by Richard S. Ginell
The world music-minded producer Bill Laswell gets a hold of Pharoah Sanders here and lo, the sleeping volcano erupts with one of his most fulfilling albums in many a year. Message From Home is rooted in, but not exclusively devoted to, African idioms, as the overpowering hip-hop groove of &Our Roots (Began In Africa)& points out. But the record really develops into something special when Sanders pits his mighty tenor sound against the pan-African beats, like the ecstatically joyful rhythms of &Tomoki& and the poised, percolating fusion of American country & western drums and Nigerian juju guitar riffs on &Country Mile.& In addition, &Nozipho& is a concentrated dose of the old Pharoah, heavily spiritual and painfully passionate, with a generous supply of the tenor player's famous screeching rhetoric, and kora virtuoso Foday Musa Suso shows up on &Kumba& with a touch of village Gambian music. This resurrection will quicken the pulse of many an old Pharoah fan.