Sun Ra Music

Having never heard Ken Vandermark before, this was a first for me as well, and I have to say, I'm very very impressed with this. Stopped in my local record store where it was tucked under my nose with the line, "I've never heard of him before, but everyone who likes the stuff you like loves this guy".

Sure enough, he's stunning, this is really a fabulous album. Vandermark's reed playing is anywhere from completely vibrant and funkified to sweet and tender. His support is incredible. Overall, this may be the best purchase I've made in a while.

If you wanna hear some fusion remakes of sun ra and funkadelic this is for you ya hear classic ra and p-funk funked to other dimensions. A must have!

This is a dangerous disc. The Funkadelic tunes are grounded by a bone numbing bass & the outside R&B of Vandermark's tenor. While they don't take the tunes out to the furthest limits, the terrain that they do travel is true. On the Ra tunes the playing is quite nice, & a little more of Vandermark's heart is exposed. Looking at some of the other discs that get 5 stars here, this one probably should too; however, this is a true 4 star recording: very, very good, with fine playing & a beautiful concept brought to fruition.

Each listen I give this disk makes me more appreciative of it, however, I cannot see it as 5 star material as the flow is uneven. It may have been more sensible to allow 2 disks, one for Funkadelic, and one for Mr. Ra. The Sun Ra material on its own is purly sublime, and the Funkadelic material is infectious, to be sure (incredible rhythm section and very linear treatment of vocal lines by Vandermark's tenor). Ken shows an almost frustrating restraint on the funk cuts (that's how i felt anyway), but allows himself more freedom on the ra. If you are familiar with his playing, it is about freedom above almost all else. Heavy bottom end on the funk. I think I will go home and listen to it right now...

Ken Vandermark looks quite severe on the back cover photo, even belligerent, standing in front of a barbed-wire fence with Hamid Drake and Nate McBride. You might think this is out-of-sync with this album -- how could playing "Cosmic Slop" be dour? Obviously a high-concept tribute, "Spaceways Incorporated" seems to have a serious agenda. Sonny Blount (Sun Ra) and George Clinton both brought to life visions of life in Space (Space Is the Place!) and on other planets, at least in part inspired by the less than utopian conditions of Black People in the United States. I support the concept of bringing these great conceptualizers together in one tribute, but in practice I think it only partially succeeds. McBride sounds like he's having a wailing good time playing Bootsy Collins on the Funkadelic numbers, but Vandermark doesn't sound totally convincing. He is prone to utilizing his stock riffs on these tracks. Drake, too, seems less than enthused about banging out simple funk time. The Sun Ra cuts are uniformly superior. A whole album of Sun Ra would have been better, but less exciting as a concept. Sometimes those concepts can get the best of you...

This is another great package from the folks at Atavistic, who have excelled with the Vandermark 5 releases. THIRTEEN COSMIC STANDARDS features a really cool painting by the Italian Futurist, Pannaggi. Keep in mind that this is one of many side projects of Ken Vandermark. To truly engage his work, you've got to check out his three main bands -- the Vandermark 5, the DKV Trio (the D is Hamid Drake), and Mats Gustafsson's AALY Trio. In August of '99, I heard the Vandermark 5 at their regular Empty Bottle gig, and also heard Vandermark playing with just Tim Mulvenna (the V5 drummer) at a microbrewpub. The duo set featured lots of standards, pieces like Ornette's "Lonely Woman," and it was great, but a completely different, more mainstream, mode than the V5 set. Vandermark is prolific, I'd say the John Zorn of Chicago in that sense, (but of course they're very different otherwise), and being prolific is great, but beware judging him by one side project!

This is a two album package that explores the 1956-1960 transitional period for Sun Ra, as he wrapped up his productive time in Chicago for News York. The 14 songs clock in at 54:27.

We Travel the Spaceways is a collection of (Chicago) numbers, many which became concert standards, while Bad and Beautiful contains some of the first recordings done in The Big Apple. These years for Sun Ra was the foundation he constructed to expand his artistry. The release brilliantly shows a true artist on the move.

I agree with Scott McFarland's review below--my review is designed merely to second his thoughts on this twofer, and go into a little more detail. While little is bad here, this should be a lower priority buy than practically every other Evidence Sun Ra reissue. My middling rating should be read solely in comparison to other Sun Ra CDs. If it's the only Sun Ra CD available to you, snatch it up, by all means; if you've collected everything else, it's still an enjoyable listen.

Sun Ra released a huge backlog of recordings on a couple dozen self-released Saturn LPs in the mid to late 1960's. They were usually programmed according to approximate recording date and mood or theme.

The overall theme of the "We Travel the Spaceways" album seems to be "1956-1960 lofi-ish alternate versions of compositions which have already been released on other albums."

The one truly great cut is "Tapestry from an Asteroid," which trounces the later-recorded, earlier-released version on "Futuristic Sounds of Sun Ra." "Interplanetary Music" and "Space Loneliness" are performed definitively on "Interstellar Low Ways." "Eve" is given a lovelier and more precise rendition on "Visits Planet Earth." (These three recordings are all on the same twofer, which is a must-have!!) "Velvet" is perhaps best heard on "Jazz in Silhouette," though this one is decent--it includes some additional countermelodies worth hearing, though it was recorded at the end of a very long 1960 session and it shows (also on the "Greatest Hits" CD). "We Travel the Spaceways" is arguably more haunting on "When Sun Comes Out," though this version has a charming duck quack toy. "New Horizons" is a 1956 outtake, found in a slightly superior version on "Sun Song."

It _is_ interesting to compare these versions to the versions I listed--"Best" is subjective, of course, and some of the differences are worth experiencing if you are an obsessive fan.

*****

Sun Ra moved a small core of his big band from Chicago to New York City around mid 1961; but he lost a lot of musicians in the move. "Bad and Beautiful", the second half of this twofer, is the second album he recorded there (the first was the studio-engineered, Savoy-distributed "Futuristic Sounds"). It's the first of a long string of home-recorded lo-fi albums, usually engineered by percussionist Tommy Hunter in the "Choreographers' Workshop." It's also one of the least inspired of these usually innovative albums. Things started getting a lot more moody and wacky on "Art Forms of Dimensions Tomorrow," recorded immediately afterwards. He got on even stronger footing with the way-out, truly futuristic "Secrets of the Sun," which, sadly, has never been released on CD. "Bad and Beautiful," on the other hand, is mostly sort of conventionally arranged, murkily-recorded lounge jazz by six great musicians. Not much more or less. (The harmonies on the closing cut are strange and nice, though.) The sound seems to be in rechannelled stereo, or a poorly-aligned mono tape on a stereo deck. The sound wanders back and forth.

There may be stuff going on here that I'm missing, but that's the way I hear it. Get "Visits Planet Earth"/"Interstellar Low Ways" instead, which is magical from beginning to end.

OK, now we're in space with the guy! He's the only one from Saturn though! Whnead I listened to the guy first I thought I was in the space jungles with it! Cosmic Tones is crazier space music though. IT SOUNDS LIKE EGYPT AND CHINA IN THE ASTEROID BELT! you know? because it goes WAAANNG!! and then a second later dududu dunna dunna! all while this scratching is going on. strange percussions, saxophones: John Gilmore Marshall Allen, Yochanan (earlier, great scott!) These recordings are from the late 50's and early 60's but the guy said they his music weres the music of the future. Music is his time machine! It's probably not true but it sure feels like it. "Hey Ra, did they get jazz and r&b and egyptians up there in Saturn? You know?" LOL But is great to hear how he incoporated all that in the way he did. Interplanetary Music, the version here, is a classic. "Interplanetary.. Interplanetary.. Interplantary Music." And some songs sound like Duke Ellington in space - some real "Blues In Orbit" if you know what I Mean! But nobody bought the guy's records or saw the films really. I guess you'd call the guy a cult figure, Le Sonny Ra that is.

I have been listening to Bad and Beautiful for 30 years.

The title track is the theme song from the movie, and it features a wonderful arrangement by Sun in which the tenor and flute share the melody. It has a very optimistic and careful pace with an ending that leaves you hanging.

Ankh is the ROOTS! Sun recorded it earlier on Delmark, here it is a bit darker and has an otherworld vibe. Just In Time, a nice standard with tenor blowing by John Gilmore. Gilmore was a wonderful tenor who hopefully will not be forgotten. Search Light Blues is another title; it evokes a dark, stormy mood. This music represents a battle of the elements, a lonely voice in the distance in danger of being washed away by the waves. Sun really knew how how to use those diminished chords.

The music world can only thank Sun Ra for all of the beautiful music he made. Those who hear him will remember him. Will you?

Of the "two-fers" Evidence has put out, this is far from the strongest - I wouldn't start here. But as an archeological collection, this is not without interest.

"We Travel the Spaceways" - the tracks here were nearly all recorded on other (available) recordings - and generally the versions on other albums are preferable. Hence, this becomes the equivalent of listening to an early rehearsal tape, and in places the sound is so low-fi that it bolsters this effect. But - "Tapestry From An Asteriod" - amazing. The variations on the other tracks are interesting to hear, also, it should be said.

"Bad and Beautiful" is pretty abstract - I can't get into much of it. I just don't hear a lot in it. My favorite track on there is probably "Exotic Two" where the chattering percussion anticipates the "world music" trend and approaches some kind of aggressive trance - but it's far from Ra's best music.

Need I say more. He gives his view of the universe not through the eyes of a traditional religious man, but through the eyes of a man who let the true connection between he and the creator shine through. We are just begining to have that sort of true connection wide spread throughout the world.

This album was recorded between Sun Ra's incomparable "Cosmic Tones For Mental Therapy" and the equally incomparable "Magic City". If it's not quite the masterpiece of absolute music that those two albums are, it is nonetheless an intriguing, compelling work. "When Angels Speak Of Love" is somewhat more conservative, recognizable as jazz, or jazz-derived, much of the time, but unusually fluid, often leaving me wondering at the end of a piece exactly how a piece got from there to here, so varied are the structures that are generated. For this reason it can benefit from repeated listenings in a single sitting. Elements on this album, not so obvious on the other discs mentioned above, include quite a bit of furiously virtuousic, occasionally Scriabinesque, piano work by Sun Ra, and one of the more amusing or annoying features of many Sun Ra albums (depending on your point of view), a space chant, which is mercifully short. The title tune is particularly unusual, sounding something like what Messaien might have done if he composed jazz ballads, so neurotically mystical is it. This CD is a definite keeper.

On the Sun Ra spectrum, this certainly leans towards the "free" end; and at first it was a bit off-putting for me because it truly pushes the boundaries of musical cohesion. Now however, I think it is my favorite Arkestra effort.

Over time, I find myself going back to this over and over. Once you crack it and get a feel for what this group is saying, it becomes very soul-nourishing (I am assuming you already have been exposed to the open-ended free-jazz genre) and rewarding.

Yeah, he was an eccentric, but if you give this one time and approach it with an open mind, what they are doing begins to work its magic. It is about love. It means something. If you can take spiritual pleasure from this kind of music, then this CD is excellent. It doesn't really work if you want to hear a restatement of jazz form; rather it works as a statement of how this group feels, and why the music matters so much to them. For that, I love it.

What strikes me most about this early 60's Sun Ra album is how the horn playing is not so much dissonant as it is like whalesong played strenuously from somewhere beyond space and time. Then there is the slightly off-kilter percussion even on the ballad and the organic feel of this all acoustic (with reverb) set derived from rehersals. A sounscape piece followed by a bebop then a percussive piece. Then a ballad and a longform free piece. Yet they all sound like variations on a theme. It's charming more than anything. Five stars for that reason. Look elsewhere for the most far out Ra you have ever heard, but look here for yet another Sun Ra album with personality.

First off, if you do not already own Cosmic Tones for Mental Therapy/Art Forms...that would be my first pick before this one, however, When Angels Speak of Love captures the arkestra half way between their big band origins and the all out otherness of pieces like Magic City, Atlantis, etc. Most of the instrumentation here is traditional with the exception of the echo effect, and at times this album might seem closer to a 'free jazz' album than a Sun Ra album. Nonetheless, no fan of Sun Ra will be dissapointed, and this might be a good entry point for fans of Ornette or Coletrane to break into the Sun Ra experience. Its also worth noting that it is good from time to time to hear another solid album from the Arkestra where Sun Ra is still playing piano instead of keyboards. What we have hear is a really very challenging album, but because it has been done organically, it may perhaps seem more conventional, but this is not true. Sun Ra found many ways to manifest his ideas of music. This is just one particular variation upon that theme. Fantastic stuff!

Part of an ongoing series of releasing tapes from a variety of sources, the 57:07 features seven selections from a pair of concerts; Berkeley 1971 and an unknown location in 1972.

A few ticks over 24 minutes comprise the three pieces from Berkeley, with saxophonist John Gilmore delivering an amazing solo on Untitled Improvisation and vocalist June Tyson taking center stage in a four-song sequence - but considered one number - that begins with Strange Worlds.

The 1972 concert is Sun Ra at his experimental best - Moog, Outer Space - with The Arkestra in full flight on an untitled track and Intergalactic Research.

The Sun Ra concerts were very special experiences for the audience and this 2007 release takes the listener back to a time when a special connection was achieved through ground-breaking free jazz.

This CD is redundant with Polygram's two-disk "Black Myth/Out in Space" release. It's from live sets of the Arkestra's European tour around 1970.

Sun Ra's music can be described as big band jazz that is frequently dissonant. In any Sun Ra performance, some tracks are sort of afro bossa with lots of percussion; some are straight-ahead bebop; some are swing tunes; and some are atonal improvision like Cecil Taylor's. The level of musicianship is very high. Sun Ra's music is both sophisticated and spirited. Any Sun Ra album will keep a true music lover absorbed for many playings.

If you are just starting to get into Sun Ra, I recommend the Evidence's CDs, remastered versions of albums from Ra's Saturn label in the 1960s.

This music from an early-70s concert is great. The only reason for the low ranking is that all these tracks are available on "Black Myth/Out in Space [LIVE]," available in August 2005 from Amazon. The latter release gives you two CDs, not one, from two concerts, not one - and for a slightly lower price. "End of World," however, gives you cool cover art by Jerome Bosch.

This CD is redundant with Polygram's two-disk "Black Myth/Out in Space" release. It's from live sets of the Arkestra's European tour around 1970.

Sun Ra's music can be described as big band jazz that is frequently dissonant. In any Sun Ra performance, some tracks are sort of afro bossa with lots of percussion; some are straight-ahead bebop; some are swing tunes; and some are atonal improvision like Cecil Taylor's. The level of musicianship is very high. Sun Ra's music is both sophisticated and spirited. Any Sun Ra album will keep a true music lover absorbed for many playings.

If you are just starting to get into Sun Ra, I recommend the Evidence's CDs, remastered versions of albums from Ra's Saturn label in the 1960s.

This music from an early-70s concert is great. The only reason for the low ranking is that all these tracks are available on "Black Myth/Out in Space [LIVE]," available in August 2005 from Amazon. The latter release gives you two CDs, not one, from two concerts, not one - and for a slightly lower price. "End of World," however, gives you cool cover art by Jerome Bosch.