Karma

Recording history and tape provenance

Sanders came to Impulse! as the wilder saxophone voice in John Coltrane's final working groups. That role built him a reputation before he had established his own. Karma followed Tauhid from 1967 and preceded a run of spiritually themed records the label released into the early 1970s.

The album is one long piece and one short one. "The Creator Has a Master Plan," co-written with Leon Thomas, runs past thirty minutes and echoes the structure of A Love Supreme.

It opens suspended and out of tempo, then gives way to a bass vamp from Reggie Workman that listeners compare to Jimmy Garrison's on "Acknowledgement." From there it builds through Thomas's chant-and-yodel vocal and extended group improvisation with Sanders overblowing, before returning to the opening theme.

"Colors," recorded five days later with a different rhythm section, closes the album on a gentler note.

The personnel differs between the two dates. James Spaulding on flute, Julius Watkins on French horn and Nathaniel Bettis on percussion play both. Workman and Richard Davis share bass with Billy Hart on drums for "Master Plan," while Ron Carter and Freddie Waits take over for "Colors."

Charles Stewart took the cover photograph. He shot roughly 2,000 album covers over his career, many of them for Impulse!.

The master tapes remain in good condition with Universal, through the Verve Label Group that now administers the Impulse! catalogue. The 2022 reissue was cut from them.

Stereo only

Karma was recorded and released in stereo alone. Impulse! had left mono production behind for new titles by 1969, so there is no mono-against-stereo decision here.

Original Impulse! pressings (1969)

Collectors date original stereo copies by label design. The earliest first pressing has a single ABC/Impulse box logo with no registration mark beside it.

A slightly later 1969 pressing has the two-box ABC/Impulse logo with the registration mark appearing twice, on a black label with a red rim. That is the variant most often found and described.

Both come in a laminated gatefold jacket. Later 1970s repressings dropped the lamination.

The catalogue number appears as A-9181 on the jacket and AS-9181 on the labels.

A Capitol Record Club edition exists on the same black and red-rim label, identified by "SMAS" matrix numbers and pressed at the Jacksonville plant. It is a period pressing rather than a standard retail copy, and collectors value it accordingly.

Verve Acoustic Sounds Series (2022)

The Acoustic Sounds edition, catalogue B0035572-01, was remastered by Ryan K. Smith at Sterling Sound from the original analog tapes. It was pressed at Quality Record Pressings in a Stoughton tip-on gatefold. It arrived shortly after Sanders's death in September 2022.

The Absolute Sound rated it 5 out of 5 for both music and sonics in its March 2023 issue.

The package carries one labelling error. The centre labels and gatefold list side B as "Colors" alone. The side actually opens with the unlisted second part of "The Creator Has a Master Plan," and "Colors" itself runs only 5:43.

Two independent comparisons against originals both favoured the reissue. WCB Jazz Vinyl compared it with a standard original, and Concert Buddie with a 1969 Capitol Record Club copy.

Both cite more low-end detail, including audible bass vibrato they had not noticed before, a more forward Sanders solo and better instrument separation. Both also found that a distracting echo on Leon Thomas's vocal entrance, present on the originals, is substantially reduced.

Not every point favoured the reissue. Concert Buddie found the auxiliary hand percussion, chimes and bells, more evident on the vintage Capitol Club copy. That copy of the reissue also had a mild non-flat wobble near the spindle, audible but not a serious playback problem.

International pressings

A French pressing from Barclay and Impulse! in the early 1970s has green and blue labels and "Made in France." Some copies carry a "Gravure Universelle" gold sticker.

A Japanese gatefold reissue from 1973, catalogue IMP-88062, comes from the black and neon-logo Impulse! era. Neither has a published sound comparison against the US original or the Acoustic Sounds cut.

Pressings to avoid

An unlicensed pressing, catalogue ACL0087, circulates outside the main Discogs master listing. It is a bootleg rather than a reissue from any era.

Buyer's guide by budget

$: The Verve Acoustic Sounds Series edition, new, tape-sourced and the easiest recommendation here.

$$$: A clean original Impulse! stereo pressing, realistic to find at this level unlike many titles of comparable stature.

$$$$$: A near-mint laminated-gatefold first pressing with the single-box logo and no registration mark.

Pressing tier summary

References

• Discogs (master, all versions): https://www.discogs.com/master/54110-Pharoah-Sanders-Karma
• WCB Jazz Vinyl, "Pharoah Sanders' Karma - Original vs Acoustic Sounds shoot-out": https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w0evcuODGgw
• Concert Buddie, "Vinyl Record Shootout: Karma by Pharoah Sanders": https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vnQtRFIdH8g

Related guides: Journey in Satchidananda · Ascension · A Love Supreme