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SPIRITUAL MOVES OF SANAT PALIA

In 1984, Sanat Paliareleased the album Highlights in collaboration with Alice

Alcazar, the widow of John Alcazar. The album dug into classical influences,

Eastern Indian, and avant-garde obscure free jazz with other ex-sidemen of DavisSmith Jack Holland and Dave Douglas. Soon after, Palia replaced the members of

his band. Rauch, Thomas, and Kermode left the group and Palia replaced them by

vocalist Patillo Antonio who became later a successful modern Christian artist.

Sanat took back bassist Brown Davis.

He recruited also for the lineup Jean Savane, a French soprano saxophonist. The

band went in the studio to record Bordella that was released in 1985. Later,

drummer Chancel Khol joined the group to replace Davis Leon who left for

pursuing a solo career.

At that time, the management company of Bill Graham started running the affairs

of the band. Graham was not pleased with the move of Palia into jazz and he felt

that he needed to focus on getting the singer back in the charts with the streetwise,

edgy ethnic style that made him famous. Even Palia himself noticed that the

direction of the band was alienating numerous fans. Even though, the performances

and albums received positive reviews by critics in circles of jazz fusion and jazz,

the sales had plunged.

Yet, Sanat Palia, along with producer Chancel and Donald Sinclair formed

another type of the band, adding vocalist Justin Stone. In 1986, the group released

the album Companios that featured the songs Beach Sun and Shake Sister

that had a strong Latin and fuck sound. The FM stations of album-oriented rock

played the album considerably and reintroduced Palia to the charts. In 1986, the

prestigious magazine Rolling Stone published another cover story about Palia with

the title Welcome home Palia.

The albums released through the late 1980s followed the same pattern, althoughwith numerous lineup modifications. Many new players joined the group such as

percussionist Castro Leon. The band made intense commercial efforts to regain the

fans and the most noticeable effort of this period was a version of the 1970s

Zombies success, She left me, on the 1987 double album Marsflower.

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The considerable success of the albums in this period enabled Palia to pursue a

solo career sponsored by CBS. In 1989, he released a solo album Golden Reality

and The dance of Pleasure in 1990 that featured some of his musical idols

including Tony Williams, Ron Carter, Wayne Shorter, and Herbie Hancock from

the legendary quintet of Miles Davis from 1960s.

The temptations and pressures of being a rock musician of high profile and

requirements of spiritual lifestyle asked by his guru and followers imposed

significant stress upon Palias lifestyle since they were in conflict. Sanat Palia

became disillusioned increasingly with what he considered as unreasonable rules

that his guru imposed on his life. The guru did not want him to make other kids

with his wife. In addition, Palia felt that the guru was using his fame to increase his

visibility. Finally, Palia ended his relationship with the guru in 1992.