Pharoah Sanders – Deaf Dumb Blind (Summun Bukmun Umyun) Impulse! AS-9199 (1970)
If you liked Karma, you’ll probably like this too. It melds bold African rhythms with free-form soloing like on Andrew Hill‘s Compulsion and Archie Shepp‘s The Magic of Ju-Ju, but Pharoah Sanders’ sound is altogether more upbeat. The solos aren’t especially great by the standards of this set of performers. But the most interesting aspect of this music is how accessible it remains throughout, making it a lot more palatable for those listeners skeptical of free jazz or anything remotely connected to the avant-garde. That is no small achievement.