If I were to pinpoint my favorite saxophone player, Pharoah Sanders would probably be near the top of the list.
He reached prominence as a member of John Coltrane’s gnarly final quartet. His playing was very dissonant and free until around 1970-1971 when he started incorporating more groove based music / African rhythms.
This leads us to Black Unity which I think was the first full realization of the sound he would continue to refine for the next decade.
It features a very young Stanley Clarke on bass and a dynamic drum duo of Norman Connors and Billy Hart. The album is also a very apt message for the past week.