Playlist Week of 2013-08-10

* Holloway/Mortensen/ter Linden: Garrison Church, Copenhagen 2008-04-08 (FM 2CDR)

* Poulenc: Complete Chamber Music (Nash Ensemble) (d.2) (Hyperion 2CD)

* Poulenc: Sacred & Secular Choral Works (Gr. Vocal de France/Alldis) (d.1)(EMI Classics 2CD)

* Miles Davis: Seven Steps: Columbia Recordings 1963-64 (d.1-2) (Columbia/Legacy 7CD)

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

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

* Sun Ra: Sound Mirror (selections) (Saturn LP>CDR)

* Sam Rivers: Streams: Recorded In Performance At the Montreaux Jazz Festival (Impulse! LP)

* Larry Coryell: European Impressions (Novus LP)

* The Crusaders: Free As The Wind (ABC/Blue Thumb LP)

* Lenny White: The Adventures Of Astral Pirates (Elektra LP)

* Marilyn Crispell Trio: Live in Zurich (Leo CD)

* Matthew Shipp: Nu Bop (Thirsty Ear CD)
* Matthew Shipp: Equilibrium (Thirsty Ear CD)

* Ralph Alessi/Kris Davis/Ingrid Laubrock/Tom Rainey: LARK (Skirl CD)

* Dawn Of Midi: First (Accretions MP3)†

* Dawn of Midi: Live at WFMU 2010-08-03 (WFMU MP3)†

* Dawn Of Midi: Live (Dawn Of Midi MP3)†

* Dawn Of Midi: Dysnomia (Thirsty Ear CD)

* Grateful Dead: Dave’s Picks Bonus Disc 2013 (12/21/69) (GDP/Rhino HDCD)

* Grateful Dead: Dave’s Picks Vol.7: Normal, IL 1978-04-24 (GDP/Rhino 3HDCD)

* Grateful Dead: The Spectrum, Philadelphia, PA 1995-03-18 (selections) (SBD 2CDR)

* Jerry Garcia Band: Cumberland Co. Civic Arena, Portland, ME 1993-11-09 (selections) (AUD 2CDR)

* Crosby Stills & Nash: Crosby Stills & Nash (Atlantic/Audio Fidelity CD)

* The Soft Machine: The Soft Machine (ABC/Probe/Sundazed LP)

* King Crimson: Discipline (DGM/Inner Knot CD/DVD)

* Kyuss: Blues For The Red Sun (Dali/Elektra LP)

* Kyuss: Kyuss (a/k/a Welcome To Sky Valley) (Elektra LP)

* Kyuss: …And The Circus Leaves Town (Elektra LP)

* Sleep: Dopesmoker (Southern Lord 2LP)

* Boards Of Canada: Tomorrow’s Harvest (Warp 2LP)

* Steven Wilson: Grace For Drowning (KScope BD)

* Steven Wilson: The Raven That Refused To Sing (And Other Stories) (KScope BD)

* Opeth: Newbury Comics, Leominster, MA 2013-04-20 (AUD CDR)

* Kylesa: Static Tensions (Prosthetic/ Twenty Buck Spin LP)

* Kylesa: Spiral Shadow (Season Of Mist LP)

* Clutch: Earth Rocker (Weathermaker LP)

* Pelican: “March To The Sea” (Hydra Head EP)

* Pelican: City Of Echoes (Hydra Head LP)

* Pelican: “Ephemeral” (Southern Lord EP)

* Locrian: Return To Annihilation (Relapse 2-45RPM LP)

* Pineapple Explode: Pineapple Explode (Pineapple Explode CDEP)

* Pineapple Explode: A Bushel & A Barrel (Pineapple Explode CDEP)

* Beach House: Bloom (Sub Pop CD)

†=iPod

‡=car

Commentary:

As usual, I went to my favorite record store on Tuesday (which is, of course, new release day) and was pleased to see they had one copy of the latest in the ongoing “Blue Series” on Thirsty Ear. Curated by executive producer and monster pianist Matthew Shipp, pretty much everything they’ve released over the years has been uniformly excellent. So, even though I had never heard of Dawn of Midi, I figured their "Blue Series" disc would be worth checking out. But, let me tell you: nothing in that already super-eclectic catalog prepared me for what I was about to hear on Dysnomia.

I popped it in the CD player in the car for the ride home and, at first, it sounded like early electronica, all locked grooves, stuttering rhythms and fleeting snippets of what appeared to be synthesized melodies (think Aphex Twin at his most bucolic—or some of Shipp’s own experiments for the label). But, as it played, I realized this is not electronic music at all. It is 100% acoustic: pianist Amino Belyamani, bassist Aakaash Israni and drummer Oasim Naqvi playing together, live, in real time. Wow! Okay, I get it: Dawn of MIDI (as in Musical Instrument Digital Interface). Very clever.

I guess I should have known about DOM, whose 2010 debut, First (Accretions), won all kinds of awards as well as glowing critical acclaim while subsequent online-only live recordings have documented well-received tours all over the world. I had no idea. Yet having now heard those records (hastily purchased downloads, anyway), Dysnomia would still have come as a shock. Their previous work is essentially in a quasi-minimalist, free-jazz mode, with touches of lush, impressionistic harmony—not so far away from the cool, cerebral ECM sound of the early ‘70s in many ways. There are moments—especially in concert—that briefly cohere into a pulsating, electro-ambient feel but they always eventually dissipate into fractalized abstraction. Beautiful music to be sure—but nothing like what happens on Dysnomia.

In fact, there is no improvisation whatsoever to be found on any of these nine pieces, which seamlessly flow together as one long 47-minute work. The band spent almost two years learning and rehearsing Dysnomia, scrapping the original recording at the mastering stage and started over from scratch, ditching altogether their usual semi-improvisational approach. The resulting album, with its machine-like discipline and superhuman musicianship is truly mind-blowing, emulating as it does the motoric stasis of electronica yet imbuing it with the empathic warmth of heartfelt intention. To achieve such electronic-like effects from his piano, Belyamani plays the keyboard one-handed, with the other hand damping or otherwise manipulating the strings inside the instrument. Similarly, Israni attacks the upright bass like the percussion instrument it is; meanwhile, Naqvi’s trap-drumming is subtle, elemental and hypnotic. They also brought in renowned engineer Rusty Santos to mix the album, and he gives it an in-your-face, aggressively bottom-heavy sound more appropriate to modern dance music than jazz. But then again, this is not really a jazz record, is it?

"Dysnomia" is an appropriate title for this album in that while the music at first seems recognizable, it cannot be accurately named. Or, rather, it can only be defined by what it’s not: it’s not electronic, it’s not jazz and, although thoroughly through-composed, it is most definitely not a piece of “classical” composition (it’s way too funky for that!). At times, it sounds more like some long-lost Afro-Asian folk music than anything else—but it’s obviously not that either. Dysnomia is an undeniably impressive display of tightly controlled virtuosity—but it’s much more than just an empty athletic event. Beyond the initial shock of mis-recognition, the music holds up to repeated—even obsessive—listening. Belyamani, Israni and Naqvi, who originally hail from Morocco, India and Pakistan respectively, have  apparently tapped into something very deep here, crafting an album of purely acoustic music that reflects—and incisively comments upon—our globalized, virtualized, digitalized world. In that way, I guess you would have to tag this a kind of super-sophisticated folk music—but only in the sense that all music is folk music of one sort or another. Whatever you want to call it, Dawn of Midi are onto something with Dysnomia and listening to it is a rapturous—dare I say, religious—experience. Music that at first seemed merely impossible turns out to be something nearly miraculous; I call that art.

Go check them out on Soundcloud and "like" them on Facebook. Better yet, buy their albums. Supposedly a vinyl edition of Dysnomia is on the way. Dig it!

Playlist Week of 3-26-11

* Hildegard von Bingen: 11,000 Virgins (Anonymous 4) (Harmonia Mundi CD)
* Tallis: “Spem in Alium” (Tallis Scholars) (Gimell CD)
* Tudor Organ Music (Smith) (Naxos CD)
* Stan Getz & João Gilberto: Getz/Gilberto (Verve CD)
* Antonio Carlos Jobim: The Composer of Desafinado Plays (Verve CD)
* Andrew Hill: Passing Ships (Blue Note CD)
* Sun Ra: Space Probe (Expanded Edition) (Saturn/Art Yard CD)
* Sun Ra: The Paris Tapes: Live at Le Théâtre Du Châtelet 1971 (Art Yard/Kindred Spirits 2CD)
* Sun Ra: Disco 3000 (Saturn/Art Yard CD)
* Sun Ra: Beyond The Purple Star Zone/Oblique Parallax (Saturn/Art Yard CD)
* Evan Parker: Boustrophedon (ECM CD)
* Tortoise: TNT (Thrill Jockey CD)
* Paul McCartney: Wingspan: Hits & History (Capitol 2CD)
* Bob Dylan: The Bootleg Series Vol.4: Live 1966 (Columbia 2CD)
* Blind Faith: Blind Faith (Deluxe Edition) (Polydor/Universal 2CD)
* King Crimson: THRAK (DGM CD)
* Grateful Dead: Auditorium Theatre, Chicago, IL 6-27-76 (d.2) (SBD 3CDR)‡
* Grateful Dead: Auditorium Theatre, Chicago, IL 6-28-76 (SBD 2CDR)‡
* Grateful Dead: Road Trips, Vol.4 No.2: April Fool’s ’88 (GDP/Rhino 3CD)
* Lucinda Williams: Blessed (Lost Highway CD)†/‡)
* Robyn Hitchcock & The Egyptians: Element of Light (Yep Roc CD)
* Patti Smith: Gone Again (Arista CD)
* Ciccone Youth: The Whitey Album (Geffen CD)
* Sonic Youth: Made In USA (Soundtrack) (Rhino CD)
* Sonic Youth: Experimental Jet Set, Trash And No Star (Geffen CD)
* Sonic Youth, et al.: Demonlover (Soundtrack) (Labels/EMI CD)
* Sonic Youth, et al.: All Tomorrow’s Parties 1.1 LA (ATP CD)
* Sonic Youth: The Eternal (Matador 2LP)
* Sonic Youth: Simon Werner A Disparu (Soundtrack) (SYR-9 LP)
* Thurston Moore: Psychic Hearts (Geffen 2LP)
* Thurston Moore: Trees Outside The Academy (Ecstatic Peace! CD)
* Tool: 10,000 Days (Volcano CD) †/‡
* Lifeguards: Waving At The Astronauts (Serious Business LP)

†=iPod
‡=car

Commentary:

Astonishingly, Mom continues to linger…She has not taken any nourishment—not even water—for nine days now. We’ve been repeatedly told by the hospice nurse that her death is “imminent”—yet she keeps on going, unconscious, but hanging on. This has been an agonizing week of intensely complicated emotions. Every time the phone rings, I think it’s going to be “The Call” and my heart jumps. As the days drag on, I can feel my heart becoming calloused—and that is a terrible feeling.

It has been suggested Mom has some “unfinished business” here on earth she wishes to complete, but at this point, it’s impossible to know what it might be. Life is messy; not every loose end can be gathered in the time we’re allotted. And she is definitely a worrier—she worries about anything and everything and cannot be consoled by facts and reason. Then again, it could also simply be Mom has a cast-iron constitution and an indomitable will to live. She certainly can be stubborn—she had to be just to survive. After losing her father as a child and growing up during the Great Depression, she and my dad worked tirelessly to escape poverty and achieve the “American Dream.” She was—is—a remarkable woman.

But witnessing her slow-motion demise is just unbelievably wrenching, especially from such a great distance. I like to think it would be easier if I could see her every day. Then again, I’m selfishly glad my last memory of Mom will be of a happy and vibrant person—I’m not sure I could stand to see her in the state she is in now. My sister has shown admirable strength taking care of her these last years and I am forever grateful for that—and not a little guilt-ridden.

Life is messy and death is a mystery. There is a rare, awful beauty to old age and death by “natural causes”—so many people are killed by senseless violence or cataclysmic disease. I’m forced to contemplate my own mortality and I wonder how it would feel to be eighty-two years old and facing the end of life. It's almost too horrible to think about. Mom has been remarkably brave during this whole process and I hope she finds peace—soon.

What does any of this have to do with music? Nothing—and everything. Music and art communicate the inexpressible and aspire to immortality. Listening to music can (sometimes) let me get out of myself and glimpse larger truths. This week, Sonic Youth really hit the nerve, particularly some of their later albums and experimental film soundtrack work. This is a band I’ve loved since the mid-1980s and it has been gratifying to watch them grow older and develop into a universally revered avant-rock institution. Their beautifully clangorous guitars and elliptical vocals were just what I needed this week. Sure, maybe they should change their name to “Sonic Seniors,” but so what? Youth is overrated—maturity is life fully lived. I look forward to hearing what they do next—it gives me hope for this horrible world.

UPDATE: My mother passed away at 7:15PM. Rest in peace, Mom.

Sun Ra Sunday

Sun Ra & His Intergalactic Research Arkestra:
Queen Elizabeth Hall, London 11-9-70 (AUD 2CDR)

Following their appearance at the Berlin Jazz Festival, the Arkestra traveled to London, arriving just in time for their scheduled performance on November 9, 1970. Unfortunately, the logistics of this concert were vexed from the beginning. Originally to be held at the glamorous Rainbow Theatre, the show was moved at the last minute to the much smaller Queen Elizabeth Hall, which again resulted in an angry mob of people outside the theater, unable to enter. Thankfully, a full scale riot did not erupt as in Paris. And although Black Lion intended to record the concert for release, the sound technicians arrived three hours late, resulting in unacceptably bad sound quality (even for Black Lion!). (See Szwed p.283-284 and Campbell & Trent p.169.)

Nevertheless, the performance itself was apparently a resounding success. David Toop wrote about this landmark concert in his thought-provoking book, Oceans of Sound: Aether Talk, Ambient Sound and Imaginary Worlds (London: Serpents Tail, 1995):

[Sun Ra’s] first UK performance…was one of the most spectacular concerts ever held in this country. Not spectacular so much in terms of effects, which were low on budget but high on strange atmosphere, spectacular in terms of presenting a complete world view, so occult, so other, to all of us in the audience that the only possible responses were outright dismissal or complete intuitive empathy with a man who had chosen to discard all the possibilities of a normal life, even a normal jazz life, in favour of an unremitting alien identity. Fire-eaters, a golden-robed dancer carrying a sun symbol, tornadoes of percussion, eerie cello glissandi, ferocious blasts and tendrils of electronic sound from Sun Ra on Farfisa organ and Moog synthesizer, futuristic lyrics of the advertising age sung by June Tyson – “If you find earth boring, just the same old thing, come on sign up for Outer Spaceways Incorporated” –saxophone riffs repeated over and over by Pat Patrick and Danny Thompson as they moved down the seating aisles towards the stage while John Gilmore shredded and
blistered a ribbon of multiphonics from his tenor, film images of Africa and outer space…As depictions of archaic futures, shamanistic theatre, imaged of divined worlds, these devices of cumulative sensory overload were regarded at the time as distractions from the music. But those who concentrated solely on the music ignored Ra’s role as political messenger. (pp.23-24; quoted in Szwed p.284.)

What exactly Sun Ra’s political message might be is a topic I’d rather not delve into at the moment except to say that Toop touches upon a profound truth regarding Ra’s “unremitting alien identity,” which was already fully evolved by 1970. The large scale Cosmo Drama he witnessed was perhaps the very peak of the Arkestra’s gonzo, multi-media theatricality and cutting edge, out-jazz intensity. Too bad Black Lion blew it on the recording.

Fortunately (or unfortunately, depending on your tolerance for poor sound quality), a 118-minute audience recording of this concert circulates amongst Sun Ra fanatics. And believe me, this one is only for the irredeemably fanatical. During quiet passages, it is barely listenable; but when the music gets loud, it is nothing but a distorted roar of undifferentiated white noise. Maybe it’s not quite that bad, and after a while, you do get used to it, yeah, yeah, yeah – but, sheesh! That said, our intrepid recordist did manage to preserve a nearly complete performance from this first European tour and a little perseverance offers intermittent rewards. A blow-by-blow description would be even more tedious than usual, but I want to point out a few highlights. First of all, Ra seems to have been provided with a decent concert grand piano, upon which he spends more than his usual, obligatory amount of time and he sounds truly inspired by the instrument throughout. The first set features one of the final performances of “Walking on the Moon,” sporting a slightly different arrangement with more high-octane big-band riffing and fewer overt solos, further omitting Ra’s usual wandering keyboard at the end and instead segueing immediately into the swinging space chant, “Outer Spaceways Incorporated.” “The Shadow World” is its usual, mysterious, shape-shifting self which breaks down into a lovely piano duet with Silva’s arco bass, interrupted here and there by Kwami Hadi’s daredevil high-wire trumpet act. This maneuver prods Ra and Silva to even more delirious flights of fancy before the full Arkestra lurches into another one of those dirgey, old-fashioned-sounding compositions that brings to mind the “Discipline” series to come. The first known performance of “Life is Splendid” opens with the massed flute choir effect similar to “Friendly Galaxy No.2,” before the incantatory vocals by Tyson and Ra. Tyson then chants with the Arkestra about “somewhere in outer space” where “we’ll wait for you… in tomorrow’s world” until an eruption of free jazz skronk and a spacey synth drone brings things to a dramatic close.

The forty-six minute fragment of the second set is even more interesting, cutting in on what at first sounds like a conducted improvisation featuring Ra on piano and Silva on bowed cello. But upon closer listening, it sounds to me like Ra is outlining a pre-conceived harmonic structure that comes to a definite conclusion. After a brief pause, Ra launches into a piano solo that also sounds through-composed. Is this a suite? Or does the bewildered audience just not have the opportunity to react? Ra’s playing becomes more rhythmically agitated, each hand playing in different keys, punctuated by the Arkestra’s braying space-chords whose inner voices suggest the harmonic movements of the piano. After a cued stop, dueling alto saxophones take over amidst intermittent Arkestra blasting and churning percussion. The poor quality of the recording makes it difficult to hear what exactly is going on here, but it is certainly intense! A crashing gong introduces a chiming electric keyboard solo to end. Next up is a medley of compositions that date back to the early years in Chicago: “Planet Earth” has by now gained lyrics for an ensemble of vocalists and “El is the Sound of Joy” gets an expansive arrangement featuring a swirling, roller-rink organ solo by Ra. Despite the poor sound quality, you can still hear that the Arkestra is tight and well-rehearsed on both of these swinging big-band numbers. The first known performance of “Pleiades” begins with a brief statement of the theme on the reedy Rocksichord before a lengthy electric keyboard solo full of whooshing synthesizer and terrifying, pile-driving organ cluster-bombs that anticipate the industrial noise-making of Einstürzende Neubauten. Clearly, Sonny was very much ahead of his time. All of this builds up to a frenetic group improvisation featuring Silva’s viola, Pat Patrick bass clarinet, Eloe Omoe on Neptunian lipflecto, and (perhaps) Akh Tal Ebah on long-breathed trumpet. Finally, after almost twenty minutes, things quiet down and a flute choir plays the liltingly beautiful composition in its entirety, accompanied by some weirdo chords from Ra’s piano. The tape cuts off just as Ra begins to solo, which is too bad since I was just starting to get used to the bad sound quality!

+++

On November 11, the Arkestra performed at the Liverpool University Students’ Union to a wildly enthusiastic, rock-star-like reception:

Toward the end of this concert, a greater part of the audience simply abandoned
the seating and danced in front of the stage, chanting “Ra, Ra, Ra.” This mass movement was catalyzed by one guy in a business suit, who leapt to his feet waving an umbrella, totally involved in the music. On this night, fire-eaters performed on stage during the concert, and the light show featured projected photos, ciné film of Sun Ra in the Sun Studio, starry backdrops, and rock-style lighting effects – a truly multimedia performance. The music ranged from percussion ensembles in which the whole Arkestra seemed to participate, to unaccompanied solos by John Gilmore and Sun Ra, Alan Silva cello features, space chants, and Dukish themes. There was plenty of all-in ensemble playing, too. During the second set many of the horn players, who had gone offstage, made a coordinated reappearance at various doorways at the back of the auditorium and drifted forward through the audience to rejoin the Arkestra, playing as they went. An old Melody Maker advertisement indicates that Tyrannosaurus Rex appeared there the week before, and in subsequent weeks the hall featured Fleetwood Mac, Charles Mingus, Frank Zappa, and Colosseum (Campbell & Trent p.171).

The Arkestra returned to London for the final concert of the tour at Seymour Hall, on a bill with Chris McGregor’s Quintet from South Africa and Osibasa, a rock group from Ghana. In the end, promoter Victor Schonfield lost money on the Arkestra’s first European tour, but as Szwed points out, “Sun Ra was now a world musician” (p.285).

Sun Ra Sunday

Sun Ra: Nuits de la Fondation Maeght vol.1 (Universe UV080 CD)

Recorded at the third and final concert on August 5, 1970, Nuits de la Fondation Maeght Volume 1 was originally released on the French Shandar label in 1971. Often bootlegged, it was also legitimately reissued on 12-inch 45RPM LP by the British label, Recommended Records, in 1981. (My copy sounds superb, but it’s plain black sleeve omits all relevant discographical information!) This CD issue on the Italian Universe label from 2005 is probably a “grey-market” bootleg as well, but it sounds fine and is packaged in a deluxe mini-gatefold LP sleeve. As of this writing, these Universe editions are in print and readily available.

The album opens with a spirited performance of “Enlightenment,” a composition co-written with trumpeter Hobart Dotson which dates all the way back to 1958’s Jazz in Silhouette. But by 1969, Sun Ra had abandoned Dotson’s counter-melodies and added typically Saturnalian lyrics. Here, Ra sets up the bouncy vamp on organ for John Gilmore and June Tyson, who chant in a call and response fashion, imploring humanity to join the Arkestra on its cosmic space voyage:

The Sound of Joy is Enlightenment
Space, Fire, Truth is Enlightenment
Space Fire
Sometimes it's Music
Strange Mathematics
Rhythmic Equations
The Sound of Thought is Enlightenment
The Magic Light of Tomorrow
Backwards are those of Sadness
Forward and Onward Are those of Gladness
Enlightenment Is my Tomorrow
It has no planes of Sorrow
Hereby, my Invitation
I do invite you be of my Space World
This Song is Sound of Enlightenment
The Fiery Truth of Enlightenment
Vibrations come from the Space World
Is of the Cosmic Starry Dimension
Enlightenment is my Tomorrow
It has no planes of Sorrow
Hereby, our Invitation
We do invite you to be of our Space World.

This infectious little ditty elicits some enthusiastic applause and, not surprisingly, “Enlightenment” would become a fixture of the live repertoire in coming years. Then, after a quick piano introduction, Gilmore and Tyson sing “The Star Gazers” in a lovely unison melody:

This is the Theme of the Star Gazers
Star Gazers in the Sky
This is the Theme of the Star Gazers
Star Gazers in the Sky
This is the Song of Tomorrow’s World
Of Cosmic Paradise.

After that plaintive vocal statement, Sonny launches into a gorgeous ad lib piano solo while small percussion instruments tinkle and clatter and Alan Silva provides some complementary figures on bass. Gradually, Ra builds up the intensity with cascading waves of chords and then bringing it back down to a gentle, quiet ending — until a crashing chord signals the beginning of the notorious “Shadow World.” Right off, it is obvious that the band is a well-oiled machine: the insanely complex, hocketed melodies are performed flawlessly, setting the stage for Gilmore’s utterly hair-raising solo on tenor saxophone, complete with a squealing and wailing a cappella cadenza. Ra then takes over with a skittering, swirling organ solo until cueing the horns for a huge, pulsating space chord. The braying and howling horns eventually subside, leaving Ra to sketch out the dramatic chord sequence on organ to end. This is a truly stunning performance of one of Ra’s most significant compositions and must be heard to be believed!

The album closes with an epic, twenty-minute-long MiniMoog/organ solo entitled, “The Cosmic Explorer” wherein Ra conjures up all kinds of incredible sounds from his electronic instruments: from spacey noodling to woozy portamentos, and blasts of white noise to apocalyptic torrents of dissonant tone-clusters. Meanwhile, cymbals, gongs and percussion rumble ominously in the background while a few horns add spare punctuation. After about seventeen minutes, the full Arkestra enters with a few minutes of high-energy, New-Thing-styled free-jazz which comes to a satisfyingly resolute climax before quickly fading out. I only wish we could hear the music that followed…

Like its companion volume, Nuits de la Fondation Maeght Volume 1 is an essential item in the discography, notable for its exceptionally good sound quality and superlative performances. Certainly, those in attendance were suitably impressed: the Arkestra had barely arrived back in Philadelphia when a group of European promoters offered to bring them back for a full-fledged tour only two months later, in October of 1970. I will be examining the surviving recordings from this momentous tour over the next few weeks here on Sun Ra Sunday.

Sun Ra Sunday

Sun Ra & His Arkestra: Music From Tomorrow’s World (Atavistic UMS/ALP237)

The companion to last week’s disc, Music from Tomorrow’s World is another collection of never-before heard music from Sun Ra’s tenure in Chicago. The first thirty minutes of the disc consists of an amateur recording of a live set at the Wonder Inn, where the Arkestra, stripped down to a sextet, was in residency for much of 1960. The sound quality is remarkably good considering the era and the less-than-ideal circumstances. Certainly it is full of delightful ambience: the cash register clinks, folks are laughing and talking. But one woman is way into it, shouting encouragements like, “Play it, Sun Ra, play it like you want!” And he does. The repertoire is pretty adventurous for nightclub work, opening with three Ra originals: “Angels and Demons at Play,” a slinky 5/4 ostinato groove with some pretty flute playing by Marshall Allen; “Spontaneous Simplicity” featuring more beautiful flute work over gently rolling rhythms (but who is the second flutist?); “Space Aura” swings hard and fast with a typically brilliant tenor saxophone solo by John Gilmore. Next up are some earnestly goofy vocal numbers, including a truly bent version of “It Ain’t Necessarily So.” It’s interesting to note that Sun Ra plays both acoustic and electric piano in a live setting, using the Wurlitzer for color, not convenience on the cramped stage. “How High The Moon” begins with a Sun Ra poem which leaves the audience puzzled, but things heat up with a cooking Gilmore solo and by that time the crowd is into it, calling out to the musicians, clapping hands, hooting and hollering. A spooky rendition of “China Gate” concludes the set with metallic percussion clattering ominously behind warbling, over-the-top vocals. Fascinating!

The remainder of the disc is given over to a forty-minute Majestic Hall studio session also recorded in 1960. Transcribed from a lowly cassette tape several generations away from the now-lost master recording, it’s pretty rough going sonically compared to the Wonder Inn stuff. Nevertheless, it’s a sparkling performance by an eight-piece Arkestra and includes three previously unheard original compositions by Ra. It’s well worth fighting through the murky sound quality to hear these intriguing bits of music. What’s striking about this session is how polished and well-rehearsed the Arkestra sounds, executing the variety of material with confidence and finesse, especially in the ensemble sections where the rich orchestrations require precision and balance. Too bad it’s so hard to discern amidst the noise and distortion. Still, it’s listenable if you can acclimate yourself to the rather gnarly sound.

Shortly after these recordings were made, Sun Ra and his most dedicated musicians would make their way to New York City (via Canada) and Philadelphia, never to return to Chicago for any extended period of time. With Music From Tomorrow’s World, Atavistic has provided us with another glimpse into Sonny’s working life prior to fulfilling his alter-destiny and is therefore a crucial historical document for Sun Ra fans.