By Michael J. West Pharoah Sanders at the 2020 Detroit Jazz Festival (photo courtesy of Detroit Jazz Festival Foundation)Pharoah Sanders, a pioneering tenor saxophonist and composer who became synonymous with the spiritual jazz aesthetic, died September 24 at a hospital in Los Angeles, California. He was three weeks shy of his 82nd birthday. Sanders’ record label, Luaka Bop, announced via Instagram that Sanders had passed away, dying “peacefully surrounded by loving family and friends.” Cause of death was not disclosed. A pillar of jazz’s avant-garde, Sanders broke through as a frontline partn…