a pioneering tenor saxophonist and composer who became synonymous with the spiritual jazz aesthetic, died Sept. 24 at a hospital in Los Angeles, California. He was 81. A pillar of jazz’s avant-garde, Sanders broke through as a frontline partner with John Coltrane, joining the latter’s band in 1965 and remaining with him until Coltrane’s death in 1967. He then collaborated with Coltrane’s widow Alice, and with Sun Ra, Don Cherry, and the Jazz Composer’s Orchestra, before establishing himself as a leader with his epic 1969 recording “The Creator Has a Master Plan.” He came to be widely regarded as Coltrane’s heir. But Sanders also charted his own path. He cultivated one of the most distinctive tenor saxophone sounds in jazz: both rich and coarse, loaded with overblowing and split tones, prone to violent, shrieking outbursts. When the free and spiritual jazz he had learned from Coltrane lost favor with jazz audiences, though, Sanders experimented with funk and R&B, modal jazz, and straight-ahead bebop and hard bop. In the process he reinvented his improvisational approach, becoming mellower and more thoughtful. Although he never ceased performing, Sanders faded in and: a collaboration with electronic artist Floating Points and the London Symphony Orchestra.
