The Complete Pharoah Sanders Theresa Recordings - New Mosaic

[rostasi]

Plus: a reminder that there's audio at the link provided.

[JSngry]

Being included;

[mjazzg]

This is an intriguing choice by Mosaic, I can see myself buying this

Edited Wednesday at 07:34 PM by mjazzg

[ghost of miles]

Apparently board member David Weiss, who co-produced this set with John Koenig, will be involved with other projects going forward that will keep the Cuscuna wing of Mosaic's offerings active.

[jazzbo]

Good news!

[felser]

2 hours ago, jazzbo said:

I find this different from his Impulse material in a way that you would likely favor. Add that to your thinking mix!

I agree with that take.

[BFrank]

I thought I was done with Mosaic (nothing bad, just trying to reduce box "clutter"), but this is an interesting turn of events. Haven't heard all these albums, but there IS some really good stuff there.

[Brad]

37 minutes ago, ghost of miles said:

Apparently board member David Weiss, who co-produced this set with John Koenig, will be involved with other projects going forward that will keep the Cuscuna wing of Mosaic's offerings active.

That’s good news but this is one set I’m unlikely to purchase. Let’s hope @david weiss is interested in less “out there” projects. 

[felser]

4 minutes ago, Brad said:

That’s good news but this is one set I’m unlikely to purchase. Let’s hope @david weiss is interested in less “out there” projects. 

These albums are less out there than you would expect from his earlier (and some of his later) work.  Theresa was absolutely not pushing the envelope with their catalog.

[Brad]

16 minutes ago, felser said:

These albums are less out there than you would expect from his earlier (and some of his later) work.  Theresa was absolutely not pushing the envelope with their catalog.

I’m just not a Sanders fan. I do have one or two Theresa records (one by George Coleman for sure). 

[hbbfam]

The only Sanders I own is Pharoah.  Guessing this has a more 60s jazz sound (whatever that means)?

[tranemonk]

I'm leaning toward this one. I had a few late Pharoah CDs (including at least one on the Evidence label). Wasn't there a live double CD either on Evidence or another label (32jazz)? I saw him once, maybe twice, live in the 90s (maybe early 2000s), and thoroughly enjoyed him. I hate the term "mellowing out," but at that point, the Pharoah I saw and heard was far more in the Kahil El Zabar, EHE, spiritual, more spacing experience. 

The tricky part for me is whether or not this set reflects that era. It looks like the dates are from the late 1970s and early 80s. From those of you who know, were these two distinct eras in his playing (early 2000s and early 80s)? Or did he sound similar during those times? 

[felser]

1 hour ago, hbbfam said:

The only Sanders I own is Pharoah.  Guessing this has a more 60s jazz sound (whatever that means)?

The India Navigation album?  That's a good album, but stylistically pretty much stands on its own in his catalogue.  If it's the ESP-Disk album, that also sounds like nothing else he ever did.

Edited yesterday at 12:00 AM by felser

[jazzbo]

53 minutes ago, tranemonk said:

Wasn't there a live double CD either on Evidence or another label (32jazz)?

There was a single LP "Live" on Theresa, and then the cd added an additional track. And then in 2023 Theresa releaed a 2 LP reissue that included that additional track.

Edited yesterday at 12:33 AM by jazzbo

[dougcrates]

5 hours ago, ghost of miles said:

Apparently board member David Weiss, who co-produced this set with John Koenig, will be involved with other projects going forward that will keep the Cuscuna wing of Mosaic's offerings active.

I'm pretty excited for this set and this sounds like good news.  

[pglbook]

I ordered this and think it will be a great set. I have a couple of his Theresa albums on vinyl and really enjoy them. 

One thing I find a bit odd, though, is the photo that Mosaic used for the front cover of its box. It seems to be a photo of an older Pharoah than he was at the time period - 1980s - of the Theresa recordings. Or am I mistaken? 

Edited 21 hours ago by pglbook

[JSngry]

That beard is value added!

[david weiss]

3 hours ago, pglbook said:

I ordered this and think it will be a great set. I have a couple of his Theresa albums on vinyl and really enjoy them. 

One thing I find a bit odd, though, is the photo that Mosaic used for the front cover of its box. It seems to be a photo of an older Pharoah than he was at the time period - 1980s - of the Theresa recordings. Or am I mistaken? 

It was taken at Yoshi's in Oakland, CA in June 1988.

[pglbook]

35 minutes ago, david weiss said:

It was taken at Yoshi's in Oakland, CA in June 1988.

Thanks for the information. 

According to Mosaic's description of the set, the Theresa recordings cover the period of 1980-1987 so the photo would then be from a year later.

No big deal. I actually thought the photo would have been from mid to late 90"s so I stand corrected.

Thanks again.

[gmonahan]

On 6/4/2025 at 10:03 AM, jazzbo said:

I find this different from his Impulse material in a way that you would likely favor. Add that to your thinking mix!

Will do!

 

 

Edited 16 hours ago by gmonahan

[david weiss]

4 hours ago, pglbook said:

Thanks for the information. 

According to Mosaic's description of the set, the Theresa recordings cover the period of 1980-1987 so the photo would then be from a year later.

No big deal. I actually thought the photo would have been from mid to late 90"s so I stand corrected.

Thanks again.

The last recording date is September 1987.

That album "A Prayer Before Dawn" was probably not released until 1988 at the earliest yet there are discographies and a listing in discogs that says this was originally released in 1987.

There is no copyright date on the original LP.

There is also evidence that this was released in 1989.

Theresa records was sold to Evidence in the early '90s. 

They have no records of recording dates or session logs or anything like that. 

Most of the people associated with Theresa Records are gone. 

All this to say that a photo from 1988 is not really not that out of place, especially if it's the best cover photo option we had (and I think it's a pretty cool photo)

 

 

 

5 hours ago, JSngry said:

That beard is value added!

Ironically, the photographer who shot the cover to "A Prayer Before Dawn" told me that the Theresa people had Pharoah tuck in his beard to try to make it appear less prominent. A few years later they probably would have pushed him to make it more prominent for a photo shoot....

On 6/4/2025 at 4:09 PM, Brad said:

That’s good news but this is one set I’m unlikely to purchase. Let’s hope @david weiss is interested in less “out there” projects. 

So far, our work is finishing up stuff Michael started and will be for a while. 

There is really not that many moments of this being "out there" music and the last couple of albums on the label were essentially finding different settings to feature his beautiful, pure Coltranesque saxophone sound.

[JSngry]

Truthfully, I never really found Pharaoh to be an "out" player to begin with. Very technically sound and working with the instrument's intrinsic mechanical capacities.

Reactions are of course subjective, but the methodology is not.

Mark's liner notes should cover this in inarguably sound detail. Looking forward to it!

[rostasi]

My uncle used to think Kenton was too "way out there" (not in a good way).
I remember him saying this when I was visiting him and I brought home my
first copies of Bitches Brew and Adderley's Quintet and Orchestra in '70.

[pglbook]

1 hour ago, david weiss said:

The last recording date is September 1987.

That album "A Prayer Before Dawn" was probably not released until 1988 at the earliest yet there are discographies and a listing in discogs that says this was originally released in 1987.

There is no copyright date on the original LP.

There is also evidence that this was released in 1989.

Theresa records was sold to Evidence in the early '90s. 

They have no records of recording dates or session logs or anything like that. 

Most of the people associated with Theresa Records are gone. 

All this to say that a photo from 1988 is not really not that out of place, especially if it's the best cover photo option we had (and I think it's a pretty cool photo)

 

 

 

Ironically, the photographer who shot the cover to "A Prayer Before Dawn" told me that the Theresa people had Pharoah tuck in his beard to try to make it appear less prominent. A few years later they probably would have pushed him to make it more prominent for a photo shoot....

So far, our work is finishing up stuff Michael started and will be for a while. 

There is really not that many moments of this being "out there" music and the last couple of albums on the label were essentially finding different settings to feature his beautiful, pure Coltranesque saxophone sound.

Thanks for the detailed and inside information. It is a cool photo and contemporaneous with the Theresa period.

I look forward to getting the set and applaud Mosaic for producing it.

Can we have a Sun Ra box in the near future? ha

Thanks again and keep up the great work!

 

 

[Tom in RI]

On the fence with this as I have more than half already. I used to think Sanders take on Sam Cook’s You Send Me would a good BFT track but everyone would recognize that sax sound.