Search & Destroy: Sun Ra

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

Just got Continuation, which I'd put up there with Strange Strings or Cosmic Tones for Mental Therapy -- utterly unclassifiable, and absurdly ahead of its time.

There's a period I'd still like to know the extents of from late 70s tol early 80s when they're doing liquid electric space jazz stuff. My introduction to the band was through Strange Celestial Road which my brother got as a review copy when he was at Birmingham University. Think that was the copy I wound up with though it may have been a different one prompted by my liking his copy.
Period includes Lanquididty, Sleeping Beauty, possibly Disco 3000 and a few others.
I love that stuff to bits.
Is Cosmos as good?

& to repeat a question I asked a while back, is there a critical discography of his work anywhere. Book form or website. Would love to know what was what at a glance.
I need to hear more by him & probably always will. He can be a tad addictive.

most authoritative written work about Ra is surely the Szwed book?

which includes a discography, although I don't think he has details on every single release (dunno if such a thing is even really possible, is there actually someone out there that's heard everything?)

cosmos is the best of that period imo

There was a nice pictorial spread of Sun Ra album covers in an issue of wax poetics years ago, I think. But not complete and not much critical review iirc.

I think when I first asked the question re critical discography I'd just looked up the era I'd really enjoyed and seen that he'd covered it all in about a page or two. Certainly far less in depth than I was looking for.
Subsequently wondered what else there had been written about the music the band had performed.

Search: The Antique Blacks
― Xochipilli, Friday, May 11, 2007 5:22 PM (6 years ago)

YES

definitely, been giving that and Sleeping Beauty a lot of play lately.

what else has that weird funky fusion thing you get on e.g. Antique Blacks or Lanquidity?

the beginning of atlantis

strange celestial roads, night of the purple moon

those are more in the vein of antique blacks, less so lanquidity. but ra has a soul jazz sort of vibe going in all three

On Jupiter

Xp Sleeping Beauty is incredible. I love how beloved Sun Ra is on this board.

Picked up The Paris Tapes on your recommendation, Treeship. That synth solo at the end is brilliant!

and just listened to Black Myth...is Eloe Omoe using some kind of a Varitone or something? Sounds like he's got some kind of octave-doubler dealie happening.

"Disco 3000" is pretty great

I enjoy it a lot, altho as must have been pointed out here before, there is nothing remotely disco about ti

if you like disco 3000 you should check out media dream - it's from the same italian tour

playing synth in a Sun Ra cover show later this month, stoked!

xp glad you like the paris tapes tarfumes! i still play that one in my car sometimes. a really memorable disc.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cfikmy7koTs&list=PL1R8_DCS7cN9zRPIWaGoVV21gTJxqfvPY&feature=player_detailpage#t=370

Sun Ra Arkestra: Angels And Demons At Play - San Francisco, 8/3/13

marshall lights into the wind synth @ 6:00

I can't believe I missed this show. I'm not likely to see them, ever.

I am apprehensive about trying to d/l all this

but there is a bunch of shit in there that I want and cannot otherwise get

fuuUUUUUCK.

I'm kind of surprised no one tried to do a "complete Saturn recordings" box, but hey, too late now.

also Steveolend to thread:

re: is there a critical discography of his work anywhere. Book form or website. Would love to know what was what at a glance.
apparently there's this. I haven't read it.

http://artistcamp.rebeat.com/store/sun-ra/afternoon-tunes/4053166846872/cover.jpg
http://i.imgur.com/zI1Ub0G.jpg
http://i.imgur.com/mmPJNBl.jpg
http://i.imgur.com/IY8Q4Ik.jpg

Uh-oh...lapsed-copyright releases?

re-reading bits of Space is the Place, I wonder has anyone here ever come across any of the Saturn Records 45rpm 7"s? How insanely rare/expensive are these?

Checking on popsike, looks like anywhere between $30 and $3000.

hadn't seen this before

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8SbvOPo4tHM

http://www.thewire.co.uk/news/30541/sun-ra-perfume-by-norton-records

huh I wonder how that book of poetry compares with the other one I already have

WKCR centennial celebration:

http://www.studentaffairs.columbia.edu/wkcr/story/sun-ra-centennial-festival-monday-may-19-sunday-may-25

Our festival will involve both show-specific programming throughout the week, as well as a 48-hour continuous broadcast on Thursday May 22nd and Friday May 23rd. To begin, the Monday May 19th, Tuesday May 20th, and Wednesday May 21st "Out to Lunches" (12-3pm) will consist of "Intro to Ra" programming, featuring some of Ra's most acclaimed recordings, as well as archived interviews with Ra himself. The Wednesday May 21st "Musician's Show" (6-9pm) will air a recent interview with long-time Arkestra trumpeter Chris Capers. The culminating event, the 48-hour broadcast on Thursday and Friday, will look at a range of Ra's work, including pivotal live sets, regional sessions, his solo work, key Arkestra members, and more. The centennial festival will conclude on Sunday, May 25th, with an in-depth look at some of Ra's earlier controversial, avant-garde work on the early morning "Jazz 'til Dawn" (1-6am) and a focus on notable Arkestra members with significant distinct careers on the afternoon "Jazz Profiles" (2-7pm).

Thanks so much for posting that, Tarfumes. Today's Out To Lunch started with the more mainstream-progressive, Ellington-influenced tracks from LPs like Jazz In Silhoutte (which incl maybe the earliest version of "Ancient Aethopia", which leads us to the brink, with breezes from afar), and then to more adventurous music from the same era (late 50s-early 60s). Thee stealthy cosmic brinkmanship becomes a recurring tactic in these selections; also a not-R&b/rock-yet-r&b/rockhead-luring approach (though no electric bass etc., not yet)keeps things from being too navel-gazing. Overall, the courteously challenging approach suggests Dr. Leary & associates' set-and-setting acid sessions; DJ is describing the intriguing artwork and other marketing aspects (LPs would appear at campus radio stations, with no prior or following press sheets etc.)

These bold-edged, small combo and maybe octet selections from The Nubians of Plutonia seem like good places to start, whatever your tastes: tautly, unmistakably Ra.

this is fantastic office listening, thanks for the heads up

Not that I like them all in the same way, or to the same degree, but the album seems meant to be more of a sampler. Now: "Circe," getting more exotica again, while leading off When Sun Comes Out.

"We travelll, the space-wayys, from plan-ett, to planet."

Finally! Into the Skronk!

This existed at the same time as Giant Steps and Ornette and Mingus...and yet somehow, is in another dimension entirely.

Cosmic Tones! Might be my favorite Ra record.

Dig the beginning:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BslNucq9jXo

Yep, finishing today's lunch with selections from Cosmic Tones For Mental Therapy, a pick-me-up (and veer me through the spheres, set me down walking briskly). And a couple from one I haven't heard, The Universe In Blue/. Clavinet shuffle, June Tyson singing: "I hope you understand/Pharoah was sittin' on his throne/When the black man ruled this land/I hope you understand/I hope you understand..." Now the clavinet lattice is swaying, drum is not swayed.

I don't think I've heard The Universe In Blue!

Rightat the end with a couple (first a slightly refracted starlight boogie) from Night of the Purple Moon.