Pharoah Saunders' 1969 Spiritual Jazz Tune/Song - "The Creator Has A Master Plan" (information, lyrics, videos)

Edited by Azizi Powell

This pancocojams post provides information about Pharoah Sanders' 1969 Jazz song "The Creator Has A Master Plan".

The lyrics for that song are also included in this post along with two YouTube examples videos  of that tune/song.

The content of this post is presented for cultural, entertainment, and aesthetic purposes.

All copyrights remain with their owners.

Thanks to Pharoah Sanders for his musical legacy. Thanks to Leon Thomas for singing and yodeling this song and thanks to all those who are associated with this song. Thanks to all those who are quoted in this post and thanks to the publishers of these videos on YouTube.

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SHOWCASE YOUTUBE EXAMPLES
Video #1: Pharoah Sanders Quartet - The Creator Has a Master Plan [video]



MrCrescent, May 14, 2016  

Pharoah Sanders: tenor saxophone; William Henderson III: piano; Alex Blake: bass; Hamid Drake: drums. Recorded live in Leverkusen, Germany, 19th October 1999. -snip-
This note doesn't include the name of the vocalist Leon Thomas.
-snip-
Here's an excerpt of Pharoah Sanders' Wikipedia page https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pharoah_Sanders:
"Pharoah Saunders (born Farrell Sanders, October 13, 1940) is an American jazz saxophonist. A member of John Coltrane's groups of the mid-1960s, Sanders is known for his overblowing, harmonic, and multiphonic techniques on the saxophone, as well as his use of "sheets of sound". He has released over 30 albums as a leader and has collaborated extensively with Leon Thomas, Alice Coltrane, and Tisziji Munoz,  among others. Saxophonist Ornette Coleman described him as "probably the best tenor player in the world".^[1]

Sanders' music has been called "spiritual jazz" due to his inspiration in religious concepts such as Karma and Tawhid, and his rich, meditative aesthetic.^[2] This style is seen as a continuation of Coltrane's work on albums such as A Love Supreme"...

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Example #2: Leon Thomas - The Creator Has A Master Plan (Peace) [sound file]




winterblueflower -December 14, 2012

From the album Spirits Known and Unknown (1969) -snip- Here's some information about Leon Thomas from his Wikipedia page https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Leon_Thomas "Amos Leon Thomas, Jr.  (October 4, 1937 – May 8, 1999), known professionally as Leon Thomas, was an American jazz and blues vocalist, born in East St. Louis, Illinois, and known for his bellowing glottal-stop style of free jazz singing in the late 1960s and 1970s."...
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LYRICS: THE CREATOR HAS A MASTER PLAY
(Pharoah Saunders)
 
Yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah, yeah yeah
Yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah, yeah yeah

The creator has a working plan
Peace and happiness for every man

The creator has a working plan
Peace and happiness for every man

The creator has a master plan
Peace and happiness for every man

The creator has a master plan
Peace and happiness for every man

The creator makes but one demand
Peace and happiness through all the land

The creator makes but one demand —
Happiness… through all the land

Yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah, yeah yeah
Yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah, yeah yeah

Yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah, yeah yeah
Yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah, yeah yeah

Mmmmm (Vocal Trilling)

Yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah, yeah yeah

Yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah, yeah yeah

-Source: https://genius.com/Pharoah-sanders-the-creator-has-a-master-plan-lyrics
-snip-
Here's some additional information about this song from that internet source:
"“The Creator Has a Master Plan” is an epic piece of spiritual jazz released in 1969. It features both Pharoah Sanders' avant-garde saxophone techniques and Leon Thomas' extended vocal yodeling.

Though this track is only built around two chords (Ab9 and Bb9), it both complex and tightly structured. The length and distinct sections make it more like a symphony or a sonata rather than a “song.”

Though the intensity of the piece ebbs and flows over time, the piece generally gets increasingly chaotic as it progresses, right up until the end.
[...]
The recording on [the Pharoah Saunders album] Karma only excerpts lyrics from Thomas’s original poem. The full lyrics, which are printed in the liner notes and which appeared on Thomas's own version of that song six months later, begin with the verses:

"There was a time, when peace was on the earth,and joy and happiness did reign and each man

knew his worth. In my heart I yearn for
that spirit’s return and I cry, as time flies,
Oooomm, Oooomm.

There is a place where love wherever shines, and
rainbows are the shadows of a presence so divine,
and the glow of that love lights
the heavens above, and it’s free, come with me,
can’t you see."
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