Tomoki Sanders Quartet

Running time: 90 minutes 

Tomoki Sanders, tenor saxophone, electronics; Ian Finkelstein, klaviature; Mwanzi Harriott, electric guitar; Christian Napoleon, drums


One Tuesday in September during the Year of Coltrane, a strange sensation swept over the audience at New York City’s ShapeShifter Lab – as if time had folded in on itself. Standing together onstage were the sons of jazz royalty – saxophonists Tomoki Sanders and Ravi Coltrane, along with bassist Matthew Garrison – weaving together the past and the future in that singular moment. Endowed with a musical gene, they have committed themselves to carrying forward the legacy of avant-garde expression, using the very same instruments their fathers pioneered six decades ago. Not only did their parents know one another, but at one point in their careers, their fathers (and mother) – Pharoah Sanders, John and Alice Coltrane, and Jimmy Garrison – were even members of the same ensembles: John Coltrane’s final group in 1966 and 1967, and later Alice Coltrane’s groundbreaking ensemble.

“People sometimes don’t fully realize the spiritual weight this music carries and the responsibility we feel when we play it,” reflected Tomoki after the concert, still visibly moved by the magical energy that suffused the air that night. It was an encounter of multiple generations from the same branch of music history – but perhaps even more importantly, a cross-section of diverse visions of where that tradition should lead next. This is because, for them (Tomoki uses the gender-neutral pronouns they/them), musical heritage is not some museum-bound authority, but rather material for forging their own language, echoing all the transformations of the contemporary world. After all, the uniqueness of the jazz tradition lies in how clearly its value and significance are revealed when artists creatively intervene in and reinvent it.

Tomoki Sanders are certainly one of those who reinvent and reimagine. The son of spiritual jazz legend Pharoah Sanders, they were already behind the drum kit at the age of four, took up the clarinet at six, and later received their own alto saxophone from their father, which they traded for a tenor saxophone at fourteen. Their first performances, while they were still in their teens, took place in Japan, their mother’s native country. Japanese culture has had a strong influence on their artistic expression, alongside spiritual jazz and influences from hip-hop, electronic and experimental music – genres they explore with their peers, including Kassa Overall, Moses Sumney and the Kyoto Jazz Sextet, as well as occasionally with Japanese musician and actor Tatsuya Nakamura. As a queer artist with a carefully crafted image and distinctive style (their signature look is an orchid in their hair), they pay special homage to the eternal muses Billie Holiday, Phyllis Hyman and Erykah Badu. They received their formal musical education at the prestigious Berklee College of Music, studying under Ralph Peterson Jr. and George Garzone.

Making their Slovenian debut, Tomoki will perform a repertoire of original compositions with their quartet.