Sun Ra Music

I'll be brief here. Much has been made about Ra's move from Chicago to New York. The music changed from arranged, quirky, large band bebop to something entirely original and sometimes close to "free". Regarding free as another word for inaccessible, this album truly fills the gap. The music is accessible, but at the same time a long way away from the "Chicago" sound. If you're interested in Ra at all, this is a must have. The music's just interesting and intruiging, but doesn't leave you wondering. It makes a clear statement. I have actually come to appreciate transitional periods a lot--look at Miles, they show a lot of where the artist is, but wants to go. Ideas are fresh, and music is played with much conviction. That's what you'll find on this recording. Having already invested considerably in Ra's legacy, this CD is shooting right to the top!

A rare and essential LP from the 1960s is reissued in a splendor worthy of its significance.

Recorded after Sun Ra relocated to New York, it has a conventional jazz platform, but drenched in the blues and tight rhythms. The lineup consists of Sun Ra (piano and percussion), John Gilmore (bass clarinet and tenor), Marshall Allen (alto sax), Eddie Gale (trumpet), Pat Patrick (flute), Calvin Newborn (guitar) and Art Jenkins ("space voice").

Several of the songs - Friendly Galaxy, Space Aura, Love In Outer Space - became mainstays in live performances, but it's the previously unreleased Flight To Mars, which is 17 minutes of free jazz exploration, that makes the CD simply incredible.

A classic album is given a new launching pad that truly shows the artistic genius of Sun Ra and the musicians which drove his soundscape vision to astonishing heights.

The third volume in the Lost Reel Collection is one mysterious recording from the vast vault of Sun Ra; the performance was found on a tape with the title, Spacemaster Concert. It was recorded on an undetermined date in the early-1970s and has a metallic quality due to Sun Ra's electric keyboards, which retains an free jazz quality, though the tones are much noisier.

The vocals of June Tyson are impeccable, with the standout selections being Exotic Forest, Shadow World and Friendly Galaxy/Watusi. There remains a number of questions surrounding the recording that may never be solved. This is truly something out of lost-and-found, with the waiting being the hardest part.

An aspect of Sun Ra's amazing career which spanned five decades was not chronicled well.....until this special release.

The 45 RPM records collected in this volume were for juke boxes and mostly focus on the pop music sounds of the time period. There is specific focus on R&B, the blues and vocal performances, though there are a few jazz pieces in the mix.

Artists have to eat and have the funds to proceed with projects, but this is not music reluctantly cut for all the right reasons, but with apathy in sound. Sun Ra made the most of what many may consider a B-side of his art and each track is an audio sign of the times.

I'm not really a jazz fan, but this wonderful collection of obscure singles is quite an enjoyable listening experience. Describing the music is no easy task, but it veers from what sounds to me like standard jazz into real avant-garde cosmic experimentalism, with some flashes of calypso, über-funk and delightful soul in between. Perhaps George Clinton with his ParliaFunkadelicment-thang was inspired by Sun Ra? My favorite tracks include Great Balls Of Fire (it's not the rock `n roll song), two brilliant and very catchy renditions of I'm Gonna Unmask The Batman, Disco 2100, Cosmo Extensions and Outer Space Plateau. I can just imagine someone like Prince doing a great cover of "Batman" and one of those "intelligent techno" bands like Autechre or Aphex Twin doing post-modernist versions of Disco 2100 or Mayan Temple. Weird, wonderful and quirky music infused with humor and joy. Sun Ra was a marvel, a very prolific genius whose influence will continue to grow in the 21st century.

I got a kick out these two CD's but I am:
A) a Sun Ra fan of long standing, and
B) interested in where music really comes from, and not just the high points.
These recordings, some of them anyway, are odd even within Sun Ra's idiosyncratic world. Sun Ra is one of those jazz musicians who usually think in terms of the total composition, integrating a number of soloists into that framework. Jelly Roll Morton, Ellington, and, sometimes, Miles, Mingus & Monk work this way. Some of these "singles" are one-dimensional novelty numbers. Some are cute, like the "doo-wop" songs, e.g. "Dreaming". Valuable if you find this kind of music charming but otherwise wouldn't come in (voluntary) contact with it. Others are just raucous, like the Yochanan pieces, though even these have a kind of urban rustic charm, especially "Hot Skillet Mama". (The liner notes indicate that the fine tenor player John Gilmore called Yochanan, billed as the "space age vocalist" in the day, a "no-talent hanger-on" and swore he'd never recorded with him.)
Other pieces connect more directly with Sun Ra's oeuvre. Some, like "Saturn", are similar to more familiar recorded versions of the era or later. Many of these recordings are rough in comparison to Sun Ra's other work, with a rehearsal or impromptu feel, e.g. "Love in outer space" with June Tyson & John Gilmore singing. The liner notes are very good, placing the guy who said variously that he "came from nowhere here" or "Saturn" very firmly in the grimy contexts of Birmingham, Chicago and Philadelphia. Includes some interesting photos.

As much as I hate to give Sun Ra a bad review, I felt kind of ripped off after I got this. The first CD is all doo wop stuff that really didn't do it for me. Two songs were really awesome: "Blues on Planet Mars," and "Mayan Temples;" about 4 others on the second disk were ok if you used your powers of imagination to get past the bad sound quality. I would save this one for only the most devoted, bed sheet wearing Ra freaks out there.

I am relatively new to the world of Sun Ra (started 7/99). Someone mentioned him to me and I decided to start my Sun Ra collection the way I started my collection with most rock groups and that is with a compilation of hits or singles. I bought this and was immediately put off by what I heard. I later tried "Other Planes of There" after hearing a extraordinary Sun Ra song on a college radio station, and that was the real start of my Sun Ra collection of nearly 70 cds. This singles compilation remains a high point in my collection.
The reason this isnt the place to start is although it is a singles compilation, which I still cannot believe they were able to compile considering how obscure a great deal of them are, but alot of what is on here is Sun Ra in a support role to another act. The other act being a Rhythm and Blues act with performances I have grown to love, even though they are not typical Sun Ra by any stretch of the imagination.
If you are a seasoned veteran of Sun Ra from any period the 50s, 60s,70s, 80s, buy this album and let it grow on you. If you are interested in Sun Ra and wonder where to start I would ask yourself Big Band?? or Free Jazz?? If the answer is just swing and a good time start with "Jazz in Silhouette". But if you want free jazz taken further than John Coltranes deepest dreams. Try "Atlantis" and the peek of the genre "Magic City".

With up to 28 musicians - including both acoustic and electric bass, electric guitarists and the signature reed and brass sections - Sun Ra is delving into groove-orientated performances in this 1979 release.

The title track is the centerpiece, with Sun Ra's introduction on electric piano and the band then setting a mystical foundation for the vocals, led by June Tyson. Springtime Again and Door of the Cosmos have a sublime beauty which transcends time and place.

As if the vestiges of winter has finally given way to spring, there is a freshness of outlook and vision in the music which makes the album a gem in the vast Sun Ra discography.

The vision of Sun Ra is placed within an experimental framework, as ambient music is shaped through the use of a Mini-Moog synthesizer in the pair of releases that were recorded in 1970-1971.

The Solar-Myth Arkestra capture the special textures through the oboe, flute and drums of James Jacson. The landscape has a wonderful symmetry of colors and Sun Ra brings a sonic harmony to some of his most challenging works within his vast discography.

There are many sides to Sun Ra's genius, and the relentless explorer is one of his best. With the same minimalist rapture he found in such 60's classics as Heliocentric World, le Sonny continued his experiments into the early 70's, now augmenting the sound with his beloved mini-moog. The Solar Myth Approach gathers together some truely spooky, and beautiful, sounds that will liven up your dreams (maybe). If you're into some serious alchemy, this is what your looking for.

The vision of Sun Ra is placed within an experimental framework, as ambient music is shaped through the use of a Mini-Moog synthesizer in the pair of releases that were recorded in 1970-1971.

The Solar-Myth Arkestra capture the special textures through the oboe, flute and drums of James Jacson. The landscape has a wonderful symmetry of colors and Sun Ra brings a sonic harmony to some of his most challenging works within his vast discography.

There are many sides to Sun Ra's genius, and the relentless explorer is one of his best. With the same minimalist rapture he found in such 60's classics as Heliocentric World, le Sonny continued his experiments into the early 70's, now augmenting the sound with his beloved mini-moog. The Solar Myth Approach gathers together some truely spooky, and beautiful, sounds that will liven up your dreams (maybe). If you're into some serious alchemy, this is what your looking for.