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Pharoah Sanders Quartet + Denys Baptiste + Alina Bzhezhinska

A Concert for Alice and John

Pharoah Sanders having an intimate conversation with his saxophone

A three-part journey through the cosmos, celebrating the profound musical and spiritual legacy of two of the most influential figures in Western musical history: Alice and John Coltrane.

Tonight sees a showcase of artists inspired by and who worked with the Coltranes, headlined by the Cosmic Jazz icon Pharoah Sanders. Sanders’s saxophone sound provided a crucial contribution to the anarchic music of John’s later ensembles – a teeming, irregularly structured mixture of sound for sound’s sake – as well as participating in the spiritual intensity of Alice’s music.

Fellow saxophonist Denys Baptiste’s latest project, The Late Trane, reflects the visceral emotions and celestial references that encompass John’s final work, with Steve Williamson adding a second saxophone voice; while harpist Alina Bzhezhinska‘s quartet with saxophonist Tony Kofi displays ‘an abiding love for Alice’s transporting and ineffably mystical compositions…’ (Jazzwise). All fifty years after John's, ten years after Alice’s passing – shortly before she was due to play here – and in the same year when the release of her ecstatic music has captured the imagination of another generation.

Produced by the Barbican in association with Serious

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