Jazz legend Pharoah Sanders dies at 81

• San Sebastián, 2013 A masterpiece in the rain

Pharoah Sanders, a saxophonist who died in Los Angeles at the age of 81, according to

, in a message on Twitter.

Sanders, born Farrell Sanders, in Little Rock, Arkansas, in 1940, was a key figure in the transition of his genre between the 60s and 70s. At the beginning of that period, the saxophonist forged his career in the band by

, whom he accompanied until his death in 1967. From then on, Farrell entered a phase of experimentation and nonconformity.

He investigated African and Asian music and gave a more explicit sense of social and political rejection to his culture.

The Impulse!

he released the first albums of his band, including

, a key piece in the avant-garde jazz of the time, signed together with Coltrane's widow, the pianist Alice Coltrane.

Another hero of that time,

, invented the stage name under which Sanders entered history, Pharoah.

Starting in the 1990s, Sanders' career began to slow down, at least in his record production.

The tours, however, never stopped.

In 2013, for example, he gave

together with Diana Krall.

And in 2021 he released

, an album recorded with electronic music producer Sam Shepherd (Floating Points), then 35 years old.

That album, based on the dialogue between Sanders' saxophone and a bed of string music provided by the London Symphony Orchestra, has been one of the most acclaimed in recent years among the public and jazz critics.

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