What Saxophone Did Pharoah Sanders Play?

Spiritual Jazz saxophonist Pharoah Sanders played the tenor saxophone while he was alive.

“What I really wanted to do was play the saxophone—that was one of the instruments that I really loved,” Sanders once said during an interview.

Pharoah Sanders Life And Career

Born on October 13, 1940 in Little Rock, Arkansas, Sanders  began playing the clarinet and drums in church before he switched to alto saxophone.

He played the saxophone in high school and at Oakland Junior College California, where he studied music.

Upon graduation, he moved to New York and eventually made his solo debut.

As of 1965, Sanders was already performing at live shows, playing on many of John Coltrane’s albums including Ascension, Meditations, and A Love Supreme: Live in Seattle.

Sanders played a phenomenal role in the spiritual jazz movement in the 60s. He released an album in 1969 titled Karma.

He went on to release other albums Thembi, Elevation, Black Unity, and Love in Us All—up until the 2000s.

Sanders made a number of collaborations with the likes of Sun Ra, John Coltrane, Don Cherry, Ornette Coleman, Alice Coltrane, Kenny Garrett, Norman Connors, Tisziji Muñoz, McCoy Tyner, and Randy Weston.

Sanders died from an unknown cause on September 24, 2022. He was aged 81.