier work, you could hear Sanderss horn shrieking and squealing over straight-ahead swing.
Despite his personal hardships, it was an exciting time to be in New York City.
It was there in the Village where Sanderss life would change forever.
The man asked Sanders if he had a band; he said yes, even though he didnt.
Sanders was officially a bandleader.
Sanders didnt have a grand coming-out moment like Dylan.
Sanders simply kept grinding and making genuine connections that helped him professionally.
At Coltranes urging, Sanders was given a deal with Impulse!
Records and released his major-label debut,Tauhid, a year later.
In 1967, Coltrane died of liver cancer at the age of 40.
By 1970, another spiritual jazz pioneer, Albert Ayler, died under mysterious circumstances in Brooklyn.
Still he persevered, playing various nightclubs throughout the world and surviving on publishing royalties.
I have just been lucky, he toldAll About Jazzin 2003.
They come in at the right time.
Sometimes they dont, but I am not wealthy or anything like that.
In L.A.,he told All About Jazz, they play a little bit and thats about it.
The music conveyed the angst of watching unarmed Black people be killed by police without consequence.
All of a sudden, jazz was back, so went the narrative, and so was Sanders.
For a generation of Pharoah Sanders fans, we were just happy he had returned.
It felt like a new beginning and a full-circle moment for one of jazz musics last innovators.
