Floating Points, Pharoah Sanders, & The London Symphony Orchestra – Promises

Floating Points "Promises" album cover

I wasn’t impressed when I listened to Promises last year, so when I heard that Pharoah Sanders died, I decided to try again. The repeated motif is hypnotic, the strings border on inspired, and I love Sanders’ singing on “Movement 4,” but the sax is terrible. This is the kind of dodgy, ‘80s-inspired playing that led to my hatred of saxophone. Sanders is a great player but I feel like he phoned in this performance in the worst possible way.

About Chuck

After spending 10 years working as a professional bassist, Chuck realized he loves listening to music much more than playing it. Eleven albums or events that dramatically influenced his relationship with music and life, in the order he encountered them: Fleetwood Mac, Rumours; Van Halen, Fair Warning; Foreigner, 4 tour, 2/9/1982; John Coltrane, Crescent; De La Soul, Three Feet High and Rising; Puccini, La Boheme (Beecham, de los Angeles); Everything But The Girl, Walking Wounded; Carl Cox, live at Twilo, 2000; Godspeed You! Black Emperor, Yanqui UXO; Grateful Dead, Ladies and Gentlemen, the Grateful Dead (Fillmore East, NYC, 1971); Taylor Swift, 1989.

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