Jewels of Thought
Leon Thomas's vocals, then the two-part Sun in Aquarius.
Pharoah Sanders
- Recorded
- 20 October 1969
- Studio
- Plaza Sound Studios, New York
- Label
- Impulse!
Jewels of Thought was recorded at Plaza Sound Studios in New York on 20 October 1969. It opens with Hum-Allah-Hum-Allah-Hum-Allah, with music by Sanders and Lonnie Liston Smith and words by Leon Thomas, and closes with the two-part Sun in Aquarius, which a 1998 reissue merged into a single 27 minute track. Sanders plays contrabass clarinet, reed flute and kalimba as well as tenor saxophone, and Richard Davis joins Cecil McBee on bass for Sun in Aquarius.
Thom Jurek heard Sanders "moving out from his signature tenor for the first time." Martin-McCormick wrote in Pitchfork that Thomas's vocal contributions are, for many, an acquired taste, and that in Sun in Aquarius Sanders fires one of his heaviest solos "like a machine gun."
Track listing
- Hum-Allah-Hum-Allah-Hum-Allah15:04
- Sun in Aquarius (Part I)8:22
- Sun in Aquarius (Part II)19:56
Personnel
- Pharoah Sanders tenor saxophone, contrabass clarinet, reed flute, kalimba, orchestra chimes, percussion
- Leon Thomas vocals, percussion
- Lonnie Liston Smith piano, African flute, kalimba, percussion
- Cecil McBee bass, percussion
- Richard Davis bass, percussion
- Idris Muhammad drums, percussion
- Roy Haynes drums
More from Pharoah Sanders
Pharoah's First (1965), Tauhid (1967), Karma (1969), Deaf Dumb Blind (Summun Bukmun Umyun) (1970), Thembi (1971), Live at the East (1972), Pharoah (1977), The Trance of Seven Colors (1994), Promises (2021), Black Unity
Sources
- Jewels of Thought, Wikipedia
- Tauhid / Jewels of Thought / Deaf Dumb Blind (Summun Bukmun Umyun), Pitchfork (Daniel Martin-McCormick) (2017-11-10)
- Jewels Of Thought (master release), Discogs