Sanders does few interviews but I made a pitch to speak with him before the show and, as his manager put it, caught him at the right moment. I knew that he had moved to New York City in 1961 so I asked him about those days which led to his candid remarks about being forced to live on the street for a period when he first arrived. It was powerful testimony that included recollections of doing odd jobs like painting and cooking and even selling pints of blood to earn a few bucks. In his stint as a short-order cook of sorts, he remembered the drummer (who appeared on Sanders’ 1981 album Rejoice) Billy Higgins dropping by and playing the spoons! He mentioned Sun Ra as an important friend of the time and agreed the tipping point was hooking up with John Coltrane with whom he played extensively between ’65 and ’67. Sanders was honored as a 2016 NEA Jazz Master and appeared in, of all things, a GQ spread last month sporting a nifty Nigerian fez.
http://hollandude.com/pharoah-sanders-recalls-homelessness-at-winter-jazzfest/
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"Don't play what the public want. You play what you want and let the public pick up on what you doin' -- even if it take them fifteen, twenty years." (Thelonious Monk) | Meine Sendungen auf Radio StoneFM: gypsy goes jazz, #151: Neuheiten aus dem Archiv – 09.04., 22:00 | Slow Drive to South Africa, #8: tba | No Problem Saloon, #30: tba