Black Unity is a composition and album by jazz

Jazz

Jazz is a musical style that originated at the beginning of the 20th century in African American communities in the Southern United States. It was born out of a mix of African and European music traditions. From its early development until the present, jazz has incorporated music from 19th and 20th...

 saxophonist Pharoah Sanders

Pharoah Sanders

Pharoah Sanders is a Grammy Award–winning American jazz saxophonist.Saxophonist Ornette Coleman once described him as "probably the best tenor player in the world." Emerging from John Coltrane's groups of the mid-60s Sanders is known for his overblowing, harmonic, and multiphonic techniques on...

, recorded and released in late 1971.

The whole album consists of a single thirty-seven minute track, which was described by critic Joe S. Harrington as "an exercise in sustained harmonic groove that cannot be beaten" when he listed it at #38 on his Top 100 Albums.

Track listing

1. "Black Unity" – 37:21

Vinyl Edition

Side A: Black Unity (Part One) - 18:28

Side B: Black Unity (Part Two) - 18:58

Personnel

• Joe Bonner
  Joe Bonner
  Joe Bonner is a jazz pianist who is featured in The Bonner Party, a jazz quartet.He was born in Rocky Mount, North Carolina and studied at Virginia State College, but indicates he learned more by musicians he worked with. In the seventies he played with Roy Haynes, Freddie Hubbard, and Billy...
  
    – Piano
• Stanley Clarke
  Stanley Clarke
  Stanley Clarke is an American jazz musician and composer known for his innovative and influential work on double bass and electric bass guitar as well as for his numerous film and television scores...
  
    – Bass
• Norman Connors
  Norman Connors
  Norman Connors is an American jazz drummer, composer, arranger, producer, and headliner, who has led some influential jazz and R&B groups. He also achieved several big R&B hits of the day, especially with love ballads.-Biography:...
  
    – Drums
• Carlos Garnett
  Carlos Garnett
  Carlos Garnett is a Panamanian-American jazz saxophonist, composer, arranger, and jazz group leader.Garnett was born on December 1, 1938, in Red Tank, Panama Canal Zone. He became interested in jazz music after hearing Louis Jordan's and James Moody's music in film shorts...
  
    – Flute, Sax (Tenor)
• Billy Hart
  Billy Hart
  William "Billy" Hart is a jazz drummer and educator who has performed with some of the most important jazz musicians in history.-Biography:Early on Hart performed in Washington, D.C...
  
    – Drums
• Lawrence Killian  – Percussion, Conga, Balafon
  Balafon
  The balafon is a resonated frame, wooden keyed percussion idiophone of West Africa; part of the idiophone family of tuned percussion instruments that includes the xylophone, marimba, glockenspiel, and the vibraphone...
  
  , Talking Drum
  Djembe
  A djembe also known as jembe, jenbe, djbobimbe, jymbe, yembe, or jimbay, or sanbanyi in Susu; is a skin-covered drum meant played with bare hands....
  
  
• Cecil McBee
  Cecil McBee
  Cecil McBee is an American post bop jazz bassist, described by the Guinness Who's Who of Jazz as "a full-toned bassist who creates rich, singing phrases in a wide range of contemporary jazz contexts." Allmusic called him "One of post-bop's most advanced and versatile bassists".-Biography:McBee...
  
    – Bass
• Marvin "Hannibal" Peterson  – Trumpet
• Pharoah Sanders
  Pharoah Sanders
  Pharoah Sanders is a Grammy Award–winning American jazz saxophonist.Saxophonist Ornette Coleman once described him as "probably the best tenor player in the world." Emerging from John Coltrane's groups of the mid-60s Sanders is known for his overblowing, harmonic, and multiphonic techniques on...
  
    – Sax (Soprano), Sax (Tenor), Balafon

Production

• Michael Cuscuna
  Michael Cuscuna
  Michael Cuscuna is an American jazz record producer and writer. He is a leading discographer of Blue Note Records....
  
    – Reissue Producer
• Hollis King  – Art Direction
• Erick Labson  – Remastering
• Christine Lee  – Graphic Design
• Tony May  – Engineer
• Chuck Stewart
  Chuck Stewart
  Chuck Stewart is an African American photographer best known for his cover photos on as many as 2,000 albums featuring his portraits of such jazz, Rhythm and blues, bebop and salsa performers as Louis Armstrong, Count Basie, John Coltrane, Ella Fitzgerald and Miles Davis among the hundreds of...
  
   – Photography
• Lee Young  – Producer