Autumn is the season of penance here in Los Angeles. East of the Mississippi, spring and fall are really the only tolerable seasons as far as weather is concerned. And, for beauty, autumn there is unmatched by anything the west coast has to offer. The play of colors, the perfect temperatures...it is hard for the eastern transplant not to miss it.
In Los Angeles, by contrast, autumn is pretty much miserable. Although the temperature never quite approaches freezing, colder temperatures and rainfall that does not drain are the hallmarks of the change from summer into fall in the absence of deciduous trees. This may seem like whining to those in the east who are anticipating snowfall in the coming winter or who have already experienced it, hence I say it is penance, as I do know the feeling of looking at $10 gas bills in January and laughing at my friends in places like Cleveland, New York and Philadelphia with their spaceheaters and sweaters. I admit that a couple months of intermittently bad weather is a relatively small price to pay to live in an otherwise temperate climate.
But on a day where the rain falls incessantly and the meterological thermostat dips down to the numbers registered on it's emotional and social equivalents, the inhabited desert that is LA fairly mocks you with its failed promises of fun and sun. The damp cold, perhaps because it is so rare, really seems to soak you through and through. It was on such a cold and rainy night that I went with two friends to see Pharoah Sanders in Hollywood at Catalina Bar and Grill, one of the country's great jazz venues.
Walking to a place on stage already set with a variety of percussion instruments, Pharoah brought tenor and soprano saxophones with him to lead a quintet including the wonderful and relatively unheralded pianist William Henderson (who usually backs him when he performs in LA and appears on Pharoah's 1999 release Save Our Children) and a very promising young vocalist named Dwight Trible, whom I had previously seen perform with bands led by such legends as Billy Higgins and the late, great Horace Tapscott. Starting with the opening number Colors from his landmark 1969 lp Karma, the band generated a kind of heat that made you feel safe from the weather outside. Trible's vocal was clearly informed by Leon Thomas's original, but nevertheless bore his own stamp.
Following the peaceful embrace of this opening number, Sanders introduced the next tune, a modal blues offering, with charatceristically Jungian growls from his tenor saxophone. If the man has mellowed some with age, he sure hasn't lost his huevos. The band followed him ably, Trible's solo gliding neatly between scat riffs and declarations on the theme of freedom.
The bands next two selections were songs that, like Pharoah Sanders will always be for some people, are closely associated with John Coltrane. First was the oft-covered Coltrane compostion Naima from 'Trane's undisputed classic Giant Steps album. As many times as I have heard this song performed and as many performers as I have heard attempt it, it is one of those rare standards the power of which remains undiminished despite so much exposure. Sanders, due to his close association with the earlier master as well as his own innate ability, imbued this performance with an authority that no other living musician can claim.
In view of the afformentioned soprano saxophone, the next selection, My Favorite Things, seemed expected once the initial surprise had passed. Pharoah opened with a tenor solo and each band member took a turn before he brought the song to its climax with a turn on soprano.
The set came full circle with an upbeat rendition of The Creator Has A Master Plan, a Sanders original from Karma that is thematically related to Coltrane's earlierA Love Supreme. Trible and Sanders shared vocals on this one, engaging the crowd in a call-and-response on based the Creator's "Demand" of "Peace [and Love]" for "Every Man" (and "Woman" in Trible's post-feminist update).
Pharoah Sanders frequently performs at Catalina and I try to see him at least once per engagement. Although I have heard him play somewhat better once or twice before, this was a wonderful performance, and, in a way, the most invigorating for me. What better way to do penance on a cold and dreary Sunday night in the City of Angels then to spend it basking in the glow of such spiritually uplifting music.