Search & Destroy: Sun Ra

I was just about to delve back into that box (it's a heavy commitment that requires advance planning/schedule-clearing).

Disc 9 ... lotsa percussion freakouts, still great so far, only fatigue I have is from the recording quality which right now is just a little harsh

late great - I've never heard Black Mass, what's so unusual about it...? Is that the one with him at the pipe organ?

what's unusual is that it's actually a live recording of a play by amiri baraka with sun ra and band doing accompaniment in the background!

the effect is not so different from when sun ra and june tyson are declaiming back and forth but it's been much harder for me to interpret what's going on, i think the action on stage is probably crucial to understanding. on top of that i think the characters are supposed to be symbolic rather than literal (like i think one character is like the spirit of black consciousness or something) and the conversations are much harder to follow than the things sun ra is saying, possibly because of sound quality.

there are some awesome parts though. there is one back and forth between two or three characters where they're arguing iirc about whether black people can think non-black thoughts even though they have black brains, could just as easily be about whether people can think thoughts that transcend people brains.

BTW

if anybody likes the drone-ier / freakier / stereophonic workshop side of sun ra's solo explorations i would highly highly highly recommend checking out the new don preston reissue, "filters, oscillators and envelopes". i keep hearing it compared to dockstader or stockhausen but honestly to me it sounds a lot like when sun ra is jamming on his moog except he somehow captures the interplay of a really tight free jazz group

it's definitely one of the best experimental electronic / drone reissues or albums i've ever heard

That Preston records sounds cool. Your description of it reminds me of the recent Joe McPhee reissue (or rather, issue of old, previously-unreleased stuff) Sound on Sound. Lots of overdubbing, echoplex fun, and distinctly Ra-esque "space organ."

it's probably more difficult than that though, it's not so much like the space organ of things like night of the purple moon but more the full bore freakout of things like the early 70s black forest or paris concerts

ah right the amiri baraka one, yeah I've never heard that. never heard Astro Black either.

will give that preston CD another try. didn't slay me, though I'm glad to have heard it & there is definitely something very 'first' and free of any influence about it. I agree with you it's closer in spirit to 1970-1973 era Sun Ra Moog attacks than meticulously layered things like Dockstader, and the liner notes are top notch and capture an era that is never coming back

late great - I've never heard Black Mass, what's so unusual about it...? Is that the one with him at the pipe organ?

It's the one with the terrible acting. From memory, "Astro Black" is not very good, "Antique Blacks" is tho!

loving Night of the Purple Moon at the moment. what other stuff in his catalog is like this - small combo w/Ra on electronic/electric keys?

Disco 3000 I guess

holiday for soul dance iirc

parts of cosmic tones for mental therapy

"night of the purple moon" is kinda unparalleled though in the swingin lounge music category of sun ra albums

listening to youtubes of Antique Blacks - this is pretty wild! definitely veering into Miles Davis electric period territory

if you like antique blacks you should also check out the nidhamu & dark myth equation visitation reissue on art yard, both r dope

there's no such thing as too much ra imo

loving Night of the Purple Moon at the moment. what other stuff in his catalog is like this - small combo w/Ra on electronic/electric keys?

The first half of My Brother the Wind volume II is exactly like that. And Some Blues (But Not the Kind that's Blue) is small-combo-ish, but Ra's playing acoustic piano.

I can EXCLUSIVELY report that our own scott seward is listening to Sun Ra for the first time ever today! Earlier The Magic City, now We Travel the Space Ways.

Dude has quite the impressive Ra array in his store; he's never cracked one open before?

haha! actually i bought that album that came out in like 1988? the normal one. well, kinda normal big band stuff. and i think i heard one side of astro black. i think i actually might even own astro black. and i used to have that 2-disc singles comp of old stuff. a lot of that stuff wasn't actually sun ra though. stuff they put out on their label.

listening to Monorails and Satellites now. solo piano. don't know how i feel about it yet...

i'm definitely keeping The Magic City though. that's a record i know i will want to hear again.

Just before Demonoid went down there was somebody on there reworking the Detroit Jazz Cafe discs because apparently they had been mistransferred and gave a double image or something. I think he would have gradually worked his way through a lot of that material but the medium went down and I now don't know if he was continuing.

I love the band from around that era, seems to be amongst the more psychedelic stuff. Especially when he's electric and funky. IO think he covers some other styles in that set cos there's so much of it.

I just came across the repeat of the These advert for the box set further up the thread. If that set was selling for £45 I'm kicking myself for missing it.

http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/511e00fsqJL._SS500_.jpg

This comp looks like a bit of a bargain, £8.99 on Amazon:

- Jazz by Sun Ra
- Jazz in Silhouette
- The Futuristic Sounds of Sun Ra
- another one I can't identify

Any thoughts? I'm relatively new to Sun Ra but have been enjoying the Singles comp loads. This set seems to concentrate on his early early output.

that one is "super-sonic jazz"

it is some of his more "pedestrian" stuff by which i mean there are no freakouts, special effects, weird instruments, overdubs, etc. it is mostly late 50s jazz played w/ a slightly skewed perspective, kind of like if you got four or five thelonious monks in a room together and let them jam in a room.

that said ... BUY IT

BTW i've never heard "jazz by sun ra"

instead of pedestrian i might as well have said "accessible", there is no more than a touch of avant-garde on this stuff

but i LOVE the three albums i've heard, especially super-sonic jazz, and i listen to them a lot

in fact, "futuristic sounds" was the first sun ra i ever bought, and i definitely didn't "get it" ... i was like huh? this isn't avant-garde freakout space jazz at all?!?!

I just looked at the John Szwed Space Is The place a couple of days ago for the first time in ages. I was looking for what he says on the late 70s/early 80s era and he barely touches on it. Seems to go over the whole era in a few pages.
Subsequently I'm wondering if there is anything that does go into things a bit more deeply. A critical discography or something, even if not a more in depth bio.
What other books are there on Ra?

i don't trust old records on cd that have been "enhanced".

oh and by the way, Atlantis! wow, what a record!

atlantis is pretty decent but the artwork is next-level! is that mighty cthulhu?!?

http://static.rateyourmusic.com/album_images/s346712.jpg

that said ... BUY IT

― the late great

thanks - will get on board. probably a fairly safe introduction to Sun Ra... which the Singles collection is not. it's all over the place (in a good way!!).

it's not really going to help you understand why people think sun ra is special but it's a great set of transitional bop/cool into post-bop/modal jazz and very accessible AND it's an awesome price, i paid at least 10 bucks for each of those

!

http://fromnowherehere.blogspot.com/2013/03/esp-sun-ra-radio-tribute-14-hrs-in-6.html

Well now. Guess I know what I'll be doing this weekend.

Thanks for posting that!

I started listening to this today and it's been excellent so far. Thanks!

he's the subject of toady's jazz profiles on wkcr. heard the Sound of Joy album which was great. i didn't realize he started playing electric piano in 1956.

Who knows which album has the weird jaunty acoustic version of "Outer Spaceways Incorporated" on it?

which jaunty acoustic version?

idk. but if you haven't heard the paris tapes 1971, you should check it out. the untitled synthesizer solo that closes it is so amazing. it really does sound like it is following an extraterrestrial musical logic that we are only on the cusp of comprehending. in general, his keyboard playing on that is top notch... how it kind of intervenes in the midst of the performance and does its own thing, that is less recognizable as "jazz" or "music" than what the other players are doing.

It's a version of the "Outer spaceways" from "space is the place" but with only acoustic guitar and maybe some keyboards, clavi/moog type things that sound like guitars, and sombre sounding vocals.

I cant remember which album, but it's a studio one, and the rest of it isn't related to "space is the place".

I meant 'wonky', not 'jaunty'.

There is a very mellow and stripped down version on Solar Myth Approach disc 2 with the only instrumentation some distant bassoon-ish sounds and Ra's funky rocksichord electric piano.

That's the one thanks. allmusic says it's only 1:21, doesn't sound right/fair. Any recommendations for more similar melancholy/sombre ra tracks?

Sleeping Beauty from the album of the same name is a 12:00 minute long space lullaby! And some of his very best stuff, IMO. It is from the late 70s. It features the whole Arkestra and the whole album is very lush, down tempo and sleepy sounding. Very aptly named and with very good/clean high fidelity sound quality. Still pretty "out" at times but in a nice calm way that doesn't disturb the overall mood. Sunny plays Fender Rhodes on this album and the singers do a lot of humming and whisper-singing.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IpYa_HW_GxI

That's just what I needed, thanks for sharing.

Anymore?

yeah that's a great album
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VBNTfXfJhhs

Sleeping Beauty is awesome, thanks. I'm also loving the On Jupiter album.

Agreed, On Jupiter is tons of fun! Ditto Strange Celestial Roads and Languidity from the same era and which have the same funky/groovy aesthetic.

yeah this was a great period for Ra, maybe my favorite