Search & Destroy: Sun Ra

Earlier tonight I had shuffle on while I was doing stuff and I hear something I don't recognize that sounds like a high school jazz band jam session except with organ. It was Sun Ra. [ /sneer]

lol sike I'm still sneering

Lanquidity is an excellent choice. I'm also curious about this 20+ disc box of Detroit Ra. Never heard about that before, and it sounds like something I need to look into. Helsinki is something I had already made a mental note to check out, and I'm also curious about the other releases I'm coming across on the Transparency label. Any word on those, other than the Helsinki disc?

― ImprovSpirit, Monday, August 9, 2010 1:13 PM (5 months ago) Bookmark

The Detroit set is consistently -- shockingly, even -- amazing. I almost regretted buying it before I heard it, assuming each disc would contain five minutes of great ensemble playing and/or soloing and 70 minutes of percussion/chanting, but that's not really the case. Inevitably, pieces are repeated throughout the set, but there's as high a proportion of Good Shit on this set as on any other Sun Ra release.

The Slug's Saloon set should be avoided, unless you think the Arkestra is best recorded/represented by a single microphone on the bass drum. There's also a set that purports to have Milford Graves in the lineup, but he's inaudible. The Horseshoe Tavern set should have been pared down to a single CD, as much of it, disappointingly, has the Arkestra phoning it in. The first disc-and-a-half of the Sun Ra All-Stars 5CD set has pretty dodgy sound quality, but when it improves, look out. Richard Davis is the standout player on this set, putting forth some of the most incredible playing of his career.

idgi. i mean, he's obviously not to all tastes, but there's a sneering quality to to these posts that ILM usually reserves for "indie artists" and people who have the wrong opinions about rap.

oh I think you get it. it's definitely a purist/"I HATE HIPSTERS" pose thing.

This Delft show from '71 is pretty incredible (amazed this hasn't been issued). The recently issued Paris show also from '71 is great. The Sun Ra mixes from Dr Auratheft (nine of them so far) are also worth hearing. And if you're looking for recommendations, NuVoid's writeups on Sun Ra releases are really helpful (even if for him most everything is 'essential').

Hm, Paris Tapes link should have been: http://www.rushhour.nl/distribution_detailed.php?item=55747

after feeling underwhelmed by the spate of recent art yard reissues of ra live in egypt, i'm really looking forward to the new space probe set

Uh oh, what's that?

press release

"An unusual record, mostly recorded in the early ‘60s with Ra, Marshall Allen, John Gilmore, James Jacson, Nimrod Hunt and Thea Barbara that explores stripped back forms and colour combinations - very far from jazz - and includes the extraordinary Conversation Of J.P. for piano and percussion. This and the opening track - probably recorded in 1970 - an 18-minute Moog solo, made just after Ra had newly acquired the instrument and was putting it through its paces, would make this an essential release in the Sun Ra canon – even without the rest of this excellent CD."

ooh!

recently watched the Sun Ra doc "Brother From Another Planet" - lots of great quotes from John Sinclair and others, used a lot of footage from "Space is the Place" and some other clips I've seen before - there was some unusually funky music in it, which I couldn't quite pinpoint. I just got "Lanquidity" and I don't think it was from that one... maybe "Strange Celestial Roads"...? What other sorta funk oriented stuff is there in his catalog?

watched the doc at Xmas around at a friend's place after getting it off Demonoid last year. Took me way too long before i watched it cos it is excellent.
As for spacefunk I think disco 3000 is also good. Seems to be a lot of stuff from about '78 to '82 in that area but there's also relatively acoustic Fletcher Hendersonisms around then.
found out that period actually starts by at least '76 when Cosmos appeared from thios thread.
There's also Nuclear War from the early 80s which was on the same label as the Pop group's Y if I remember right. Would like to find a lot more like Strange Celestial road though. Must check through live stuff.
Some of The Detroit Jazz Centre Xmas week 80 is in the area too. But there is a LOT of that to wade through. Also up on Demonoid.

80s Sun Ra goodies

may have posted this in some other sun ra thread but: http://fromnowherehere.blogspot.com/

just picked up Concert for the Comet Kohoutek today on CD

i would guess that there is no poem by Sun Ra called Starship and MC5 pinched lines from various poems, then felt guilty/wanted a cool writing credit

― zappi, Wednesday, December 15, 2010 8:08 PM

? let me spell it out a little more clearly:

1) The MC5 have song called Starship. It is credited to "Sun Ra". It has no lyrics. Wikipedia says the song is based on a poem by Sun Ra. This is obviously contradictory information.
2) To my knowledge, Sun Ra has never released a song called Starship. He may in fact have a poem called Starship, but it is not in the book of Sun Ra poetry that I own and no poem entitled Starship is listed in the tracklisting of that Norton Records release.

― from the lowly milligeir to the mighty gigahongro (Shakey Mo Collier), Thursday, December 16, 2010 1:13 AM

Kinda surprised this never got properly answered. The poem in question is called "There" (...is a land/Whose being is almost unimaginable/To the human mind," etc.) and Rob Tyson recites it as a climactic finish to "Starship". It appeared in the liner notes of Heliocentric Worlds Vol. II; dunno why it wasn't in the poetry book.

Fireside Chat With Lucifer - SO GOOD

So there's this 5-hour long "Ultimate Collection" available for $5 on itunes. Where does it get its tracks from? Is it worth bothering with?

http://www.amazon.co.uk/The-Ultimate-Collection/dp/B004H9LFFE

randomly selected grab bag of early 90s evidence reissues

don't really have time to figure out what is what right now but the track lengths match the album sides with the same names. clearly they selected some albums and scrambled it up but i can't tell without making a spreadsheet or something if they used a few full albums or many albums and only a few from each or what.

shit link is here : http://www.discogs.com/label/Evidence+Music%2C+Inc.

FFS

http://www.discogs.com/label/Evidence%20Music,%20Inc.

thanks

http://www.discogs.com/label/Evidence%20Music,%20Inc.

well i see the problem. add the period to the link.

This Rocket Ship Rock comp on Norton - featuring all the Yochanan / Muck Muck stuff with rarities - is the pits.

Don't think I'll ever fully 'get' Sun Ra, but I keep trying. This album, though. Woof.

never heard of it...?

hmmm hardly sounds like a representative sampling, after a little googling. seems more like a rarity/novelty in his catalog

Yeah, it is. It's goofy late 50s stuff. But it's pretty awful all the same.

JFC why does anyone like Atlantis? It sounds like a single-mic tape recording of my old roommates fucking around after a party.

it sounds *way* better than your old roommates.

anyone got any opinions on this one
http://www.soundstagedirect.com/media/soul_vibrations_of_man_sun_ra%20copy.jpg

never having seen it or heard about it until now, first impression is that it might be the best thing ever?

or just more random "lost" tapes w/ amazing ca 2011 cover art and title

what is it?

here's a little info

Dusty Groove addendum to be taken with a grain of salt, I assume

looks like it's from 1977...?

just got it - listened to side 1 last night. really great sound quality, surprisingly mellow! very pretty dual flute melodies + ensemble vocal chants

Destroy everything. For real. Completely done with this stuff and much happier for it.

good luck

Recordings of the Arkestra, playing a Sun Ra favorites set at the Incubate festival http://soundcloud.com/incubate/sun-ra-arkestra-live-at-zxzw

I've owned Heliocentric Worlds since I was a teenager, but I always found it a bit eerie. Then again I know nothign about jazz.. If it's not too gauche to ask - what am I listening to / for exactly? What makes this special? Is his other work like this? I need context, otherwise it's a lot of drumbling and plarping.

Which volume?

oh crap. Volume 1? I'm assuming so anyway - oppressive red and yellow cover with a big dome shaped head staring at you.

wiki says volume 1.

LOL. It's not my favourite Ra album either tbh. Quick skim through of this thread should give you an idea of his wide range. However he was doing a lot of "eerie drumbling and plarping" from 1964-1967

'what am I listening to / for exactly?'

Listen for any bits that grab you; if nothing interests you, don't listen to it. xp

Same as most music...

Resemblance, unintended I'm sure, to (opening?) music from "Citizen Kane" is one of the more amusing things about this album

My advice would be, don't listen to it/try to hear it as "jazz." It's not necessarily because it's not "jazz" (that's a whole other discussion), but because waiting for identifying characteristics of a genre might put constraints on your listening experience. A teacher of mine used to advise those of us unfamiliar with certain musics to just have it on in the background while doing other things in order to acclimate yourself with it.

Lanquidity has been one of my all time favorites for quite a while. It was the first record I dropped on the turntable after picking up a new stylus. Some of the solo piano stuff I've heard is just unreal, as well. I am also a big fan of the short film A Joyful Noise.

Although ambient music is music as background I never ever listen to music in that way. I'd say take your time, one or two tracks, but if you get bored with it don't force it.

Same w/ragas, do it for 10 mins or so if you must, but its part of the challenge to immerse yourself. xp

kinda with xyzzzz about not forcing it - if you don't hear anything that interests you then well, yeah whatever. it shouldn't be WORK, you know?

otoh, with regard to dl's specific questions:

What makes this special?

I can't remember the specifics of vol 1 at the moment and don't have it here at work, unfortunately. I will say that when it comes to his composed melodies (horn charts, piano pieces, etc) I am always struck by the bizarre way they're constructged - the melodies don't resolve how you would expect, the harmonies are very odd. he'll have these catchy repeated phrases but then have these strange, clashing chords underneath for example. he really doesn't sound like anyone else, which I think is special.

Is his other work like this?

I wouldn't say any single album encapsulates his broad range of approaches. Maybe the Impulse! version of Space is the Place, but even there not really. He has solo piano stuff, small-combo post-bop, total chaos free jazz blowing, synth workouts, space disco, Disney covers, tribal drumming, spoken word/poetry/call-and-response vocal pieces, pseudo-exotica... the list is pretty long.

The style of Heliocentric Worlds was partly motivated by Ra's wanting to satisfy ESP label owner's taste for modern classical music. It's got more of a modern chamber music feel than much of his work. I hear Other Planes of There as covering very similar material, but in a looser more distinctively Ra-like fashion. I'm not sure what to say about how to listen to it, aside from keeping that in mind. It's not one of my favorite Ra albums. Maybe try comparing it to Other Planes of There.

(Can't remember where I read that, but presumably in the bio Space is the Place.)

OTM, much prefer Other Planes of There