Sun Ra Music

Sun Ra was on the bill with Paul Bley in this July 3, 1977, solo performance at Axis-in-SoHo in New York. The material includes four Sun Ra compositions and an additional three classic numbers; St. Louis Blues, Three Little Words and Honeysuckle Rose.

The artistic genius of Sun Ra blossoms through his piano interpretations, which capture his universal outlook of music as a vehicle to expand one's intrinsic knowledge. The canvas is vast, but Sun Ra paints each piece quite subtly so one does not dominate the others.

A companion piece to Second Star to the Right (Salute to Walt Disney), the two disks clock in at nearly 1:39 and is the remainder of the performance from April 29, 1989, at the Jazzatelier in Ulrichsberg, Austria.

The intriguing selections in the dozen numbers are Prelude in A Major, Op. 28, No. 7, Queer Notions and Yeah Man!, with the final flurry, which combines a number of Sun Ra-penned music - We Travel the Spaceways, Outer Spaceways, Inc., Rocket No. 9 Take Off for the Planet Venus, Second Stop Is Jupiter, Saturn Rings - is nearly nine minutes of fantastic free jazz.

This was a special evening of music and this release only enhances what was a Fun and Fancy Free time for the band members and audience.

Bolstered by two previously unreleased numbers, this is truly a collaborative effort by a pair of artists who respect each other and were striving to achieve a special soundscape in their January 1984 performances at the Il Capo Jazz Club in Cairo, Egypt.

The CD chronicles the efforts of Sun Ra and Salah Ragab, with the latter playing percussion with the Arkestra, which has three numbers; Egypt Strut, Dawn, Watusa. Ragab is featured on four songs with the Cairo Jazz Band and Cairo Free Jazz Ensemble.

It is the unreleased numbers on the vinyl edition - Watusa, Music for Angels Davis (1971) - that are absolutely captivating and are the essence of what Sun Ra and Ragab were conveying to the audience; the power of music through timeless explorations of the soul.

This is two artists in very special performances that meant so much then, retain the beauty now and will only grow in stature in the future.

This is - like - the great lost Big Band CD. As has been noted, the influence of the Jazz Greats is everywhere. And at moments it would be possible to mistake this for a Mingus or Tadd Dameron session. But there's always some interesting moment of quirkiness that marks it as pure - but prehistoric - Ra. A quick overview:

1) Brainville: Marvelous use of Pat Patrick's baritone sax. A hypnotic theme that has some of the externals of Duke or Mingus but is relentlessly non-developmental in a way they could never be. Muted trumpet emerges out of the ensemble like pure early Gil Evans (Ella Speed, for example). A shout riff functions as a ritornello, almost hilarious in its purely formal nature. What does it propel? Not much...Julian Priester's boppy trombone is grooving.
2) Call For All Demons - Classic Ra theme - the illegitimate child of Caravan and Horace Silver. John Gilmore w/ demented quasi-Dameronian style comping. Jim Herndon's tympani solo (!!!) the star of the show.
3) Transition - Swinging at its most unswinging swinging-ness.The cowbell on the beat. the electric bass dutifully walking. The baritone dominates the sax section in a way that creates teleological visions of Fela. The generic Clifford/Lee - ism of the hard bop trumpeters is really piquant in the context. And then there's James Scales with his tortured Bird-isms.
4)Possession - A ballad which evokes Glenn Miller's Serenade In Blue - a Chicago favorite. All Gilmore, naturally.
5) A Street Named Hell - Could be the theme from the film of the same name. The tympani is again the star - amazing! That electric bass is so bad it's good.
6) Lullaby for Realville - what a groovy period piece - handclaps and everything. Not a pointed parody like Herbie Nichols' 2300 Skidoo, but cut from the same cloth. Than goodness for the upright bass here. Piano solo is beautifully addlebrained.
7) Future - Ra's piano at its approximate best - somewhere between Billy Strayhorn, Tristano and early Cecil Taylor. A strange place. Great orchestration of the drums - bringing them in and out. A whole psychodrama in 2:54.
8) Swing A Little Taste - Ra Jazz at its Ra Jazziest. The title says it all. So many cliches, all served up with a perfect pince sans rire. Enumerating all of them and their derivations could be an article in itself.(Buster) Keaton-esquely hilarious.
9) New Horizons - an almost conventionally beautiful film noir-y ballad. Could come from David Raskin's score for Joseph H. Lewis' The Big Combo. Goes up - tempo near the end for no discernable reason. Performance is so ragged, but that's part of its beauty.
10) Fall Off The Log -The incipient whole-toniness of some of the tunes doesn't really inform the solo sections as much as I might like. That's a typical transition Swing - to - Bop strategy that dates Sonny a bit. But somehow it's all of a jagged piece.
11) Sun Song - finally at the end the organ raises its lovely grotesque head. Perfect South Side Exotica. Chimes, temple blocks. Was Les Baxter an actual influence? I have no doubt...

Simply put, if I had to pick my all time favorite album of a life time, this would be it. It was so far ahead of it's time and so beautiful at the same time, this is as fun to listen to today as it was in the mid 1950s. The only differance is that it sounds like music of today rather than outer space music of the future, now.

John

Ra fans will want this album. It shows where his head was at circa 1956, and captures the Arkestra at an interesting period where they could swing tight and hard. The sound quality and quality of the playing are both high.

It should be noted, though, that the album is still relatively conventional and not as extraordinary as "Super Sonic Jazz" which Ra issued on his own label shortly after this, or the next session for Transition/Delmark now called "Sound of Joy".

These are not the jazz standards of Sound Sun Pleasure and a couple others first on the list, but a great collections of slightly experimental songs that Sun Ra did many times over the years and in his live shows.

Recorded in 1956, Sun Ra's first album (here in its entirety)
is a welcome addition to anyone's musical library. Along with
streamlined swingers like "Brainville" or "Future", sly
finger-poppers like "Lullaby For Realville", and speculative
serenades like "New Horizons" or "Sun Song", the Delmark CD
presents the previously-unissued dance call, "Swing A Little
Taste". With its tip to the orchestral romps of Fletcher
Henderson, Tadd Dameron, and Dizzy Gillespie, bearing a
chromatic savoir faire worthy of Duke Ellington himself,
the landmark session is classic Sun Ra, pointing the way
for the instrumental voicings of the next half-century,
and beyond.

Arkestra perennials such as tenor giant John Gilmore and
maverick baritonist Pat Patrick take their place alongside
unsung titans such as the bright, buoyant trumpeter Art
Hoyle. Others, such as the renowned trombonist Julian
Priester, gained fame elsewhere, only to rejoin the fold
decades later. All and more are a treat for the ears.
As for the pianist (who doubles on haunting organ for the
title song), his playing is joyously bright with sobering
skill; always gentle in his fierce determination.

As the Myth-Realist stated in the 1950s, "There is a
great need for America to give all of its creative
artists a chance". A gauntlet in the face of everything
from that period's McCarthyism to current fund-cutting
and other forms of censorship, Ra's words and music
have always held true to this idiomatic creed.

If you've experienced Sun Ra's artistic diversity
over the years, this disc comes as a powerful
addition but no surprise. If, however, you are
among those who dismiss Mr. Mystery as an eerie
noisemaker, I offer you this delightful shock,
an accurate pointer to what this grandmaster
of Jazz has always been about.

This is - like - the great lost Big Band CD. As has been noted, the influence of the Jazz Greats is everywhere. And at moments it would be possible to mistake this for a Mingus or Tadd Dameron session. But there's always some interesting moment of quirkiness that marks it as pure - but prehistoric - Ra. A quick overview:

1) Brainville: Marvelous use of Pat Patrick's baritone sax. A hypnotic theme that has some of the externals of Duke or Mingus but is relentlessly non-developmental in a way they could never be. Muted trumpet emerges out of the ensemble like pure early Gil Evans (Ella Speed, for example). A shout riff functions as a ritornello, almost hilarious in its purely formal nature. What does it propel? Not much...Julian Priester's boppy trombone is grooving.
2) Call For All Demons - Classic Ra theme - the illegitimate child of Caravan and Horace Silver. John Gilmore w/ demented quasi-Dameronian style comping. Jim Herndon's tympani solo (!!!) the star of the show.
3) Transition - Swinging at its most unswinging swinging-ness.The cowbell on the beat. the electric bass dutifully walking. The baritone dominates the sax section in a way that creates teleological visions of Fela. The generic Clifford/Lee - ism of the hard bop trumpeters is really piquant in the context. And then there's James Scales with his tortured Bird-isms.
4)Possession - A ballad which evokes Glenn Miller's Serenade In Blue - a Chicago favorite. All Gilmore, naturally.
5) A Street Named Hell - Could be the theme from the film of the same name. The tympani is again the star - amazing! That electric bass is so bad it's good.
6) Lullaby for Realville - what a groovy period piece - handclaps and everything. Not a pointed parody like Herbie Nichols' 2300 Skidoo, but cut from the same cloth. Than goodness for the upright bass here. Piano solo is beautifully addlebrained.
7) Future - Ra's piano at its approximate best - somewhere between Billy Strayhorn, Tristano and early Cecil Taylor. A strange place. Great orchestration of the drums - bringing them in and out. A whole psychodrama in 2:54.
8) Swing A Little Taste - Ra Jazz at its Ra Jazziest. The title says it all. So many cliches, all served up with a perfect pince sans rire. Enumerating all of them and their derivations could be an article in itself.(Buster) Keaton-esquely hilarious.
9) New Horizons - an almost conventionally beautiful film noir-y ballad. Could come from David Raskin's score for Joseph H. Lewis' The Big Combo. Goes up - tempo near the end for no discernable reason. Performance is so ragged, but that's part of its beauty.
10) Fall Off The Log -The incipient whole-toniness of some of the tunes doesn't really inform the solo sections as much as I might like. That's a typical transition Swing - to - Bop strategy that dates Sonny a bit. But somehow it's all of a jagged piece.
11) Sun Song - finally at the end the organ raises its lovely grotesque head. Perfect South Side Exotica. Chimes, temple blocks. Was Les Baxter an actual influence? I have no doubt...

Simply put, if I had to pick my all time favorite album of a life time, this would be it. It was so far ahead of it's time and so beautiful at the same time, this is as fun to listen to today as it was in the mid 1950s. The only differance is that it sounds like music of today rather than outer space music of the future, now.

John

Ra fans will want this album. It shows where his head was at circa 1956, and captures the Arkestra at an interesting period where they could swing tight and hard. The sound quality and quality of the playing are both high.

It should be noted, though, that the album is still relatively conventional and not as extraordinary as "Super Sonic Jazz" which Ra issued on his own label shortly after this, or the next session for Transition/Delmark now called "Sound of Joy".

These are not the jazz standards of Sound Sun Pleasure and a couple others first on the list, but a great collections of slightly experimental songs that Sun Ra did many times over the years and in his live shows.

Recorded in 1956, Sun Ra's first album (here in its entirety)
is a welcome addition to anyone's musical library. Along with
streamlined swingers like "Brainville" or "Future", sly
finger-poppers like "Lullaby For Realville", and speculative
serenades like "New Horizons" or "Sun Song", the Delmark CD
presents the previously-unissued dance call, "Swing A Little
Taste". With its tip to the orchestral romps of Fletcher
Henderson, Tadd Dameron, and Dizzy Gillespie, bearing a
chromatic savoir faire worthy of Duke Ellington himself,
the landmark session is classic Sun Ra, pointing the way
for the instrumental voicings of the next half-century,
and beyond.

Arkestra perennials such as tenor giant John Gilmore and
maverick baritonist Pat Patrick take their place alongside
unsung titans such as the bright, buoyant trumpeter Art
Hoyle. Others, such as the renowned trombonist Julian
Priester, gained fame elsewhere, only to rejoin the fold
decades later. All and more are a treat for the ears.
As for the pianist (who doubles on haunting organ for the
title song), his playing is joyously bright with sobering
skill; always gentle in his fierce determination.

As the Myth-Realist stated in the 1950s, "There is a
great need for America to give all of its creative
artists a chance". A gauntlet in the face of everything
from that period's McCarthyism to current fund-cutting
and other forms of censorship, Ra's words and music
have always held true to this idiomatic creed.

If you've experienced Sun Ra's artistic diversity
over the years, this disc comes as a powerful
addition but no surprise. If, however, you are
among those who dismiss Mr. Mystery as an eerie
noisemaker, I offer you this delightful shock,
an accurate pointer to what this grandmaster
of Jazz has always been about.

This is - like - the great lost Big Band CD. As has been noted, the influence of the Jazz Greats is everywhere. And at moments it would be possible to mistake this for a Mingus or Tadd Dameron session. But there's always some interesting moment of quirkiness that marks it as pure - but prehistoric - Ra. A quick overview:

1) Brainville: Marvelous use of Pat Patrick's baritone sax. A hypnotic theme that has some of the externals of Duke or Mingus but is relentlessly non-developmental in a way they could never be. Muted trumpet emerges out of the ensemble like pure early Gil Evans (Ella Speed, for example). A shout riff functions as a ritornello, almost hilarious in its purely formal nature. What does it propel? Not much...Julian Priester's boppy trombone is grooving.
2) Call For All Demons - Classic Ra theme - the illegitimate child of Caravan and Horace Silver. John Gilmore w/ demented quasi-Dameronian style comping. Jim Herndon's tympani solo (!!!) the star of the show.
3) Transition - Swinging at its most unswinging swinging-ness.The cowbell on the beat. the electric bass dutifully walking. The baritone dominates the sax section in a way that creates teleological visions of Fela. The generic Clifford/Lee - ism of the hard bop trumpeters is really piquant in the context. And then there's James Scales with his tortured Bird-isms.
4)Possession - A ballad which evokes Glenn Miller's Serenade In Blue - a Chicago favorite. All Gilmore, naturally.
5) A Street Named Hell - Could be the theme from the film of the same name. The tympani is again the star - amazing! That electric bass is so bad it's good.
6) Lullaby for Realville - what a groovy period piece - handclaps and everything. Not a pointed parody like Herbie Nichols' 2300 Skidoo, but cut from the same cloth. Than goodness for the upright bass here. Piano solo is beautifully addlebrained.
7) Future - Ra's piano at its approximate best - somewhere between Billy Strayhorn, Tristano and early Cecil Taylor. A strange place. Great orchestration of the drums - bringing them in and out. A whole psychodrama in 2:54.
8) Swing A Little Taste - Ra Jazz at its Ra Jazziest. The title says it all. So many cliches, all served up with a perfect pince sans rire. Enumerating all of them and their derivations could be an article in itself.(Buster) Keaton-esquely hilarious.
9) New Horizons - an almost conventionally beautiful film noir-y ballad. Could come from David Raskin's score for Joseph H. Lewis' The Big Combo. Goes up - tempo near the end for no discernable reason. Performance is so ragged, but that's part of its beauty.
10) Fall Off The Log -The incipient whole-toniness of some of the tunes doesn't really inform the solo sections as much as I might like. That's a typical transition Swing - to - Bop strategy that dates Sonny a bit. But somehow it's all of a jagged piece.
11) Sun Song - finally at the end the organ raises its lovely grotesque head. Perfect South Side Exotica. Chimes, temple blocks. Was Les Baxter an actual influence? I have no doubt...

Simply put, if I had to pick my all time favorite album of a life time, this would be it. It was so far ahead of it's time and so beautiful at the same time, this is as fun to listen to today as it was in the mid 1950s. The only differance is that it sounds like music of today rather than outer space music of the future, now.

John

Ra fans will want this album. It shows where his head was at circa 1956, and captures the Arkestra at an interesting period where they could swing tight and hard. The sound quality and quality of the playing are both high.

It should be noted, though, that the album is still relatively conventional and not as extraordinary as "Super Sonic Jazz" which Ra issued on his own label shortly after this, or the next session for Transition/Delmark now called "Sound of Joy".

These are not the jazz standards of Sound Sun Pleasure and a couple others first on the list, but a great collections of slightly experimental songs that Sun Ra did many times over the years and in his live shows.

Recorded in 1956, Sun Ra's first album (here in its entirety)
is a welcome addition to anyone's musical library. Along with
streamlined swingers like "Brainville" or "Future", sly
finger-poppers like "Lullaby For Realville", and speculative
serenades like "New Horizons" or "Sun Song", the Delmark CD
presents the previously-unissued dance call, "Swing A Little
Taste". With its tip to the orchestral romps of Fletcher
Henderson, Tadd Dameron, and Dizzy Gillespie, bearing a
chromatic savoir faire worthy of Duke Ellington himself,
the landmark session is classic Sun Ra, pointing the way
for the instrumental voicings of the next half-century,
and beyond.

Arkestra perennials such as tenor giant John Gilmore and
maverick baritonist Pat Patrick take their place alongside
unsung titans such as the bright, buoyant trumpeter Art
Hoyle. Others, such as the renowned trombonist Julian
Priester, gained fame elsewhere, only to rejoin the fold
decades later. All and more are a treat for the ears.
As for the pianist (who doubles on haunting organ for the
title song), his playing is joyously bright with sobering
skill; always gentle in his fierce determination.

As the Myth-Realist stated in the 1950s, "There is a
great need for America to give all of its creative
artists a chance". A gauntlet in the face of everything
from that period's McCarthyism to current fund-cutting
and other forms of censorship, Ra's words and music
have always held true to this idiomatic creed.

If you've experienced Sun Ra's artistic diversity
over the years, this disc comes as a powerful
addition but no surprise. If, however, you are
among those who dismiss Mr. Mystery as an eerie
noisemaker, I offer you this delightful shock,
an accurate pointer to what this grandmaster
of Jazz has always been about.

This album and "Jazz in Silhouette" are the two which I would recommend to Sun Ra novices. It is beautiful, conventionally enjoyable, toe tapping fun, with excellent solos by John Gilmore. It features some of the earliest use of electric keyboards and extra percussion by anyone, but most of it is vigorous mainstream hard bop, but with a Ra twist to be sure. Virtually any jazz fan could enjoy this one.

Recently a friend asked why most of the reviews I have posted have five stars. I pointed out that the main reason is that the CDs I have reviewed are all ones that I own, and that I research very carefully before I buy anything.

The few that I give lower ratings to are usually impulse buys based on a single recommendation that have disappointed me when they clearly don't stand up to repeated listening.

Let's face it, if you own more than two or three albums by the same artist, some of them will hardly ever get played, so it is well worth while to make sure that you buy the very best work of the artists you like.

For me a top rated (five star) album has to be one that is consistently of the highest standard. It is no good if there are one or two great tracks and the rest is dross. A top rated album has to be one that bears repeated listening without getting tired of it, and it has to sound good and be well recorded. It has to be the best work of the artist in question, and it has to be excellent music in its own right.

Now what does this have to do with Sun Ra and Supersonic Jazz. Just that Sun Ra is the exception that proves the rule, in that I have several of his albums including this one. Listening to this you just forget that it is music, as Sun Ra's remarkable rhythmic and harmonic virtuosity takes you out of yourself on a journey to Eternity, or maybe it is just Saturn.

Anyway, the point is that this music is so good that attempts to describe it just lead you into nonsensical babble. Better just to buy it and hear it for yourself.

Six stars.

The tonal colors just fly out of the music. An underheard jazz masterpiece. This is a great starting point into Ra's music, and a wonderful, deep, varied album. Discographers claim this was recorded in 1956, but it's hard to believe that. The music is absolutely timeless.

Great composition, great imaginative arrangement of those themes across a wide tonal pallette, great playing, and a mastering job that presents the music in all its glory.

buyer beware: there are 2 types of sun ra recordings. 1. great colorful big band music featuring the great saxophone work of john gilmore. (which is the category super-sonic jazz certainly falls into). and 2. experimental free-form jazz. i, personally, cannot stand the pretentious free-form stuff, but when the sun ra outfit is focused on compositions (as they are on this cd) they make jazz about as good to listen to as anybody. this is a perfect cd to introduce yourself to the best kind of sun ra. yes, sir.

Super-Sonic Jazz is not nearly as avantgarde as Suns albums became starting in the early sixties, rather this album documents Sun's earlier more traditional work. Those of you who didn't know that the master of big band free jazz could swing and play the blues you should check this stuff out. I love Sun Ra's more demanding and avantgarde material from the sixties, seventies and eighties, but this album is very cool. You can tell Sun's fancy is just begining to take flight in that he's starting to add different rhythms and instrumentation and more exotic harmony to his repetoire. The arrangements and compositions are just starting to get "out." For instance the album opener India is a bit of exotica played on electric piano. Many of the tunes use tympani and odd melody lines such as the stunning El Is The Sound Of Joy. Other tunes sound like Charles Mingus of the period but with an odd harmonic sensibility. Ra's piano recalls Thelonius Monk in his use of space and occasionally a tiny bit of Sun's Cecil Taylor-like style pokes through. But in general he swings and solos in a more traditional though harmonically advanced way. The playing by his side men is top notch. Featured are John Gilmore, Pat Patrick and Julian Priester. Super Sonic Jazz is just a really enjoyable listen of the beginnings of one of jazz's most out-there and intriguing composers. Its melodic, exotic and swinging. As a bonus it's well recorded.

Writer Henry Dumas and Sun Ra forged a close bond in the mid-1960s when they were residing in New York. This collaborative effort centers on commentary by Sun Ra on a number of social, political and historical issues.

Fascinating, lyrical, poetic and dramatic, the outlooks and opinions of Sun Ra remain timely and urgent. The meeting of the educator and the writer yielded an important project that allows the rays from the genius of Sun Ra to glow upon those who listen to the lectures.

This is a case of being very far off the deep end. Whilst I don't own volume 1, I think vol 2 can stand well on its own. It opens w/ a deep dense tone that sounds like a cello but 1 isn't listed so I imagine it's Robert Cummings' bass clarinet. The Sun Myth takes up all of the 1st side & is relatively epic @ 17 minutes, wherein Ra explores the depths of his tuned bongos & the triple horns of Marshall Allen, John Gilmore & someone whose name escapes me create a very intense moody atmosphere that is the very opposite of the catchy chants of Rocket #9 & Space Is The Place, needless to say it's completely instrumental. A House of Beauty features high pitched flute action & is the short track @ 5 minutes, acting as the build up to the eruption that is... COSMIC CHAOS! 13 minutes of total skronk jazz to the outer reaches of any galaxy of yr choice. Overall it's an uncompromising listening experience whose appeal will be probably be limited, though apparently it's the most popular Sun Ra disc currently. I got the LP reissue from Italy's Base Record company & it's very clear + the superb artwork stiucks out. You also get a poem calle THERE on the back which should probably be read aloud whilst the music plays for full effect, & of course a great picture of the man himself in full regalia. the session was 1 day in late 1965 & released in '66. of course it's in a world of its own.

I love this one - it's mellow and soothing at moments and raucous at others. Many prefer Volume I, but Volume 2 has more color and texture. Sun Ra's work on the electric bongos is a great underpinning to the rest of the action.

Difficult to find but highly recommended!