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Sun Ra Sunday

Sun Ra and his Astro Infinity Arkestra: Strange Strings (Atavistic ALP263 CD)

Recorded NYC 1966-1967

Strange Strings is one of the most obscure and downright weird recordings in all of Sun Ra’s immense (and weird) discography. By 1966, Ra had acquired a selection of odd stringed instruments – ukuleles, kotos, zithers, etc. – to be played exclusively here by members of the Arkestra. That the musicians did not how to play them was the whole point, it was, according to Ra, “a study in ignorance.” Structurally, the music builds on the kind of conducted-improvisation found on The Magic City (1965) (Evidence CD), but the unfamiliar instruments create a truly otherworldly din. Homemade metallic instruments clatter and thrum while strings are plucked, bowed, struck and scraped; sometimes drums and tympani pound ominously. Thick reverb saturates or, at other times, dries up the acoustic, creating shifting and distorted sonic perspectives. Sounding more like Iannis Xenakis than Fletcher Henderson, this stuff is definitely not for the faint of heart! The bonus track, “Door Squeak” features Sun Ra on, yes, a loudly squeaking door (which actually sounds very much like the MiniMoog, which he would take up years later) while more strange strings chatter in the background. Detailed liner notes by Hal Rammel and super deluxe packaging make this CD a must have for the connoisseur of Sun Ra’s furthest interplanetary journeys. Thank you, Atavistic, for another fine Sun Ra Sunday!

More Autumn Light

Autumn Light

Sun Ra Sunday

Sun Ra & His Solar Arkestra: Secrets of the Sun (Atavistic ALP266 CD)

Atavistic continues to make the rarest of the rare Saturn records available once again and to a mass audience all thanks to John Corbett’s “Unheard Music Series.” Rejoice!

In fact, Secrets of the Sun is so rare, that the CD had to be mastered from a vintage LP, with its occasional (but inevitable) pops and clicks. But don’t let that stop you! This is primo Sun Ra, recorded in rehearsal at the Choreographer’s Workshop in New York City, where the relaxed vibe (free rent!) and pleasant acoustics inspired an amazing run of albums from 1962-1964. Many of those titles were (thankfully) re-issued by Evidence in the 1990s but this nearly-lost 1962 session is a most welcome addition indeed.

Listened to chronologically, the Saturn LPs recorded during the Choreographer’s Workshop period exhaustively document the evolution of the Arkestra from the tightly arranged big-band material found on The Futuristic Sounds of Sun Ra (Savoy, 1962) to the adventurous and edgy avant-garde weirdness of Heliocentric Worlds, Vols.1-2 (ESP, 1965). As such, these Saturn records are some of the most intriguing (and downright pleasurable) albums in all of Sun Ra’s vast discography. Emerging from its decades-long obscurity, Secrets of the Sun presents a missing link in the history of this period.

The smallish ensembles are simply recorded (in mono) in a lushly reverberant ambient space which gives the recordings a suitably unearthly quality that epitomizes that “Saturn Sound” so unique to Sun Ra’s home-brewed record label. The opening track, “Friendly Galaxy,” is typical in how it constructs a whole other world in miniature: the unusual frontline instrumentation (bass clarinet, flute, flugelhorn, and the rarely-deployed electric guitar) creates beautifully floating melodies and ethereal textures while the agile and propulsive rhythm section of Ronnie Boykins on bass and Tommy Hunter on drums combine with Sun Ra’s off-kilter piano to provide a buoyant and supple ostinato accompaniment. Individual solos briefly take flight before returning to the theme and ends, appropriately, after a mere four minutes and fifty-three seconds. Brilliant!

“Solar Differentials” takes things a bit further out with “space bird sounds”, “space voice”, and primitive electronic echo and feedback (remember, this is 1962!), all of which is punctuated by Sun Ra’s percussive stabs on the piano. Ronnie Boykins once again shines with his rock solid bass anchoring the chaotic proceedings. “Space Aura” is slightly more conventional, beginning with a march-like processional before giving way to a relaxed swing, with everyone contributing pithy but exploratory solos – Pat Patrick’s honking and squealing baritone saxophone being a particular delight. The following track, “Love In Outer Space”, went on to become a standard in the Ra songbook but here is given a somewhat minimalist treatment: after a short allusion to the theme, John Gilmore moans and wails on bass clarinet over some percolating bass and percussion before the whole thing trails off inconclusively.

“Reflects Motion” points towards the future with its episodic construction: bass and drums duet and solo before Ra’s enervated piano figures enter, which presages the spiky, atonal melody that is taken up by the horns. This soon gives way to more bass/percussion grooving and the relatively succinct and swinging solo sections are interspersed with yet more percussion interludes. John Gilmore’s fleeting tenor saxophone solo demonstrates a breathtaking command of the instrument, from the growling lowest register to altissimo cries and multiphonic shrieks. John Coltrane acknowledged Gilmore’s influence on the music he would go on to make a couple years later beginning with A Love Supreme (Impulse!, 1964), and here you can hear that influence loud and clear. “Solar Symbols” closes out the album proper with a two-minute-forty-two-second spaceout, featuring echo-y sleigh-bells and pitter-pattering percussion with Sun Ra essaying on “sun harp” and gong. Very cool.

The bonus track, “Flight to Mars” was contemporaneously recorded for the B-side of an unreleased LP and is previously unheard. Opening with a crude tape collage which culminates in the vocal exhortation “all the way into space!” the rest of the piece is essentially a seventeen-minute blowing session punctuated with further percussion blowouts. Marshall Allen shines with a sparkling flute solo and, again, Ronnie Boykins demonstrates his extraordinary (and sadly unrecognized) genius with a bowed bass solo that inspires juicy interjections from Pat Patrick’s baritone saxophone and a little bit of bouncy Ra piano before the close. This is truly a bonus track that lives up to the name.

This lovingly produced reissue is a must for all Sun Ra fans and as good a place as any for the novice to begin the interplanetary journey. Essential.

Spelling Lesson

Incorrect: I loose money when I gamble.
Correct: I lose money when I gamble.

Incorrect: I am loosing my shirt.
Correct: I am losing shirt.

Incorrect: I am a looser.
Correct: I am a loser.

I have increasingly seen this misspelling of the verb to lose over the past few years. At first, it seemed like a harmless error but lately has become more and more common. This gross misspelling can even be found in the written discourse of people who otherwise appear to be intelligent and educated denizens of the world-wide-web. It is like a plague upon the language.

The other day, I was utterly horrified to come across the non-word loosing while reading the liner notes of a recent CD by a highly-respected musician/composer. This writer (fortunately, not the musician/composer himself) was apparently paid cash money or some other consideration to publish these liner notes for all of posterity yet cannot parse the verb to lose. How sad and embarrassing for the artist whose work was thereby demeaned by some hired flunky’s illiteracy. This has really has gone too far.

Why add the extra letter? It actually takes less effort to spell it correctly! I refuse to accept this as some kind of post-modern, variant spelling if only because the word loose has its own distinct meaning and usage:

Correct: I am a person of loose morals.
Correct: I will loosen my necktie and order another martini.

Now I can forgive a typo and I really don’t think I am being pedantic about this. But, seriously, if I come across a gross misspelling, I immediately stop reading and think to myself, “what an idiot” – regardless of the content of the writing (please, don’t get me started on the non-word irregardless.)

While not as reliable as a good dictionary, Google can answer most spelling questions with a little effort, so there really is no excuse. You have been warned.

/end of rant.

Gateway Arch

(photos by Liz)

The Economist

Wall Street

Gordon Gekko was a piker!

Epic Fail

Or Mission Accomplished?

Sun Ra Sunday

Sun Ra & His Intergalactic Myth Science Solar Arkestra: On Jupiter (Art Yard CD)
Sun Ra & His Intergalactic Myth Science Solar Arkestra: Sleeping Beauty (Art Yard CD)

These two 1979 Saturn sessions present Sun Ra at his most accessible – groovy, dreamy, spacey, and suitably cosmic while reigning in the full-blown freakouts that can make Sun Ra’s music difficult for some (or maybe not quite the right thing on a Sunday evening). That is not to say that these are lesser albums. Quite the contrary! This is simply beautiful music! Essential! Note that these CDs are extremely limited editions and sparsely distributed. I got mine from Downtown Music Gallery. See also Lanquidity (Evidence).

--rgc

Summer Reading 2008

Bertrand Russell, A History of Western Philosophy (Touchstone, 1945/2007)
I had been looking for a single-volume reference guide to philosophy and Lord Russell’s classic text nicely serves that purpose. Based upon a series of lectures at the Barnes Foundation in Pennsylvania, Lord Russell presents an imminently readable (and sometimes dryly humorous) history from the ancient Greeks to quantum theory and he clearly elucidates even the most esoteric concepts. Please don’t test me on any of this material, but I conclude that (1) no one has figured it all out and (2) the most recent advances in philosophy and science have begun to resurrect long-dismissed elements of ancient animism. What goes around comes around.

Jacques Barzun, From Dawn to Decadence 1500 to the Present: 500 Years of Cultural Life (HarperCollins 2000)
Apparently, Jacques Barzun has read most every book ever written and has something witty and erudite to say about each one, making this somewhat unwieldy tome a remarkably enjoyable read. Beginning with Martin Luther and the Protestant Revolution which sought to overthrow centuries of Roman Catholic hegemony, Barzun organizes this sweeping history around a number of themes which, for him, define the “Modern Era”: abstraction, analysis, emancipation, primitivism, reductivism, secularism, self-consciousness, scientism, and specialism. Barzun seems to argue that the high point of western culture coincided with the court of Louis XIV, where the administration of the state and the arts were most closely allied. And that it was all downhill from there to our contemporary “demotic” times where individualism eviscerates any remnants of widespread cultural values. It is difficult to refute his thesis, yet while empires come and go, cultural production continues and these products reflect the realities in which it finds itself. A telling blind spot is Barzun’s dismissal of “jazz” and other African-American cultural contributions in a mere handful of paragraphs. Nevertheless, this is a useful overview of western history through the lens of its arts and letters.

Peter Gay, Modernism: The Lure of Heresy: From Baudelaire to Beckett and Beyond (Norton 2008)
Tracing a broad outline of the history of the modernist movement from its roots in late-romanticism to its eclipse by the rise of “pop art” in the 1960s, each chapter examines a facet of artistic production from painting and sculpture, prose and poetry, music and dance, architecture and design, and drama and movies. Gay posits that the Modernist impulse was fundamentally a rebellion against established societal and cultural norms: an act of heresy that imbued the work with a power that is now lost in a contemporary world that is fractured and lacking any norms against which to rebel (hence, the term “post-modernism” to describe our present situation). This neo-Freudian approach prevents the book from being merely an encyclopaedic recitation of names and works; rather, Gay uses representative examples to bolster his argument and thereby constructs a useful framework in which to view the Modernist movement across artistic disciplines. But, as with Barzun, jazz and other African-American contributions are largely absent in Gay’s account and therefore fails to address one of the greatest modernist heresies of all: “free jazz.”

George E. Lewis, A Power Stronger Than Itself: The AACM and American Experimental Music (Chicago 2008)
The Eurocentricism of Barzun and Gay is ably countered by George Lewis’s magisterial history of the Association for the Advancement of Creative Music. As a virtuoso musician and fellow member of the AACM, Lewis not only provides a detailed, insider’s account of the collective’s ups and downs and inner politics, but also devotes serious scholarship to effectively assert the AACM’s cultural importance. Lewis demonstrates that the modernist project was taken up by African American “avant-garde” jazz musicians where post-serialist techniques and post-Cage experimentalism were enthusiastically adopted by AACM musicians such as Muhal Richard Abrams, Anthony Braxton, Roscoe Mitchell and the Art Ensemble of Chicago who produced a vast and hugely influential body of work that is to this day sadly neglected by the fine arts establishment despite its obvious aesthetic merits. Hopefully, A Power Stronger Than Itself will serve as some corrective to this racist blind spot.

--rgc

Blackmail

Sun Ra Sunday

Sun Ra & His Intergalactic Research Arkestra: Black Myth / Out In Space (MPS)

Recorded live Donaueschingen 10/17/70 & Berlin 11/7/70

It's after the end of the world! Don't you know that yet?!

--rgc

Election 2008

I have always tried to avoid politics on this blog, but that is just too funny.

--rgc

Anthony Braxton Trio (Victoriaville) 2007

Anthony Braxton Trio (Victoriaville) 2007 (Victo 108)

Diamond Curtain Wall Trio:
Anthony Braxton: sopranino, soprano, alto, baritone, bass & contrabass saxophones, electronics
Mary Halvorson: electric guitar
Taylor Ho Bynum: cornet, bugle, trombone, bass & piccolo trumpets, hats, mutes

Recorded live Musique Actuelle de Victoriaville 5/20/07

Braxton goes psychedelic! Well, not exactly. Braxton’s laptop emits spacey whooshes, squeals, and keening wails of noise and Halvorson exhibits an incredible array of delightfully sensuous guitar sounds: from woody, Jim-Hall-like jazziness to excoriating metallic shredding a la Robert Fripp; from gentle acoustic fingerpicking to skittering, scumbling scrapes and glitchy electronic processing — and everything in between. Mary Halvorson is perhaps the most interesting guitar player since Derek Bailey and here she is given an opportunity to really stretch out. Meanwhile, Taylor Ho Bynum wields an arsenal of brass instruments and mutes to bring a kind of smeared, pre-bop vocalizing to post-Webern pitch material which is utterly unique and highly effective. As for Braxton himself, he plays the various saxophones like stops on a gigantic reed organ. His virtuosity is astonishing, not just in the fleetness of his facility (which is, of course, remarkable), but in his presentation of a unified voice across the diverse and increasingly massive and unwieldy instruments. Lovingly recorded, Braxton’s blasts on the contrabass saxophone will rattle your windows! Both Halvorson and Bynum are long-time veterans of Braxton’s ensembles and their telepathic interplay blurs the distinction between composition and improvisation. With repeated listening, however, the music reveals a coherent and singularly Braxtonian architecture supporting its hour-plus-long duration. While the absence of percussion lends the proceedings a quasi-chamber-music feel, any expectations of cerebral politeness are met with the most boisterously rock-ish music of Braxton’s career. Frankly, this is one of the most exciting discs I’ve heard in a long time and is, so far, my candidate for “Record of the Year.” Essential.

--rgc

Visitor

Railroad Crossing, Kingston Springs

Grateful Dead: Winterland 1973

The Grateful Dead: Winterland 1973: The Complete Recordings (GDP)

About a year ago, Winterland 1973 was made available for purchase on dead.net, but then, just as suddenly as it appeared, it was removed. Credit card charges were refunded and the buzz on the Internet was fierce. It was perplexing as the flow of new product had slowed to a standstill since the controversial “merger” with Rhino in 2006 and loyal fans were hungry for something – anything - to be released. And Winterland 1973 was something for which even the most cynical Deadhead might shell out the big bucks. So, when it was pulled from the website and labeled a “hoax”, some folks were mighty annoyed – including me. What were they up to? Gauging audience response after the surprise sell-out of the limited edition Fillmore West 1969 box set? Possibly.

Now, a year later, Winterland 1973 is actually here; and it is a truly magnificent thing. This nine-CD box set is so lovingly well-done, I can easily forgive them their previous bait & switch routine. After all, 1973 is widely considered to be one of – if not the – peak of the Grateful Dead’s career (and who am I to argue?) and these shows in particular are especially prized, considered by many to be the best Dead shows EVAH. Maybe so.

The passing of Pigpen (who was, from the start, if not the leader, then the soul of the band) barely slowed the band’s momentum that had been building since the Fall of 1971 with the introduction of Keith Godchaux on piano (and, for better or worse, his wife Donna Jean on vocals). New songs like “Eyes of the World” and Weir’s “Weather Report Suite” were taking the music in overtly jazzy, harmonically complex directions while primal, modal standards like “Playing in the Band”, “Dark Star” and “The Other One” were evolving into symphonic-length tours de force of collective improvisation and brain-melting psychedelia.

Indeed, Winterland 1973 presents an exquisite three-night run on the Dead’s home turf in San Francisco and, yes, it really is about as consistently good – no, downright mindblowing – a run of shows as they ever played. Anyone with even a passing familiarity with the Grateful Dead knows that consistency was never their forte. One had to take the good with the bad on any given night, and it was the moments of magic (and the promise of more) that kept the Deadheads coming back night after night. Here, the band sounds supremely confident from the get-go: relaxed, unfussy, yet highly polished – heck, even the cornball “El Paso” is performed with subtlety and finesse. Extraordinarily tight when they need to be, yet willing and able to “take it out” at any moment - this is the Grateful Dead at their most expansive, dynamic, and synergistic. Phil Lesh once characterized the Grateful Dead as “electric chamber music” and these three concerts surely epitomize this ideal.

Despite the somewhat constricted repertoire of the time, each concert has its own particular flavor with 11/9 easing into things with a focus on songs rather than big blow-out jams, while 11/10 features the brilliantly executed palindrome of “Playing in the Band>Uncle John’s Band>Morning Dew>Uncle John’s Band>Playing in the Band.” Of course, 11/11 is already widely circulated amongst tape traders and is considered one of the all-time-great shows with its incredible “Dark Star>Eyes of the World>China Doll” sequence deep in the second set. It doesn’t get much better than this, folks – even with the unfortunate reel-flip during “Eyes.”

Recorded on the fly by roadie Bill “Kidd” Candelario using a splitter and a ¼” Nagra reel-to-reel, the sound quality is stunningly good, given the circumstances. The mastering process utilizes a remarkable new software program called Clarity, developed by Plangent Processes in Nantucket, Massachusetts. The program identifies and corrects timing errors as with the inevitable (and sometimes disastrous) wow-and-flutter problems that occur with analog tape, thereby restoring the music’s proper timing and pitch. Compared to the version of 11/9/73 that previously circulated amongst Deadheads, the Clarity process is truly miraculous.

The three shows, each in a deluxe gatefold sleeve, are housed in a psychedelic “cigar” box along with a replica 1960s-era “Good Old Grateful Dead” button and a facsimile of a “Deadheads Newsletter” circa. 1973. When you open all the gatefold sleeves, you can assemble a large version of the very trippy “eye-ball” cover image. Nice. Oh, and this time, the “bonus disc” really does feel like a bonus, consisting of most of the second set from Cincinnati, OH 12/4/73, including an outrageous, teeth-grindingly intense space jam. While I wouldn’t recommend this to the merely curious, if you’re a hardcore fan, then Winterland 1973 is well worth the $100.00 asking price.

--rgc

King Crimson: Belcourt Theatre, Nashville, TN 8/2/08

1. [drum duo]
2. ConstruKction Of Light
3. Level Five
4. Neurotica
5. Three of a Perfect Pair
6. Indiscipline
7. Frame By Frame
8. Dinosaur
9. One Time
10. Sex Sleep Eat Drink Dream
11. B'boom
12. Elephant Talk
13. Red
14. [drum duo]
15. Thela Hun Ginjeet
16. The Talking Drum
17. Larks' Tongues In Aspic II

Encore:
18. Sleepless
19. VROOOM/Coda: Marine 475

Adrian Belew: guitar, vocal
Robert Fripp: guitar
Tony Levin: bass, stick, vocal
Pat Masteletto: drums, percussion, electronic percussion
Gavin Harrison: drums, percussion

Folks from all over the world descended upon the tiny Belcourt Theatre for the first King Crimson concerts since 2004, a “warm-up” for the upcoming 40th Anniversary Tour. As we made our way into the tiny theatre and noticed the two enormous drum sets that dominated the stage, Liz remarked, “It’s going to be loud, isn’t it!” Yep. We were in for a pummeling.

The performance itself was exciting, but also predictably rusty, with several near-trainwrecks preventing the music from ever truly taking flight. Nevertheless, there were moments of hair-raising intensity, terrifying displays of raw power, and glimpses of sublime beauty. Highlights for me included newcomer Gavin Harrison’s jaw-droppingly complex drum fills on “Indiscipline”, an achingly tender version of “One Time”, and Tony Levin’s relentless groove on “Sleepless.”

As for the Venal Leader himself, Robert Fripp, he has taken to hiding behind a large stack of equipment, rendering himself virtually invisible to the audience. From our vantage point, we were able to watch his fretting hand if he was playing down by the nut and, occasionally, we could see the top of his head as he made adjustments to his gear or a foot pressing a pedal. He further made a point of exiting the stage from behind a scrim and refusing to come out from behind his rack for a bow with the rest of the band at the conclusion of the performance. Now, Mr. Fripp’s aversion to photography is well known and if these kinds of defensive maneuvers allow him enough peace of mind to continue performing, then so be it; after all, we’re there to listen more than to see (although seeing is nice, too). But this behavior makes even Miles Davis’s notoriously hostile stage persona seem downright gregarious and it’s difficult not to read it as utter contempt for the audience. And yet, a recent diary entry indicates that, despite all appearances, Mr. Fripp doesn’t take himself too seriously.

In any event, the tactics seemed to work: I saw no photography, audio/video recording, or cell phone abuse and that alone was welcome indeed. In fact, the audience was rapturous and the rest of the musicians seemed to be having a pretty good time. So, whatever. I was grateful to be there and Fripp’s guitar playing was typically brilliant, combining raging shards of metallic bombast with delicately intricate flatpicking and otherworldly high-tech textures, sometimes all within the same song. Too bad we couldn’t see him.

I’ll be curious to see if the setlist varies at all over the course of the tour. I suspect the band will work out the kinks and the larger venues should allow the full power and fury of this version of the band to fully blossom. Happy 40th Birthday KC!

--rgc