Sanders was natural around Little Rock, Arkansas, under the title Farrell Sanders. He began his sales person career swimming tenor saxophone in Oakland, California.

Sanders moved to New York City in 1962. He received his nickname "Pharoah" from Sun Ra, with whom Sanders performed. He come to prominence swimming by having John Coltrane's band starting in 1965, as Coltrane began experimenting by owning a music which would shortly be called free jazz.

Sanders has collaborated by using Bill Laswell, Jah Wobble and others. Within 1994 he traveled to Morocco to record with master Gnawa musician Maleem Mahmoud Ghania.

Sanders is known for his overblowing & harmonic techniques on the sax.

Selected discography
Izipho Zam, (1969) Karma, (1969) -- features The Developer Has the Masterplan using vocalizer Leon Thomas Deaf Dumb Blind (Summun Bukmun Umyun) (1970) Live at the East, (1971) Elevation, (1973) Journey to the One, (1980) Heart is a Melody, (1982) -- features live version of John Coltrane's Ole Welcome to Love, (1990)