Sun Ra Sunday

While I was record shopping in Birmingham, Alabama I made a point of driving out to the Elmwood Cemetery to visit Sun Ra's grave. The humble marker was not easy to find--even with a map!--but it was incredibly moving (if a little bit creepy) to be standing at the site of Sonny's earthly remains.

Someone had left behind a pair of joss sticks (which I was unable to get lit in the wind) and some plastic flowers atop a small pile of pinecones. I found a pinecone and put it on the pile and looked around, surrounded by miles and miles of dead bodies, their grey stone sentries looming across the landscape. I'm pretty sure this not where Sonny wanted to wind up.

I swept off the gravestone and paid my respects. I apologized for letting him down with the Sun Ra Sunday project--and, I swear, I could hear him laughing at me down there under the ground. Well, maybe I'll get back to it one of these days. Making this pilgrimage was inspiring--and there's not much time left for me on this planet!

In the meanwhile, check out Sam Byrd's excellent post over at World of Abstract Dreams for an excellent overview of the recent iTunes-only remasters (which I don't have). There's also another vinyl-only release out on Roaratorio, a previously unheard studio album from 1974 called, Sign of the Myth. You don't need me to tell you that it is essential listening; if you are reading this, you need it.

Sun Ra may be gone, but his music lives on.

Sun Ra Sunday

Sun Ra & His Astro-Infinity Arkestra: Other Strange Worlds (Roaratorio LP)

Just released from Roaratorio Records is Other Strange Worlds, containing previously unheard recordings from May 1965 from the Sun Ra Archive. While only available on limited-edition vinyl, it also contains a coupon for a free MP3 download—so, whether or not you even have a turntable, every Sun Ra freak needs to jump on this quick!

According to archivist Michael D. Anderson’s brief liner notes, the recording was intended as a “second volume” to the wonderfully weird Strange Strings album but, for whatever reason, never released. Certainly, the approach is similar, with an arsenal of exotic instruments deployed in what Sunny called “an exercise in ignorance.” But on Other Strange Worlds, the Arkestra is substantially reduced, down to a quintet of Sun Ra, John Gilmore, Marshall Allen, Ali Hasaan and Art Jenkins. Along with the koras, zithers, kalimbas and fiddles, Gilmore and Jenkins stick mostly to percussion while Allen takes keening leads on oboe and Hasaan adds warm trombone. Occasionally, Ra will brighten the texture by tinkling on the celeste; but, most of the time, he is subtly guiding the improvisations, turning them into challenging and sublime pieces of space-age chamber music.

Recorded in Sun Ra’s apartment on the Lower East Side of New York (you can hear the telephone ring several times during the proceedings), Other Strange Worlds actually sounds quite clear and clean—especially compared to the noisy and distorted Strange Strings. The smaller ensemble obviously contributes to the transparent sound quality yet Sun Ra’s mastery of effective lo-fi recording techniques is quite in evidence here. Thankfully, Roaratorio has done an excellent job with this vinyl pressing: my copy is flat as pancake, quiet as a ghost and sounds flipping fantastic. Officially out this Tuesday, run—don’t walk—to your nearest record store and grab yourself a copy. Or do what I did and order it direct from their website. Other Strange Worlds is another essential addition to the Sun Ra discography and should not be missed!

Sun Ra Sunday

Sun Ra Arkestra: Live At The Red Garter (Transparency 0319) (3CD)

The latest release from the Transparency label presents an expanded version of the Red Garter tape recorded in July 1970 across two CDs along with a third disc containing 82 photographs of the band by Lee Santa—a really nice bonus. The cool thing is that the liner notes are written by the one-and-only Sam Byrd!

The Transparency edition is taken from a slightly better source than the circulating CDR as it is a bit longer and appears to present the music in its proper sequence. Certainly, the sound quality is marginally improved. But make no mistake: this is rough going. Derived from a monophonic amateur recording made from the audience, all the attendant noise, distortion and balance problems remain intact. While the music is great (featuring the great Alan Silva on cello), the sound quality is still pretty dreadful.

Even so, Transparency should be commended for making some of the rarest Sun Ra material available to the masses. And kudos to Sam for his astute liner notes. I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again: he is the one who should be writing Sun RaSunday! As for me, I am just now trying to get back into it. Stay tuned…

Sun Ra Sunday

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Wherein I take Sun Ra Sunday to the YouTube Vinyl Community.

Sun Ra Sunday

Sun Ra: Disco 3000 (Saturn/Art Yard CD)

Although The Complete Disco 3000 Concert (recorded at The Teatro Cilak in Milan, Italy) contains all of the music found on the original LP, Art Yard also released Disco 3000 (CD 101) as a straight reissue (with alternative artwork) in 2009. I’m glad they did because it is a classic—and very strange—Sun Ra album that deserves to be heard in its original form. Moreover, listening to the entire two-hour concert is a considerable time commitment, which, in some ways, dilutes the impact of the original Disco 3000 LP in my opinion.

The first side consists of the twenty-six minute title track while side two contains “Third Planet,” “Friendly Galaxy” and “Dance of the Cosmo Aliens.” While you can my descriptions on my review of The Complete Disco 3000 Concert, what is interesting to me is how much more effective “Dance of the Cosmo Aliens” is when it is shorn from its original context, the twisted electronica bookending the album with “Disco 3000.” Or maybe my ears got tired by the time it was played, over an hour into the original concert. Hardcore fans will want both, but Disco 3000 is essential.

In typically Saturnal fashion, Michael Ray’s liner notes (penned in 2007 and contained on both Art Yard CDs) are both enlightening and confusing. “It was here,” he says, “that most of my early dues were paid.”

Sun Ra would tell me “You playing your horn alright but try my way, unless you have some sort of mental block.” “Play that apple. Remember it is round so think of 360 degrees of sound and color. It’s red which means its energy deals with the first chakra, you have to be able to play the vibration.” We rehearsed like this from early in the morning to late at night for days. It was like having someone erase your mainframe and reboot your hard drive! Sunny always said expect the unexpected. “We might have a gig on Mars one day so you got to be swinging on your horn, because they don’t party like earthlings” 

Elsewhere, he writes:

The Winter of ’78, I headed to Rome not knowing what to expect…Sun Ra would get up every day at dawn. We would then drive over to Media Dreams, a small studio run by Andreas and Alfie, very good friends of the band. Andreas was credited with the development of the Walkman, which he sold to Sony Company.

Huh? “Andreas” is presumably Andreas Pavel, inventor of a proto-Walkman, which was (according to Wikipedia) patented in Italy in 1977. So, it is certainly possible that he was in Rome in January of 1978—but, as far as I can tell, he had nothing to do with the Horo Records label or the “Horo Voice Studio,” where New Steps and Other Voices, Other Blues were (presumably) recorded (see Campbell & Trent pp.243-246). Ray makes no mention of Horo—is he referring to those albums or were there other studio recordings made in Italy in January 1978? If so, where are they? I'm "friends" with Michael Ray on Facebook; maybe I should ask him...

Sun Ra Sunday

Sun Ra: The Complete Disco 3000 Concert (Art Yard 2CD)

The quartet of Sun Ra, John Gilmore, Michael Ray and Luqman Ali performed at Teatro Cilak in Milan on January 23, 1978, apparently at the very end of their extended stay in Italy. While their exact movements are poorly documented during this period, they were certainly back in the states on or before January 29, where the Arkestra appeared at the Famous Ballroom in Baltimore (see Campbell & Trent pp.247-250). The Teatro Cilak concert was recorded and portions were released later in the year as Disco 3000 (Saturn LP CMIJ78) and reissued by Art Yard in 2009. Prior to this, though, Art Yard released the entire Milan performance on two compact discs as The Complete Disco 3000 Concert (CD 001) in 2007. As with Media Dreams, these welcome reissues not only make available some of the rarest of all Saturn LPs, but also provide additional material that puts these weird and wonderful recordings into a wider context.

The concert opens with “Disco 3000” and, right away, you can tell the small band has really started to gel after several weeks working together. While Media Dreams is dominated by Ra’s electronica (wonderful as it is), Disco 3000 is much more of a cohesive group effort. There’s still plenty of mad-scientist keyboard extravaganzas, with the Crumar Mainman organ and cheesy rhythm box establishing an uneasy, mutant disco vamp—but here, Ali locks in comfortably with the beat and the horns are given plenty of space across its epic twenty-six minutes. About five minutes in, they suddenly launch into “Space is the Place,” but, curiously, not in the re-arrangement found on Media Dreams. After a couple of minutes of chanting, things take off again, with some absolutely killer tenor saxophone from Gilmore and hypnotic, quasi-ambient keyboard effects from Ra. It’s tempting to just say “Disco 3000” is the crowning achievement of the quartet’s brief existence and leave it at that. A classic Sun Ra track.

Not that there isn’t more great music on these discs! After a short drum solo, “Sun of the Cosmos” continues in the guided improvisation vein, including more crazed keyboard work from Sonny and another outrageous tenor solo from Gilmore, where he explores the entire range of extended techniques from altissimo screams to impossible split-tone multiphonics. Whew! Ra then moves to the piano for “Echos [sic] of the World,” a pretty ballad with Gilmore in the lead. “Geminiology” picks up the tempo with some jaunty swing and a riff-based head arrangement but Ra takes it way out: thunderous low-register tone clusters and furious parallel runs, just a total assault on the piano. Then it’s suddenly back to the cheery jazz feel for Ray’s extended solo on warm-toned trumpet. “Sky Blues” is exactly as the title suggests, a swinging blues riff, with Gilmore delivering the sermon. Lord have mercy! This is another incredible Gilmore solo, a blues history lesson: from honking, hokey gutbucket to dizzying post-bop harmonic labyrinths to the most out-there avant garde wailing—all without losing the thread of tradition and ending with an emphatic flourish. Dammmnnn.

Disc one concludes with six minutes of “Friendly Galaxy,” given an angular and dissonant rearrangement, fading out on Ray’s muted trumpet solo. Disc two then fades up some time later (the reel flip evidenced by the increased wow-and-flutter at the beginning of the track) and, after about a minute of noodling on “Friendly Galaxy,” Ra signals “Third Planet.” The two horns sound super-tight and Gilmore once again plays a mind-bendingly great tenor solo, this time accompanied only by the drums. Ali is uncharacteristically aggressive here, swinging like a mo-fo while Gilmore blows the doors down. No wonder Sonny picked this track for release on the original Disco 3000 LP! “Dance of the Cosmo Aliens” was also included on the original LP and it’s another spaced-out electronica-fest, with Gilmore and Ray putting down the horns and picking up percussion instruments. Even so, the expanded rhythm section struggles a bit trying to follow along with the crude electric drum box. Even so, Ra’s keyboard playing is otherworldly and the crowd eats it up, bursting into rapturous applause at the end.

“Spontaneous Simplicity” is given an electrified rearrangement with lots of wild keyboard effects and some blasting trumpet work from Ray, but is perhaps overlong at fourteen-some minutes. This segues into “Images,” which is given a tighter reading than on Media Dreams. While Gilmore’s solo is probably not the equal of “Twigs at Twlight,” it’s still pretty freaking awesome. Although the packaging says this includes “Over the Rainbow,” it actually appears on the following track, “When There Is No Sun,” which is given a gentle, gospelized feel, with Gilmore and Ray sweetly singing and Ra accompanying the on churchy organ. Then Sonny erupts into another electronic frenzy before slipping over to the piano for a brief sketch of “Over the Rainbow.” Finally, the concert ends with a reprise of “Space is the Place,” with Ra vamping on piano for a while before joining in on the chant. Interestingly, this rendition shares the quickened phrasing of the unique rearrangement heard on Media Dreams, but lacks the horn parts and countermelodies.

Sonny obviously thought highly of this concert, releasing not only the Disco 3000 LP but editing the title track and “Sky Blues” down for release on a seven-inch 45RPM single (Saturn 2100) which can be found on the two-CD set, The Singles (Evidence ECD 22164-2). Retitled "Disco 2100," the sprawling original is reduced to two minutes and and 43 seconds of Ra's swirling, primitive electronica while the flip side focuses on the first two-and-a-half minutes of boogie-woogie. I don't expect it got a lot of airplay.

While all of the Art Yard releases are essential in my opinion, The Complete Disco 3000 Concert is really something special, presenting Sun Ra in this unusual quartet situation where everything just comes together. You not only get Sonny at his most adventurous, demonstrating his inimitable mastery of electronic keyboards (as well as some virtuosic piano playing) but the young newcomer, Michael Ray, plays with admirable taste and restraint while Luqman Ali more than holds his own as the lone member of the rhythm section. And Gilmore—well, what more can be said? Incredible! Get it before it goes out of print forever.

Sun Ra Sunday

Sun Ra: Media Dreams (Saturn/Art Yard 2CD)

Sun Ra: Sound Mirror (Side B) (Saturn LP>CDR)

Obviously pleased with the Horo Voice Studio recordings, Sun Ra lined up some live gigs for the quartet, touring Italy until at least January 23, 1978, where they performed at Teatro Cilak in Milan and recorded Disco 3000 (Saturn CMIJ 78). There were other concerts during the intervening weeks, as documented on two other Saturn LPs, Media Dream (Saturn 1978) and Side B of Sound Mirror (Saturn 19782) but the actual dates and locations for these recordings are unknown (see Campbell & Trent pp.247-249). Originally issued in miniscule numbers, these three albums are some of the rarest and most desirable El Saturn LPs in existence. Thankfully, the intrepid Art Yard label came to the rescue. In 2007, they released The Complete Disco 3000 Concert (CD 001) on two CDs (with the original LP edit reissued as CD 101). Then, in 2008, they put out another two-disc set entitled Media Dreams (CD 002), which presents the original Media Dream album on one CD and a 50-minute concert fragment on another. Taken together, these Art Yard reissues present an almost-complete picture of this highly unusual (and haphazardly documented) tour of Italy. In his liner notes for Media Dreams, Trent points out that while the discovery of some (but not all) of the original tapes from this 1978 sojourn “clarifies some questions, establishing long suspected links between various Saturn albums,” it also “raises as many questions as it answers.” Aside from the Teatro Cilak concert, actual dates and locations remain a mystery. And so it goes with Mr. Ra...

In fact, most of the tracks on original Media Dream are not to be found on the concert recording contained in the Art Yard reissue and those tracks were significantly edited for the official release. Was it all taken from the same concert? Judging from the overall ambience, it could be—or it could be from more than one—but the sound quality on the second disc is significantly degraded, making a direct comparison impossible. According to Trent: “This particular tape is no longer in audiophile condition. It does appear to be the original master, rather than a copy, but is now in a poor state. Art Yard have rescued it in the nick of time and have gone to considerable lengths to improve its quality.” They did the best with what they had and while it sounds pretty good, the tape has dearly suffered the ravages of time.

What is most notable about these live quartet recordings is how they transferred the Horo studio experiments to the stage. While he has been provided with decent pianos at these gigs, Sonny spends the bulk of his time with a variety of electronic keyboards, including a Moog synthesizer and a Crumar Mainmain organ. Media Dream opens up with “Saturn Research,” a three-minute blast of ominous, dissonant organ and synth, accompanied by dramatic drums and percussion—and Sonny is only just getting started. On “Constellation” (confusingly not the same composition found on Other Voices, Other Blues), Ra switches on the Mainman’s crude rhythm box, which plays a slowed-down cha-cha beat supplemented with a simple, synthesized bass line. Now, in anyone else’s hands, this would be unforgivably cheesy—yet Sonny somehow makes it work and the primitive Mainman organ gives these recordings a uniquely retro-futuristic feel. After a scribbly “Yera of the Sun” (whose Morse Code rhythms vaguely recall “Quest”), the Mainman gets another workout on “Media Dreams,” a thirteen minute tour de force. Starting out as a weirdly beautiful ballad form, with twittering organ, legato synth chords and all sorts of electronica effects, Michael Ray takes a long, warm-toned solo on trumpet, ably following Ra’s harmonic twists and turns. Then it devolves into Ra's wild, mad scientist display. At the ten-minute mark, John Gilmore comes in with a folk-like melody on tenor saxophone but just as Ra starts to heat things up again, the track quickly fades out. It sounds to me like this could have gone on forever.

Only the last two tracks on Media Dream are taken from the concert recording found on disc two of Art Yard’s reissue and they both feature Ra on acoustic piano. The curiously (mis)titled “Twigs at Twilight” is actually “Images,” but brutally edited, picking up about half-way through and beginning with Gilmore’s tenor solo. Although Gilmore takes many liberties with the tune, in retrospect, it is immediately recognizable as “Images.” Anyway, this is definitely another one of the all-time great Gilmore solos, not overly extended but still sublime. After a brief piano excursion and drum break, the track fades out before the return of the head, further obscuring its origins. Finally, “An Unbeknowneth Love” begins with rhapsodic piano and boom-chick trap-drumming from Luqman Ali – but someone (Gilmore?) is playing tympani, adding slippery and dramatic percussion effects: BOING! BOING! Ra gets into an aggressively dissonant, avant-garde mode before the drum solo, which fades out to end the album. Very interesting.

The second disc contains seven pieces, picking up with “Friendly Galaxy,” which is quite different from the version found on The Complete Disco 3000 Concert, where it was combined with “Third Planet.” Ra starts out on piano but quickly moves to organ, eventually getting the Mainman’s drumbox/bassline thing happening. Unfortunately, Ali drops in and out, unable to find the groove. Ra is going crazy with his ragbag arsenal of electronic keyboards but this is not a wholly satisfying group performance. “An Unbeknowneth Love” follows, with the drum solo leading immediately into “Of Other Tomorrows Never Known.” This track appeared in slightly edited form on the Sound Mirror LP and it is another virtuoso performance from Sonny. Woozy string ensemble chords and bubbly bass synthesizer seem to outline a basic structure from which Ra builds his quirkily original electronic music, full of astonishingly variegated textures and intertwined melodic lines. Meanwhile, light-handed drums scrape and murmur in the background. About six minutes in, you can hear Ra barking out instructions—though you can’t quite make out what he says. Soon thereafter, Gilmore plays an extended cadenza as Ra hints at the chord changes to “Images.”

Despite Ra's commands and a fluid introduction, the horn players fluff their entrance—and while Ray and Ra solo admirably, it really isn’t until Gilmore comes in that things really take off. No wonder this version of "Images" was edited (and retitled) for official release! Next up is one of the earliest known performances of “The Truth About Planet Earth” (a/k/a “Bad Truth”), one of Sun Ra’s patently hectoring space chants. When he accompanies himself with a soulfully swinging piano vamp, this has an almost-commercial pop-song feel—but Ra eventually abandons the instrument and everyone takes turns at the microphone, a spacey echo effect added to the voices at the soundboard. At nearly seven minutes, it goes on a bit too long for casual listening (although I'm sure it was thoroughly entertaining live). A brief rendition of “Space is the Place” offers an intriguing rearrangement of this concert staple, with new lyrics and alternative countermelodies, which immediately segues into “The Shadow World.” Don’t get too excited, though! It cuts off after only a couple of minutes.

That leaves the humorously titled “Jazzisticology” as the remaining track from Sound Mirror that was recorded on this Italian tour but is not found on either Media Dreams or The Complete Disco 3000 Concert. It is impossible tell if it belongs with its companion, “Of Other Tomorrows Never Known,” or if it is from a different concert altogether. The sound of Gilmore’s microphone sounds more gritty and immediate than elsewhere but it doesn't help matters that my "needledrop" of Sound Mirror is a crackly mess. In any event, “Jazzisticology” is another improvised post-bop number similar to what was done in the Horo Voice Studio, with Sonny cueing the arrangement and telepathically communicating the chord changes to Gilmore with his sparse piano comping. Then Ray solos over Ali's drums before the sax and piano return rubato, only to fade out too soon. An inconsequential track, perhaps, but there are other reasons to seek out Sound Mirror (which we’ll get to anon).

Needless to say, Art Yard's Media Dreams is an essential, if still discographically mysterious, release. The Complete Disco 3000 Concert may be even better—we’ll take a listen to that one next time on Sun Ra Sunday.