Sun Ra Music

In a remarkable recording career, this 2-CD reissue of the complete concert from Milan, Italy, on January, 23, 1978, is simply the gold standard.

The original album included three tracks, which is bolstered by nine additional numbers from the performance. And while the small ensemble - John Gilmore (tenor sax), Luqman Ali (drums), Michael Ray (trumpet) and June Tyson (vocals) - deliver an oftentimes subtle brilliance, it is the experimental genius of Sun Ra that makes this a soundscape classic.

Utilizing a Crumar Mainman synthesizer - the first keyboard to use pre-programmed beats - Sun Ra paints a breathtaking picture on the title track. Dance of the Cosmo Aliens and The Third Planet/Friendly Galaxy are sweeping in expression, with Sun of the Cosmos finding Sun Ra and Ali engaged in intriguing interplay.

This is an absolute must for a fan of Sun Ra or free jazz/avant-garde music and a fabulous place to start for someone seeking an excellent release to begin the trek down the cutting-edge trail paved by a true genius.

I had the Saturn vinyl release of this back in the day, then I met an avid Sun Ra fan with a whole crate of his records, but not this one. I liked it a great deal, but it obviously meant more to him so I traded it for Guigou Chenevier's Arthur et les Robots, also quite rare at the time. Of course Arthur was reissued not long afterward, whereas it took more than a decade for this one to reappear.

It's been worth the wait though, as this presents Sun Ra in unique form with the tenor sax and drumming of longtime cohort John Gilmore, Luqman Ali on drums, Michael Ray trumpet and on one track, June Tyson's vocals. Sun Ra appears on various keyboards including the Crumar Mainman, which enabled him to add rhythm box beats and bass lines in real time. Disco 3000 on record was four pieces if I recall correctly. This release places those pieces in the context of eight others recorded at the same concert in Milan January '78, from which they were originally excised.

I first saw the Sun Ra Arkestra not too long after this and the concerts were always magical, but this one is really something special. Two hours plus of prime Sun Ra, 24 bit re-mastered from the original tapes, with just about the best sonics of all the Sun Ra recordings I've heard. Allegedly, this issue, which appeared only last year, is already out of print. The same UK label, Art Yard, has just re-issued another rare one entitled Media Dreams, recorded in Italy around the same time. If you're any kind of fan, especially of his more radical bent, don't miss Disco 3000.

Sun Ra Arkestra performances on video(bootleg or legit)are difficult to find in Europe or North America. When they do appear it might be wise for interested persons to buy this stuff while they can because it may soon become extinct. Two of the live performances here were originally broadcast on European television where some ambitious person recorded the television broadcast of these shows onto a VHS tape recorder. I am speaking of the East and West Berlin shows not the French show. Appearing here on Transparency Video, the West Berlin show involves the Sun Ra All Stars with Archie Shepp, Lester Bowie, Richard Davis, Philly Joe Jones, Clifford Jarvis, John Gilmore, Marshall Allen, Don Moye and Elo Omoe. The video, though grainy has very good sound and inspired playing on behalf of the all star band. The East Berlin show (grainy too)is the same performance appearing on the Leo cd of Sun Ra Live In East Berlin but the video contains the complete set. Here the Arkestra is in rare form as the musical madmen work then go berserk playing with intergallactic abandon. Wow! Somewhere there exists a good recording of these shows, and if they ever turn up, the world will see the real Sun People, what and how they played.

First, the easy part: the performances on this DVD are great, and far exceeded my expectations (I'm not as familiar with Ra's 80s work as much as his earlier work).

However, the picture quality makes this DVD almost unwatchable. The East Berlin concerts look like 4th-generation VHS tapes were used as the source material. Why weren't the masters used? Moreover, this appears to have been pressed on a single-layer DVD. This means that the picture had to be compressed which results in an overwhelming amount of digital blurring/pixelation of the picture (at times it looks like you're watching it on an Atari 2600). There's no reason to charge $18 for what is essentially a $1.50 bootleg DVD. I sincerely hope that Transparency addresses these quality issues in future releases. Supposedly, they plan on releasing 35 hours of Sun Ra's work; it would be a shame if it was all as unwatchable as this release it.

As for the sound quality, it's serviceable. The instruments are distinct, and there isn't too much distortion. But again, was any attempt made by the producers to track down the masters for these concerts?

Only a real die hard Sun Ra fan will appreciate this video. True enough the visual quality is lacking, but a true lover of Sun Ra will sit and just enjoy the music. For me, this rare footage,is never seen before stuff for a younger jazzer like me. If you really dig Sun Ra, just sit back and listen!

I am simply amazed that this DVD exists, and that it is part of a series that will be coming out over the next couple years of an extraordinary archive of Ra video recordings. What I know is that these concerts are all official, not bootleg, and they come from Ra's own people. Yes, they do come from videotapes of the original European broadcasts and are not "master" videos, but they are what is available, and they do satisfy. We certainly have been spoiled by far less interesting videos of far less interesting artists in better quality over the last 20 years, but that doesn't make these shows worthless by any means. Ra video is so rare I've seen collectors go crazy over copies of their SNL appearance. These are full performances. The audio is clean and clear, and you can see what's going on. Besides, have you ever listened to original Saturn Research lp's sold at Ra shows? This is at least the equivalent of that.

What it comes down to is, if you're a Ra fan, you need this. And it's just the beginning!

"Fate" swings, it shimmers, it's otherworldly and bop, but most of all it's gentle. There's more flute in this recording than we're accustomed to with Ra, and it sounds wonderful. This finds the band in a very pleasant mood indeed, as it's one of his last truly melodic efforts before forging ahead into the avant/free stratosphere. It retains touches of his earlier jump sound alongside the Ra-ian "Eastern" flourishes, and a fair number of the songs are ballads - all in all I wouldn't hesitate to call the music pastoral.
I am not a big fan of the band's post-Fate pre-Heliocentric work, which is the case with "When Sun Comes Out." "Fate" was culled from a long recording session, the remainder of which became "Angels and Demons at Play," and am curious that they didn't pair "Angels" with "Fate" for this reissue - the feel of "When Sun Comes Out" is quite different. Drier, more angular, more metallic even, it lacks Fate/Angel's pastoralism. Which isn't to say "Sun" is a bad record, it isn't; it's just not a favorite. I give this cd 5 stars on the strength of "Fate" alone!

If you only buy one Sun Ra CD, in my opinion this should be the one. You get a good mix of the different things he was in to.

Herman "Sonny" Poole Blount a.k.a. Sun Ra was unique as a jazz giant. There was nothing quite like his "Arkestra" and his unorthodox approach to jazz. Sun Ra was the purest kind of guy, a man who lived for his music and was dedicated to world brotherhood. I had the privledge of catching Sun Ra when he came to my city during a jazz festival.

The music on this CD is from the early 1960s when Sun Ra was being influenced by the exotica movement. The influence of Martin Denny can be heard on songs such as "Kingdom of Thunder", "Circle", "Brazillian Sun" and "Nile River". Unlike Denny, however, Sun Ra always makes the music a mystical and true jazz trip.

As Sun Ra branched out through hard bop, exotica, atonal music, Afro-centric music, electronic music and so forth; he remains unique, always reaching for the cosmic tomes.

Over the years, I've acquired many Sun Ra CDs and albums, but this one is my favorite.

So many songs for the money. These songs are all quite unique. There is a beautiful subtlety to it. It is not overpowering, but cautious and gentle...so sophisticated. With nearly 30 Sun Ra records, I can highly recommend this one.

"Fate" is a wonderful little record. It consists of tracks recorded at various sessions or rehearsals arranged into a record - because of the quality of the tracks, it demands to be heard. "Space Mates" is a beautiful other-wordly journey complete with dramatic piano solo. "Kingdom of Thunder" is a brilliantly rhythmic piece.

"When Sun Comes Out" finds Ra working with a wilder band, one that played something akin to 1960's "free jazz", which typically became squawking exercises in audience disenfranchisement intended to reflect or augment the African-American experience. Here, the sound is given a more cosmological context and cut with an exotic ambience. Although I am not that keen on the sound the band lays down here, I like the format they've fit it into and like some of the tracks. Pat Patrick among other players goes really wild on here (Pat played baritone sax). This serves as a good entry point into ra's mid-to-late 60's direction.

This is a great little EP. It's a great Brian Eno song made better by Stereolab and UI. The different versions of the song are each unique treasures. It's light and ethereal and still a lot of fun.
If you're as nuts as I am about covers you should definetly check this out.

it's great hearing what people can do with covers. i like hearing covers of music that are really different from the originals. this album has four different covers of the same song, so it was a very entertaining experience to hear them all. the covers are excellent and don't worry, it doesn't get tiring to hear the same tune over and over again.

"Fires" has been in heavy rotation at my house all spring. The multiple treatments of Eno's "St. Elmo's Fire" have a hypnotic quality, building from a pleasant familiarity on the first track to a terrific release on the later, more uptempo versions. Idiosyncratic in the best sense, this ought to ring some bells for listeners who remember the original from "Another Green World."

This album has everything it needs to spin at an incredibly quick, sawblade-rotating death speed suitable for beheading even the hardest-necked carcajou. Unfortunately, the CD is made of shiny plastic, not reinforced medical steel, and so my snowed-in mountain dacha remains infested by carcajou, skunk bear, polecats, wood pusses, foulmarts, and other vicious, hungry placental carnivores.

I also love this album because I /had/ St. Elmo's Fire, undiagnosed, so hearing about it 4 times just makes me break out all over in light.

After a series of severe health problems, Sun Ra returned to an oftentimes ambitious touring schedule that included a 1991 appearance at the Banlieues Bleues festival. The April 11 concert is chronicled in this release.

The 10 tracks that clock in at nearly 1:19 may have familiar titles, but the improvisational flare remains bright. There is a nod to Duke Ellington - Prelude to a Kiss - but the flow from the latter numbers - We Travel the Spaceways to Melody/They'll Come Back - shows the Arkestra in excellent form and Sun Ra urging the sonic journey to sweep through the audience.

A twilight gem, it stands as an outstanding example of what Sun Ra could achieve in the closing pages of an amazing career.