Sun Ra Music

This is a difficult release to find, but a real gem in the vast discography of Sun Ra.

The two-CD set is the complete October 1990 performance of 2.5 hours of The Year 2000 Myth Science Arkestra, with special guests Charles Davis (baritone sax), Talvin Singh and Elson Nascimento (percussion) and India Cooke (violin).

It is inspiring music and the flow from vocal chants, big band swing, free jazz and avant-garde is incredible. Sun Ra propels the musicians in a recording which captures the latter years of a true artistic genius.

This CD should be essential for anyone who is a fan of Sun Ra. It is a live concert from Soundscape (recorded on November 11, 1979), featuring such classics as "Astro Black" "Discipline 27," and "Space is the Place," among many others. While the concert could have been recorded or mixed a little better (some of the vocals and instruments are occasionally hard to hear), the performance is brilliant. Mr. Ra, June Tyson, John Gilmore et al. really give the music a vitality that is inspirational and at times staggeringly beautiful.

The live set from the early 1980s shows Sun Ra & His Arkestra covering a wide range of musical genres. But it is the rhythms and spacing of sounds that made Ra's performances so fascinating.

The solos drive D. 27, which leads to Sun Ra's exquisite piano composition, Blues Ra. The dimensions of the band are stretched in the closing songs, Round Midnight and Love in Outer Space/Space is the Place.

The CD was truly recorded live, which is a great relief. There are so many live albums from this period that were over-dubbed in the studio - even with crowd noise dropped in - that it is so fresh to hear actual live music recorded the way it was played before an audience.

The live set - while highly accessible - is only a sweet taste of the brilliant work he weaved for his fans.

This CD is very accessible to most fairly new Sun Ra fans. It has a number of his often played tunes when he performed live. I have seen him 6 or so times over the years and a couple more with the Arkestra after his passing. With 25 or more of his records, I can highly recommend this one. If you are new to him, also look into the albums with recognizable jazz standards. Usually, the more songs on the CD, the more accessible it will be to the new Sun Ra fan.

This 1990 Italian studio recording features all the usual Arkestra crew: Gilmore, Allen, Tyson, Jackson, etc. The playing leans more toward the hard-swinging facet of this great ensemble's personality, as distinguished from the free-blowing avant-garde mode. There's also a bit of Brasilian percussion influence as well. Nothing could substitute for the amazing live performances of the Arkestra, but this is nevertheless a fine document from the last years of Sun Ra's so-called life.

Having written a number of reviews, I really think I should explain what I mean by my star ratings.

* A really worthless CD
** A CD that has some good stuff, but some major defects.
*** An OK CD that will please fans of the artist in question.
**** An excellent CD that represents the best work of the artist in question and can be bought with confidence.
***** An absolute classic that is the best, or among the best, of its genre. Your collection should start here.

Now, when I review my past reviews I see a few contradictions. I have already awarded six stars to Sun Ra's Super Sonic Jazz, and a few five stars to some of his other discs.

First of all let me say that in my opinion Sun Ra is not just a jazz musician, but sui generis, a genre of his own. This accounts for what my seem like excessively high ratings for a disc like Live At the Village Vanguard, which is a personal favorite.

So where does this put Mayan Temples. This is a great disc. It was recorded in Italy in 1990 just before Sun Ra had a disabling stroke that inhibited his performances.

The disc is on the Black Saint label and made in Italy, which may explain why my copy of the disc has "Su Ra Arkestra" on the actual disc, the Italian label writers possibly confusing our friend with Johnnie Cash's "A Boy Named Sue.)

Be that as it may, this is a superbly recorded CD with well over 70 minutes of the Arkestra at its very best. There is a lot of Sun Ra piano, great saxophone from John Gilmore, and fine trumpeting by Abdullah and Ray. Also some interesting latin influenced percussion, especially in the title track and in the lovely Sunset In the Night On the River Nile, which, unusually in the jazz world, is in cha-cha-cha time--and would make a great hit single if someone cared to rerecord it.

Favorite tracks on this are Stardust from Tomorrow, Time After Time (not quite as good as Big Joe Turner), and Opus In Springtime.

I think this is probably the best Sun Ra CD, or maybe it is equal to Super Sonic Jazz. The Penguin Guide to Jazz on CD reckons that Jazz in Silhouette is THE one to get. I have that too, but I don't quite agree. I guess that means six stars again.

Can't say that I dig it. Ra was a great piano/keyboard player, but a man on piano playing with this degree of abstraction ... it's not my idea of something to listen to for enjoyment. I don't discern a purpose to this type of "art"; a bit less fragmentation on the themes might have helped me. I recommend Ra's albums with his "Arkestra" instead.

I don't play the piano, except in my dreams. And I mean that literally: sometimes, when I'm asleep, I dream that I'm playing the piano. And when I do, it sounds just like this Sun Ra record. So much so that I experienced a shock of recognition upon first playing this disc. Piquantly dissonant Ellingtonian note clusters struggling towards form and fitfully finding it; a species of stride with a dreamy deliquescence reminiscent of Dali's melting watch; a sidelong slipperiness of phrasing that brings to mind the impressionistic ballads of Andrew Hill or, again, Ellington. The previous reviewer found this recording too dissonant and abstract, and it's true that the first two tracks are among the disc's most daunting, but the more ballad-like numbers are quite accessible. There's even a relatively straightforward rendition of the standard Easy Street. This is one of Ra's few solo piano recordings and my nomination for the best. In fact, it's one of my favorite Ra albums period. (And you've got to love the classic cosmic cover art.)

The Arkestra was evolving in these vintage performances, but the terrible sound quality diminish the impact.

The tape sources for the octet at Majestic Hall and sextet at Wonder Inn sound as if they came from the audience and was ultimately for a private collection. There is absolutely no way that Sun Ra - or any artist - would have permitted the ragged bootleg quality for release immediately after the performances.

Only for those seeking a complete catalog of "official" Sun Ra releases, the CD is a frustrating aspect of labels issuing material with inferior sound quality for supposed "historical" purposes.

While the recording quality of these shows leave a lot to be desired, the music is inspired nonetheless. A great window into the variety and energy that made up Sun Ra shows (as I understand them, being far too young to have actually seen one).

Atavistic, those sly folks from Chicago, are at it again with their unheard music series. This time they have unearthed two live sessions from Sun Ra's Chicago version of the Arkestra. The first session comes from Ra's legendary stint at the Wonder Inn on Chicago's South Side. This tape has been rumored to exist for years but this is it's first appearance to the general public. It is a fascinating document of a formative period in the Arkestra's history. The band is small but many Arkestra stalwarts are here including John Gilmore, Marshall Allen and the marvelous Ronnie Boykins on bass. They play a mix of Ra originals and standards. Included are a stunning version of Angels and Demons at Play, better known in it's Saturn records "studio" version. Allen is featured on the atmospheric Sponteneous Simplicity along with another unnamed flautist. John Gilmore shows his bop chops on Space Aura, though you can here him drifting toward the rougher style he would use in later years. The standards are also fascinating. The version of Ain't Necessarily So is classic hard bop, but with it's own weird quirks including some Ra breaks on electric piano.

The Majestic Hall sessions are even more obscure than the Wonder Inn sessions. They have not even been rumored to exist. The band is an octet as opposed to the Wonder Inn's sextet. The material is dominated Ra originals, along with some standard ballads, mixing beautiful, almost cocktail style piano from Ra, romantic playing from Bari saxist Ronald Wilson, exotica like Ankhnaton which recall the Arkestra's origins as a stripper show band, modal vamp numbers like Majestic 2, hard bop, tense and dissonant music like Majestic 4 which feature a stunning bari sax solo, and "afro-chants" like A Call for All Demons. The material is fascinating.

Words to the wise however...the sound on these recordings is primitive, to say the least. Most of them were probably recorded using primitive homemade equipment. Much of Ra's piano is nearly inaudible when the rest of the band is playing. The horns, particularly Gilmore, don't suffer quite so much, but Ronnie Boykins bass is all but obliterated. And often the audience is louder than the entire band put together. This is particularly distracting in the first two numbers, as they are rather quiet and we get to hear details of the dinner plans of several customers. (Actually, it's kind of refreshing to hear the enthusiasm and spontaneity of the crowd later in the gig.) The Majestic sessions are a little better and the band has more presence. But neither session sounds as good as the first Saturn records and that's faint praise indeed.

So this album is really for the specialist...jazz composers, Ra enthusiasts, fans of the wonderful John Gilmore, and anyone interested in a slice of Chicago jazz in the 50s and 60s should definately get this disc. I'm certainly glad I have it. But I'm only giving it three stars, because the sound is so bad and therefore this should not be the CD that a novice to Sun Ra should get. If you are beginning your journey to Saturn with Ra, choose one of the Studio sessions from the 50's...Fate in a Pleasant Mood, Interstellar Low-ways, A Call for All Demons, Jazz in Sillouette. Any of these would be better introductions to the wild, weird world of Ra.

I give this three stars, taking away two for the bad sound quality. It sounds like music on a cheap AM radio in the next room.

Don't get me wrong. The performances are great, and every Ra album is important.

I especially like the rare vocal version of "China Gate," hitherto available on the studio "Futuristic Sounds" album issued a year later, in 1961. "China Gate" is a kind of Vaughn Monroe thing, but Ra was into exotic foreign settings at that time, like some of Les Baxter's records. It's historically interesting in retrospect because Ra was so avant garde elsewhere.

If you are not a collector, you are better off buying any of the 15 or so excellent CDs issued by Evidence Records and available from Amazon.

The full-band tracks are masterful. There are brilliant compositions contained within them. The ensemble's playing is referred to in liner notes as potentially being "spaced-out barbequeue music" and it does sound something like that; Ra moved his band towards the "soul-jazz" sound that was in vogue, but with more twists and turns in it. These tracks are absolutely worth the price of admission and demand to be heard (by everyone, everywhere).

The solo keyboard pieces by Ra do in fact sound like cheesy video game soundtracks and demonstrate that Ra was alternating brilliant musical accomplishments with childish exercises in abstraction by this point. When he was on top of his game, he was brilliant.

The first side of the CD shows Ra in an almost "cool" mode--the Arkestra plays as wild as ever while he accompanies them on organ. The second side is comprised of his earliest Moog synthesizer experiments. Frankly it can come off as kinda schizo. But once you're in the Ra mood, it works just fine. I like this record a lot!

Recorded in 1982 and unsuccessfully marketed to major jazz labels, this forgotten gem had a very limited release two years later. The session tapes were lost or destroyed, hence the CD is remastered from vinyl.

The title track runs the gamut of emotions, as the infectious beat and Sub Ra's rap delivers an urgent message of reality by facing the dangerous games played by political powers and those striving for entrance into that club.

Retrospect has a slow and moody texture, but is a very accessible musical piece. The cover of Duke Ellington's Drop Me Off in Harlem is outstanding and the big-band swing in Nameless One #2 is a great change of pace. But it is the vocals of June Tyson - Sometimes I'm Happy, Smile - that takes the album to tremendous heights.

The Outer Space Arkestra is well-grounded in soul and jazz, with Sun Ra showing that he can work within a less experimental framework, but still deliver a timeless classic.

plenty of great sun ra stuff here. there are some slight avant-garde leanings to this album, but it is all very accessible. john gilmore's incredible tenor saxophone work is on fine display throughout the set, and sun ra's piano, organ, and synthesizer work are inventive and enjoyable beginning to end. it's a joy to find another sun ra recording that is definitely going to stick around in my music collection (not all of them do). i highly recommend this to you jazz fans out there.

This is one of the most accessible recordings by Sun Ra (formerly refused by a major like Columbia) but the Maestro is in total command of his art and the Arkestra in full glory! So if you need one essential recording of their eighties output this is it...Anyway there's no experimental free music here but mostly beautiful synth/organ driven grooves in a space-jazz context, very listenable and full of ideas. The title track, originally issued as a 12" maxi-single on the Y label (UK) is a pure masterpiece of black popular art: a sort of jazz-hip hop anthem sung by Ra that was a classic in the Arkestra live sets during the eighties (see "Live at Praxis 84" or the "Mystery Mr.Ra" video) inspiring later recordings like Guru's Jazzmatazz and others. The cover versions here are fantastic examples of how Ra & his Arkestra could send Duke Ellington or Charlie Chaplin flying on a magic carpet! And now the bad news: the source is the original vinyl and not exactly in the mint condition. The problem is that obviously we are not talking about a low-fi acetate from the 20's but a 1982 recording; even the original Saturn masters from the late fifties sound great (see the Evidence discs). The liner notes say that the Unhear Music Series used the best possible LP for this remastering. The cd label is a replica of the Italian LP label and you can even read "Distribuzione Dischi Ricordi" on the cover. It's a real mystery (or a spell by Mr.Ra himself?) that the masters don't exist anymore because Ricordi (now BMG) was one of the biggest Italian labels, publishings & distributors not exactly a small indie company. A strange fact indeed: this is the only reason I gave it 4 stars...
I can only add that as usual with Ra this great black music stands above all technical imperfections and even if you're not a big fan you'll find Nuclear War a real pleasure!

... I suspect it would open some ears!

In 1982, Sun Ra thought he had a hit on his hands. He went to Columbia Records with a bizarre nearly eight minute recording called "Nuclear War", featuring a piano trio over playing some lilting jazz over which SUn Ra intoned lyrics rife with vulgarity ("nuclear war / it's a motherf***** / don't you know / if they push that button / your a** got to go") in a time, pointed out in the liner notes, before gangsta rap made it commercially acceptable to do so. Of course, Columbia rejected it and Ra went with an indie British label. That recording, alng with its b-side (the lovely "Sometimes I'm Happy") and several other recordings, make up this release.

What's probably most amazing is how commercially viable this is, seeped largely in swing tradition. Even "Nuclear War", vulgarity aside, is really a commercial sound. The other real standout on this collection is the Ellington cover "Drop Me Off in Harlem", featuring fantastic organ playing from Sun Ra and some great collective work from the orchestra.

All in all, one of the best of the Sun Ra releases I own (about two dozen) and well worth the investment. Highly recommended.

Nuclear War was originally a 12-inch single that Sun Ra thought was going to be a hit. But a track filled with foul language wasn't going to fly with mainstream America during the early 80's. Eventually the disc was pressed but only a few copies hit the streets. Years later, this single (along with a lot of rare Sun Ra music) was finally released with several other original tracks and a handful of covers.

The title track (Nuclear War) has to be the best song ever recorded about the subject matter. It's straight and to the point about the severity of a thermonuclear conflict. Duke Ellington's "Drop Me off in Harlem" and Charles Chaplin "Smile" are some of the other high lights from this disc. You'll be singing Nuclear War in no time. Just remember, whatcha gonna do without yo' a$$? Nuclear War's a mother
f.....! Don't you know?

Highly recommended, Sun Ra's the man!