We got to Piedmont Park around 8:30 pm, having taken a well-timed MARTA rode from Lindbergh Station to Midtown, and the short walk from there to the park. It was just getting dark, but there was a sizable crowd already present from the day-long (weekend-long, really) Atlanta Jazz Festival.
Pharaoh took the stage a few minutes after 9:00, played about 8 bars of fiery saxophone, and then walked off the stage letting the band carry the piece while he talked to a stagehand. He seemed concerned about something - I think the mic in his sax wasn't working, and he had to use the external mic instead, which may have limited some of the effects he had wanted to create.
In any event, he and the band played about 45 minutes of modern, post-bop jazz, with extended solos by his pianist, bassist and drummer, and relatively little Pharaoh. Pleasing enough, but not really what one goes to a Pharaoh Sanders set to hear.
That changed at around the 45-minute mark, when he played a solo, soulful number, I believe a John Coltrane cover (Alabama?), and then went into his own The Creator Has A Master Plan, with Pharaoh singing the lyrics covered by the inimitable Leon Thomas on the recorded version.
The set was more upbeat and more typical of Pharaoh after that, and he finally got the audience up out of their lawn chairs, standing, dancing, and clapping along to the music. Some call-and-response singing followed that, some of Pharaoh's sax feedback tricks, and a long farewell to end the set.
It turned out to finally be a good set, but without the fire of Pharaoh in his prime.
Still and all, even on an off night, a set by Pharaoh is better than a lot of other things, and the evening could not have been more beautiful.
Most of my pictures sucked, but I did find this one good image from last night on line.
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