Sanders, Pharoah "Pharoah" [Deluxe Edition] 2LP

With Pharoah Sanders' blessing, Luaka Bop presents the definitive, remastered version of Pharoah, his seminal record from 1977, in an embossed 2LP box set. Alongside the original record, the box set includes two previously unreleased live performances of his masterpiece "Harvest Time" and a 24-page booklet with rarely seen photographs and ephemera, which tell the story of this album and this moment in Pharoah's life in a way that has never been done before - including through interviews with many of the participants and a conversation with Pharoah himself.

For those of you who already know this record, then you know that its origin story is as elusive as Pharoah was about everything Pharoah. It was born out of a misunderstanding between him and the India Navigation producer Bob Cummins, and was recorded when he was at a crossroads in his career with an unlikely crew. Among them was a guitarist who was also a spiritual guru, an organist who would go on to co-write and produce "The Message," and a classically trained pianist - his wife at the time, Bedria Sanders - who played the harmonium despite never having seen one. At times ambient and serene, at others funky and modal, Pharoah radically departed from his earlier work. And it became beloved.