| THE
PHARAOHS
"The legend of The Pharaohs starts at Crane Junior College
on the West side of Chicago. Under the tutelage of James Mack a
student band is formed- The Jazzmen- which in 1962 wins the best
band category at Chicago's annual Harvest Moon Festival. The band
featured a front-line of Charles Handy (trumpet) Louis Satterfield
(trombone) and Don Myrick (alto sax) backed by Maurice White (trap
drums), RAMANANA (Fred Humphrey) (Piano) and bassist Ernest McCarthy.
At the time Chicago based Chess Records was fast becoming America's
premier forum for progressive Black music and Jazzmen White, Satterfield
and Handy became prominent session players at the label joining
an illustrious group which already featured guitarist Pete Cosey,
arranger /pianists Phil Wright and the late great Charles Stepney.
"After a while these musicians moved over to the South Side
to the fledgling Affro Arts Theater where they joined the Artistic
Heritage Ensemble, under the leadership of Phil Cohran. As the name
suggests The Affro Arts Theater was more than just a music venue,
offering free concerts and tuition in music, yoga, dance and art
with an afrocentric perspective to the local community. Presently
Cohran left to teach at Malcolm X Junior College and Chuck Handy
and The Pharoahs and the Artistic Heritage Ensemble merged to form
The Pharaohs; "that's how," narrates Handy "the group
grew in size from a six piece group to an orchestra".
"It was this version of the band: Satterfield, Handy, ‘Big'
Willie Woods (Trombone), Oye Bisi (African drums), Shango Njoko
Adefumi (African Drums), Black Herman Waterford (Quinto drum, alto
sax), Don Myrick (saxes), Yehudah Ben Israel (guitar, vocals), Alious
Watkins (trap drums, tuba), Derf Reklaw Raheem (percussion, flute),
Aaron Dodd (Tuba); that in 197I recorded ‘The Awakening'. By
1972 when ‘In The Basement' was recorded the unit had expanded
to include Derrick Morris (trap drums), Warren Bingham (guitar),
Rahm Lee (trumpet) and Sue Conway (Vocal). For too few years the
Pharaohs ruled but by 1973 it was all over.
"What happened to the Pharaohs? In the early seventies Maurice
White who had found considerable success with Ramsey Lewis' third
important trio, gathered together many of his Chicago chums (including
Handy, Myrick and Satterfield) to record a demo , on the strength
of which he inked a deal with Warner Bros. and returned to Chicago
to assemble a band. In the process he changed name, basing the new
one on the astrological signs of the three founding members: Earth
Wind and Fire. For his early recordings (such as the soundtracks
to Melvin Van Pebbles ‘Sweet Sweetback's Badass Song' and the
first EWF album ‘The Need of Love') White poached Pharaohs
Myrick, Satterfield and Yahudah (Yakov) Ben Israel. After scoring
a major hit with the live recording of ‘Reasons' Myrick and
Satterfield joined Rahm Lee and Michael Harris to form The Phenix
Horns, Earth Wind and Fire's permanent horn section. EWF, following
the trail of gold West trod by so many mid Western musicians and
by Motown itself, moved out to Los Angeles while Charles Handy preferred
to remain in Chicago, continuing his studies in Egyptology at the
Field Museum of Natural History. The Pharaohs as a band were effectively
gone but their influence was undiminished: Earth Wind and Fire's
Egyptian iconography ( from the Sphinx/Pyramid laden album art to
the musical references to Sun Goddesses and Serpentine Fires) owes
as much to The Pharaoh's philosophy as their horny percussive bass
heavy groove does to The Pharaohs musical innovation (it was Louis
Satterfield who taught Verdine White to play bass, and Maurice the
Kalimba!). Earth Wind and Fire in turn have profoundly influenced
popular music.
"Charles Handy, for one, believes The Pharaoh's still have
something to say:"This music is very relevant today" he
says."Now you've got what you call world music and they are
rediscovering the sounds- like the African drums and such, combining
that with European horns and electric instruments- that we were
using back then 30 years ago." That this album is a crucial
document of an unparalleled band is indisputable, but that's not
why you should buy it. You should buy it because contained within
these covers is, no matter when it was recorded, no matter what
it means, some damn fine music."
-Caspar Melville, On The One Magazine, San Francisco
"Rarely has cultural nationalism lent itself to such infectious
grooves."
-Chicago Reader
"Early 70's jazz-funk madness!"
-New York Post
"Brilliant Sun Ra styled melange of African influenced jazz
and lean funk."
-CMJ |
