With An RSD Reissue Of Pharoah Sanders’ ‘Izipho Zam (My Gifts),’ Strata-East’s New Morning Is Looking Bright

DIVE DEEPER INTO SPIRITUAL JAZZ WITH A RIVETING, LESS-HERALDED SANDERS OFFERING FROM 1973

Roiled by political uncertainty and contention over race and identity, the late 2010s and early 2020s witnessed a resurgence of what’s now commonly called spiritual jazz. And close to the end of his life, with his final statement to the world, Pharoah Sanders found himself at the center of its discourse.

The product of myriad cultural and ideological influences, this tenuously defined subset of the music nonetheless has identifiable hallmarks. It runs the gamut between minimalist and expansive, profoundly meditative and explosively violent — often in the span of the same track. It maps the celestials as much as it burrows into the human soul. Key originators range from John and Alice Coltrane to Sun Ra to Yusef Lateef and beyond.

And then there’s Sanders — saxophonist, composer, one of the unquestionable architects of this aesthetic. In 2021, he released Promises, a collaboration with British electronic musician Floating Points and the London Symphony Orchestra. Critics almost unanimously hailed it as a late-career masterpiece. But some in the jazz community questioned whether its soothing, hypnotic, Pitchfork-friendly contours made for a fitting capstone to this avant-garde, mercurial, singular artist’s career. Or — more damningly — if Floating Points somehow sublimated him in the final product.

Two and a half years after his passing, Sanders is having another consequential moment. This time, he’s been treated to a reissue of his 1973 album Izipho Zam (My Gifts) — and upon a listen on Tracking Angle editor-in-chief Michael Fremer’s souped-up basement system, it felt like a reset for the Sanders conversation. The jury’s out on whether or not much of spiritual jazz today — the Kamasi Washingtons and André 3000s of the world — lives up to its name. But this, unequivocally, is the real deal.

(Full disclosure: Fremer is on board with this Strata-East promotional campaign as an “audiophile liaison" and therefore will not/cannot review any of the albums in this first batch of Strata-East reissues).

This Izipho Zam reissue is the result of a licensing deal between Mack Avenue and Strata-East Records, the label founded in 1971 by trumpeter Charles Tolliver and pianist Stanley Cowell. “If you’re into the real shit, check out Stanley Cowell,” pianist John Escreet once memorably told me — which extends to Tolliver as well. “If you’re into the fake shit, don’t bother.” Indeed, Strata-East remains one of the most unquestionably authentic bastions of this music. 

Titled in Zulu, Izipho Zam features tubist Howard Johnson, saxophonist and flutist Sonny Fortune; pianist Lonnie Liston Smith, guitarist Sonny Sharrock; bassists Cecil McBee and Sirone (Norris Jones); drummers Billy Hart and Majid Shabazz; percussionists Chief Bey, Nat Bettis, and Tony Wylie; and percussionist and vocalist Leon Thomas.

Recorded in 1969, just a month before Sanders’ indispensable, canonical Karma, Izipho Zam didn’t see release until 1973, which may explain why it’s a bit overlooked. It’s also a transitional work. Following his tenure in John Coltrane’s final group — and he influenced Trane profoundly — Sanders released landmark albums like 1970’s Deaf Dumb Blind (Summun Bukmun Umyun) and 1971’s Thembi on Impulse!, the label rightly known as “the house that Trane built.”

Izipho Zam marked his departure from Impulse!. Issued instead on Strata-East — a forward-thinking, Black-owned cooperative known for championing creative autonomy — it represented a significant leap for Sanders in terms of artistic self-determination.

Fans of Karma will recognize familiar names: Hart and Smith reappear and, perhaps most consequentially, so does Thomas. His attention-grabbing, half-yodeling vocal style — self-dubbed “soularphone,” drawing from African Pygmy and Indigenous American traditions — imbued Karma with potent, esoteric energy, and so he does here.

If opener “Prince of Peace” steadily inclines like a Learjet, "Balance" breaks the sound barrier. And the sonic violence continues in waves, through to the closing, 28-minute title track. And the attendant tape saturation — the engineer sometimes straining to capture the onslaught in real time with 1969 technology — might blunt the impact for some listeners.

So, with this fresh pressing in hand — lacquers cut by Kevin Gray from the original analog tapes — it felt like the perfect moment to give it a proper spin on Michael Fremer’s souped-up basement system (actually a lower level, not a basement_ed). Specifically, I listened on an Origin Live Sovereign turntable with an Ortofon MC 90X phono cartridge, connected to a Sutherland Dos Locos transimpedance phono preamp.

Throughout, the music was met with sweet clarity, definition, and separation. When the arrangement is sparse, each and every element — even the individual percussion instruments sounded complete, whole, nuanced. During the hurricane-like crescendos, the sound still peaked here and there — but, again, that’s the recording, and nothing to do with the quality of the pressing. This new Strata-East platter is truly exceptional work by all involved. And on a decent system, it’s the clearest window possible into Sanders’ vital early work.

Spiritual jazz continues to grow and evolve. But never forget the uncompromising music that sparked it — and this is the way to hear it. (This is a Record Store Day only release. The other 3 in this first release are available through the usual retail channels).