Sun Ra in Chronological Order: An Arkestra Listening Thread + Related Solar Sounds

i _loved_ the singles comp when it came out in '96

it had all the weird oddball stuff in one place

which you can't get nowadays. there's so much more oddball stuff and it's impossible to keep track of. which cds have "spaceship lullaby"? which cd has "baby won't you please be mine"? which versions of "i'm gonna unmask the batman" are on which cds? who the hell knows.

according to the article that keeps showing up in the thread he had two phases of doo-wop, the first from '54-'55 and the second from '59-'60

but the doo-wop was clearly the predecessor of the space chants, which were part and parcel of his work throughout his career, even if you don't get those sweet harmonies on "i'm gonna unmask the batman" (is "i'm gonna unmask the batman" the best sun ra song? yes.)

when was "the space stroll" by don "dino" dean recorded? why was it recorded? who is don "dino" dean? what is "tony's wife" and why is it? why did the qualities suck so bad?

so many questions.

spending some more time with the Singles tracks that got added to that playlist (thanks Karl!), I have the 2CD on Evidence and the liner notes are great, like most/all of their CDs? but man this "Calling All Demons"/"Demon's Lullaby" single is blowing me away, it's not on the original Evidence one but it is on the newer Strut triple CD.

some observations on looking through Discogs - damn Transparency has been cranking out the releases!

also: these kinds of "hybrid" releases must have driven collectors crazy in the pre-Discogs era

https://www.discogs.com/The-Sun-Ra-Arkestra-Primitone/release/4896811

Occurred to me that with the size of the Ra ouevre getting thing doing chronologically will take forever to reach certain points I find most significant to me.
Not read thread through but did think doing something like this with separate threads per decade might be more conducive to getting to the bits I'm most interested in. Or is the 60s, 70s and early 80s stuff too heavily covered elsewhere anyway.

I was listening to the Singles set yesterday and did enjoy the first disc but its the electric stuff that really connects with me.

I've never listened to the singles collection before and it's on [streaming site]. Will check it out later, totally into Futuristic Sounds of .. today. It's just so perfect and swings so hard.

yeah, i have been listening to loads of futuristic sounds as well, it's so good.

i wish there were more images/videos of the chicago years! i'm looking forward to the part of this thread when people will start posting live footage and other visual treats, but there's just not much of it for the early years.

Scott, that Joe Williams side has just made my night. Lovely, thanks.

so many questions.

― bob lefse (rushomancy), Friday, January 5, 2018 6:56 PM (three days ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

so true.

also, v happy to see enthusiasm itt. as for different ideas about what pace to take, what to focus on etc. -- all i can say is i'm just going to stick to the plan i sketch'd above (a post every few days per calendar year) and see how it goes. i have no problem with people skipping ahead, here or on other threads, but it seems to me like the primary appeal of this thread is precisely that it's as exhaustive and meticulous as possible. for me (and hopefully others) that's challenging but also a nice opportunity to sit with some stuff that might not immediately grab you, maybe dig around and see what was happening in jazz and elsewhere that year, etc. we're all capable of using the internet to zap ourselves to the sounds / eras that are most appealing (i've been doing this for years). so this thread is a different approach, hopefully that's cool. and hopefully ppl who are bored by or indifferent to certain periods will swing back in when certain recordings come up for discussion.

anyway, "supersonic jazz" and "jazz by sun ra" coming tonight, along with a ton of other delightful material from 1956.

i have to admit there's a special thrill in listening to this song - when sun ra first moved here he lived in washington park, which is on the other side of the park i live next to here in chicago. i take my dog out to washington park just about every day! next time i take the green line downtown, i know which song to cue up.

― Karl Malone, Friday, January 5, 2018 1:44 AM (three days ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

also KM, i love this. i lived in hyde park for several years but didn't put this together until your post.

I'm good with your pacing. Is any of that "Cry Of Jazz" (?) movie footage on Youtube?

Kinda blown away by how many more singles were uncovered between the 1996 Evidence 2CD and the recent Strut 3CD

cry of jazz is all on youtube! i watched it the other night.

Kinda blown away by how many more singles were uncovered between the 1996 Evidence 2CD and the recent Strut 3CD

― sleeve, Monday, January 8, 2018 8:22 PM (twelve minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

right !!!! truly dizzying

1956

http://campber.people.clemson.edu/john1958a.jpg
J O H N G I L M O R E

(all quotes from the campbell article unless otherwise noted)

1. two rehearsal takes + four sides as pianist w/ walter dunn and the metros (a doo wop group), rec. in january and eventually released as two 45s in 1968 on the repeto label (a saturn subsidiary)

https://img.discogs.com/tL5n0kGNuNS456fq-P77m-n1PFQ=/fit-in/600x595/filters:strip_icc():format(jpeg):mode_rgb():quality(90)/discogs-images/R-9144318-1475760630-4059.png.jpg
https://img.discogs.com/dHB83hEodVbJT9CO4Ea42wXL3e8=/fit-in/600x597/filters:strip_icc():format(jpeg):mode_rgb():quality(90)/discogs-images/R-9156745-1475777865-1730.png.jpg

(mostly available on the 14xCD transparency comp)

2. "soft talk" b/w "super blonde" -- two late march recordings that became the very first saturn release (a 45 with the inexplicable catalogue # Z1111), prob. released in 1956.

https://img.discogs.com/CGJnx1IcDTPYPvq9Lhhz7DZxpzk=/fit-in/600x594/filters:strip_icc():format(jpeg):mode_rgb():quality(90)/discogs-images/R-7322694-1475767866-8654.png.jpg

both recordings (the A side a j. priester composition, the b side a ra comp.) are also to be found on "super-sonic jazz" >>>

3. "supersonic jazz" (lp, saturn) rec. march / november

https://cps-static.rovicorp.com/3/JPG_500/MI0001/454/MI0001454646.jpg?partner=allrovi.com
listen on youtube
listen on bandcamp

Both sides of Saturn Z1111 reappeared in March 1957 on the first Saturn LP, Super-Sonic Jazz. The serial number of this LP was originally H7OP0216 (thanks to Alden Kimbrough for this information; the matrix numbers for the two sides were H7OP-0216 and H7OP-0217). The first pressing of this LP carried a jacket with an illustration by Claude Dangerfield of a keyboard with flames and lightning bolts and hands playing a conga drum—all printed in red on white. (On extant copies, the white covers have yellowed with age.) A later variant of the cover displayed the same art in black on pink-purple.

"Super Blonde" was used on the soundtrack of The Cry of Jazz, a short film that would not be completed until the summer of 1958. At 20:42 into the film, "Super Blonde" starts with the piano intro by Sun Ra. Visually, most of this segment presents an octet at Budland in 1956 with a four-man front line with John Gilmore, tenor sax, Art Hoyle, trumpet, Julian Priester, trombone, and Pat Patrick, baritone sax. Both drums and tympani are visible, as is a string bass player. As heard in the film, the number includes a brief trumpet solo by Art Hoyle, followed by the dissonant central ensemble, and a Pat Patrick baritone sax solo that cuts off abruptly at 21:50.

4. "we travel the spaceways" LP (saturn, 1967 -- "new horizons" rec. april, 1956)

http://campber.people.clemson.edu/saturn409afrontct.jpg
listen to 'new horizons' on youtube
listen to the full album on bandcamp

We Travel The Spaceways (sometimes spelled "Space Ways") ranks as an essential Sun Ra collection. It's brief (less than 25 minutes), and though it was recorded in three separate, unrelated sessions over a five-year-span (making it a compilation rather than an album), it's chock full of "hits"—or what would be chart-toppers in the perfect Sun Ra universe. Alternate versions of all seven tracks appeared on other Ra albums; a number of these titles became perennial club and concert favorites; and Spaceways contained two of Sun Ra's beloved Arkestra "chants"—"Interplanetary Music" and the title track. The recordings were made in Chicago from 1956-1961, but the album was not released on Ra's Saturn label until 1966 , long after Sunny and his band had relocated to New York and zoomed light years beyond the forms etched in the grooves of that platter.

In retrospect, every period in Sun Ra's career seems transitional, but 1959-1961 especially so. It was during these years that he began to musically stray from his Chicago haunts and navigate through the weightless cosmos. In the mid- and late-1950s Sunny had begun to incorporate Egyptian and Ethiopian themes into a music that already drew on American and European traditions. Like many musical pilgrims, he was creating hybrids that would decades later be trivialized with the pretentious (and Eurocentric) marketing term "World Music." By 1959, Sun Ra was creating Other-World Music. Four titles on Spaceways—and arguably a fifth, "New Horizons"—are not of this Earth.

(sun ra bandcamp page)

5. "adventure in space" (issued as a 45 in 1968 as saturn 478) rec. april

http://campber.people.clemson.edu/saturn874bct.jpg

This piece was issued around 1968 on Saturn 874, a 45 rpm single; Ihnfinity (which was incorporated in 1967) is credited on the label, and the title was misspelled “Adventur.” The abrupt editing suggests a Sun Ra solo excerpted from a longer performance; sonics are a little rugged for a studio recording. Lucious Randolph has confirmed that Ra sometimes played like this in Chicago and believes the tympanist is Jim Herndon. The drummer sounds like Robert Barry in his work with Herndon. Alton Abraham confirmed Herndon's presence. The side was reissued in September 1996 on Evidence 22164, a 2-CD set titled The Singles.

6. sessions w/ james scales (as) and wilbur green (b)

These three tracks were first released in 2011 on Transparency 0316, The Eternal Myth Revealed Vol. 1, a 14-CD set compiled by Michael Anderson. "Somebody Else's World" has the familiar motif, accompanied on the electric piano, but changes to straight 4/4 with piano accompaniment for Scales' alto sax solo. The identities of the participants are obvious. Anderson describes these as items from a rehearsal and gives the date as April 23, 1956. Sound quality is unusually good, raising the question whether they are in fact from another outing at Balkan Studio. A Union contract in the Alton Abraham collection was filled out by Sun Ra and dated May 16, 1956 (almost certainly an instance of postdating; below, we'll see that the Elks Hall contract was postdated from June 10 to August 30, 1960); it identifies the session as 4 tunes, 3 hours and gives Ra, Scales, and Green as the personnel.

7. sessions with billie hawkins, one of which features an AMAZING wurlitzer solo by SR (linked below) !! two sides were released; four rehearsals are available on the transparency 14xCD comp.

http://campber.people.clemson.edu/heartbeath4rc.jpg
listen on youtube

Now Sunny landed a gig with another brand-new Chicago-based independent—the Heartbeat label, run by record store owner Seymour Schwartz. Schwartz wanted to record a singer named Billie Hawkins doing two of his own compositions, and hired the Arkestra to accompany. As it happened, Schwartz also booked the RCA Studio for his session. We had previously dated this session to January 1956, but given what we now know about Saturn and recording studios, we have put the first Arkestral session at RCA Victor in mid-May. The matrix numbers on the Heartbeat single are just a little earlier in the same series. And Schwartz may, in fact, have introduced Ra and Abraham to RCA Victor, a company with which they would have a fairly steady relationship through 1961.

8. "medicine for a nightmare" 45 single + B side of "angels and demons at play" LP (may)

https://img.discogs.com/Hi6WN1woXZo46oTdT6Z6mTHs4h0=/fit-in/600x600/filters:strip_icc():format(jpeg):mode_rgb():quality(90)/discogs-images/R-8906621-1471206141-6383.jpeg.jpg
http://campber.people.clemson.edu/saturn409frontct.jpg
listen to 'medicine for a nightmare' on youtube
listen to full album on bandcamp

Saturn Z222 ("Medicine for a Nightmare" b/w "Urnack") was a 45 rpm single with black print on gold and the Saturn logo in block letters across the top (information courtesy of Glenn Jones). From a RCA Victor custom pressing invoice in the Alton Abraham papers, we can see that 500 pressings were ordered on June 5, 1956. The first shipment arrived on June 11. Saturn ordered another 175 copies on June 14 and another 287 on June 20. “Arkistra” was Sunny's original respelling of “Orchestra.” Sun Ra maintained that there was an “equation of sound-similarity” between “kest” and “kist” but by some point after January 1957 he had settled on “Arkestra.”

Four tracks from this session reappeared in 1965 on side B of Saturn SR 9956-2-O/P, Angels and Demons at Play. (“Call for All Demons” was titled “A Call for All Demons” on this and subsequent releases.) In 1967 the LP was given the catalog number 407. The album is distinctive among early Saturns in its complete lack of liner notes—there was no room for any, because the same design was used front and back. The cover design is one of three originally done as cutouts in black on a white background. While the Angels and Demons cutout was actually used (in a striking black on gold rendition), the other two, initially intended for the early New York albums When Sun Comes Out and When Angels Speak of Love, were displayed in the 1966 Saturn catalogue but replaced with different covers when the LPs were released. (See Pathways to Unknown Worlds, pp. 63, 64, and 66.) The artist is not identified; John Corbett has suggested that it was Sun Ra himself.

9. "swing a little taste" for the "jazz in transition" compilation LP

listen on youtube

“Swing a Little Taste” (a Julian Priester composition) initially appeared later in 1957 on an LP sampler (including tracks by Donald Byrd, Jay Migliori and others) titled Jazz in Transition. This was reissued in the late 70s in Japan as Transition GXF3126. “Swing a Little Taste” was also included as a bonus track on Delmark DD-411 (though there it is incorrectly credited to Sun Ra). “Street Named Hell” take 2 was also reissued on Smithsonian RD108, Big Band Renaissance, as part of a 5-CD various-artists collection.

10. "jazz by sun ra" (transition, rec. july)

listen on youtube
listen on bandcamp

(released in 1957)

11. "sound of joy" / "visits planet earth" sessions for transition

listen to 'saturn' on youtube
listen to full album on bandcamp

listen on youtube
listen on bandcamp

This session was recorded for Transition (before Sunny's first album for the label was released) and was intended for Jazz by Sun Ra Volume 2. The LP featured Sunny's working band with the addition of Dave Young on second trumpet and Johnny Avant on trombone (the latter on two tracks only). But the company folded before these plans could be carried out. Items from this session appeared on three different LPs, two on Saturn and one on Delmark, from which various reissues have sprung in turn.

First, five tracks (not four, as we previously thought) appeared in 1966 on Saturn 9956-11-A/B, Sun Ra Visits Planet Earth. "Two Tones," "Reflections in Blue," "Saturn," and "El Viktor" were all placed on the B side of the Saturn LP. However, "Eve," which appeared on the A side, turns out to also be from this session (and not released elsewhere!). The cover art, by Claude Dangerfield, was a variant of the work he had prepared for A Tonal View of Times Tomorrow, an LP that never got past the early planning stages. In 1967 Visits Planet Earth was given the catalog number 207. All tracks from this album were reissued in 1992 on Evidence 22039 (CD).

Second, all but three tracks from the session were released in 1968 on Delmark DS-414, Sound of Joy (in electronic stereo). According to Bob Koester, as interviewed by Allan Chase, the two cuts featuring vocalist Clyde Williams were in Delmark's possession but were held from release in 1968 because they seemed stylistically incongruous with the rest of the session. (Clyde Williams sang with Sun Ra from late 1956 through the middle of 1958.) The Delmark album was pirated as the first LP of the 2-LP set Monkey MY 40014 (Monkey being a French label with seriously dubious credentials). In addition, there was a single-LP French bootleg in the BYG Jazz Masters Série, BYG 529.162 (issued c. 1970—thanks to Marco Melaragni for pointing this one out).

A R K E S T R A C I R C A 1 9 5 6

hmm not sure what happened to my images. oh well.

the brief tympani solo on "call for all demons" (c. 3m) is consistently amazing to me.

as is the keyboard solo on the billie hawkins track which deserves to be embedded here (despite an odd picture choice by the youtube uploader):
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XLnME7q8YAw

"jazz in transition" comp:

https://img.discogs.com/TrQszURG6djgGzy-q3giCcKaxys=/fit-in/600x600/filters:strip_icc():format(jpeg):mode_rgb():quality(90)/discogs-images/R-4729661-1511752480-9730.jpeg.jpg

the arkesta circa 1956:

http://campber.people.clemson.edu/1956bandd.jpg

arkestra*

p.s. i promise to learn how to shrink photo sizes before my next post.

p.p.s. thanks KM for pointing out that "cry of jazz" is available on youtube. watching now!

spotify is updated (and rearranged a bit to matchup with this rollout) as much as possible, including the jazz in transition track, two songs with billie hawkins. i only included a single song ("New Horizons) off of the We Travel the Spaceways comp, because that was the only track recorded in 1956 and the others were recorded 1959-61.

interesting / sort of annoying sonic tidbit from "Call for All Demons" - at least on headphones, you can clearly hear a prominent squeak (on what I strongly suspect to be either the bass drum pedal or hi-hat pedal), especially during the drum solo starting 2:15

ha! i kind of like that sound.

also the woodblock against the really sharp, angular piano (which sounds like it's clipping almost) in the early moments of the song is amazing.

or it's probably a clave i guess

yep, clave!

so, total noob here, but should I be paying attention to key members of the Arkestra at this point, or was the membership pretty dynamic?

ha, i'm noticing the squeaky pedal in other 1956 songs too (like the "new horizons" song off of the "we travel the spaceways" comp)! that's awesome

re: interlude, 1948-1954

Boy, that Solovox is an interesting instrument. Got me looking at eBay auctions.

Sun Ra reminiscing about Stuff Smith is great. Smith was a bit of an innovator - apparently one of the, if not the first violinist to use electronic amplification for his instrument. It doesn't seem like he recorded again with Sun Ra though.

To expand a little on what was mentioned before, Billy Bang and Sun Ra played several of Stuff's compositions and favourite tunes on some Italian dates in September 1992 and released the following tribute album.

This is the last known recording of Sun Ra. Short after, his health went worse and had to retire from music scene, leaving the planet some months later.

Little bit poetic, going out similar to the way you came in isn't it?

re:1955

2. sun ra w/ wilbur bare, "can this be love?" (released on the LP "deep purple" in 1973)

The double bassist Wilbur Ware was introduced to Sun Ra through Stuff Smith (with whom he debuted with in the late 1940s) and he would go on to work sporadically with Sun Ra into the 1970s.

"(a 45 with the inexplicable catalogue # Z1111)"

it's probably explicable, but only if you ran in chicago black occult circles in the 1950s. :)

both Sunologys (parts 1 and 2) on Supers-Sonic Jazz are entrancing. It took me a long time to notice, but I love the subtle percussion elements during the slow main theme that gets introduced during the first minute or so of both parts - not so much the drums, but the quiet tambourine pulse punctuated by a tap of the triangle. now i hear it and enjoy it every time. his band of this period has a knack for paying attention to detail while still sounding loose.

re: 1956
3. "supersonic jazz" (lp, saturn) rec. march / november

April 13, 1956, Chicago. Sun Ra and his friend and manager Alton Abraham arrive at Balkan Music Co., a small record and musical supply wholesaler at 1425 W. 18th Street, in the neighborhood now known as Pilsen. Helping the other seven musicians unload, they file into the storefront, which doubles as a recording studio, to record the first full-length session for their new label, El Saturn Records.

The band is in top form, coming off a lengthy engagement at Budland, the basement venue at the Pershing Hotel. Originally called Birdland, the club was threatened with lawsuit by the owners of New York's Birdland, an eventuality that Sun Ra helped avoid by renaming it with a word that's spelled differently, but pronounced almost the same. Ra was a logophile — words were another form of music, which was the ultimate artform — and he loved homonyms just about as much as he loved tangy, dissonant harmonies, aggregations of low horns, and parallel unison. Homonymity is why he called his group the Arkestra — on one hand, he slipped in a Biblical reference to the Ark, but on the other hand, Ra always explained that where he came from, in Alabama, that's how you said the word "Orchestra."

It's midnight and the session is in full swing. One take and the band nails "India," the loping, percussion-thick, quasi-Egyptian number with electronic piano and penetrating Art Hoyle trumpet. Things are off to a very good start. Two takes of "Sunology," vehicle for Pat Patrick's meaty baritone and James Scales' tart alto, are so solid that they'll both end up released, but on the longer second version the tape breaks. The band waxes a couple of numbers with singer Clyde Williams ("Dreams," "As You Once Were," which remain unissued until Delmark adds them to the CD reissue of the first Transition Sun Ra LP), then again hits a bullseye with "Big Charles," a tune re-titled "Kingdom of Not." A full take of "Eve" doesn't work, but the dark, stormy piano, bass, percussion part is a killer, and an edit of the first minute-and-a-half cuts out the full band section and turns it into "Portrait Of The Living Sky." They're into the second long tape reel when Ra calls a blues, with John Gilmore's smoldering post-Rollins tenor; it's after 2am, but they call it "Blues At Midnight." And for good measure, the recording closes with a tremendous single take of the Arkestra classic "El Is A Sound Of Joy." Three in the morning, the band packs up for the night, everyone gets a check (union scale, $41.25/hr., with Ra getting a royal $165 leader's fee), and a little bit of history is made.

The second track Sunology is where this album grabs my attention properly. The two sax solos and the way it just melts into just Ra tinkering and the wonderfully recorded bass.

I would name the individual players but the personnel, on a track by track basis, is a nightmare and seems to differ at every source I look at.

1948

Sonny Blount's apartment, Chicago, July 29, 1948

Darn That Dream (Composed by Jimmy Van Heusen and Eddie DeLange)
Herman “Sonny” Blount (piano, Solovox)

Youtube Link

Uploaded this piece. I have the 14 disc Eternal Myth 1 set so if you're after anything in particular give me a shout and I'll upload. I'll have a listen through and upload highlights over the next while.

1948

Sonny Blount's apartment, Chicago, August 10, 1948

If They Only Knew (written by Herman “Sonny” Blount)

Herman “Sonny” Blount (recitation, piano, Solovox).

Youtube Link

Interesting poem by Sonny.

these are fantastic additions, thanks fionnland! "Darn That Dream", in particular, is very lovely

wow, amazing. thanks fionnland!

1949

Sonny Blount's apartment, Chicago, July 21, 1949

"I've Got Some New Blues" (Herman “Sonny” Blount)

"Smile" (Charlie Chaplin)

"Old Man River" (Jerome Kern, ‎Oscar Hammerstein II)

Herman “Sonny” Blount (vocals, piano)

Youtube Link

"Smile" is particularly nice after accustoming to his voice. Funnily enough I was just reading Groucho Marx's letters re: Chaplin. Love it when it all comes together!

I love the delivery on "Old Man River".

Gotsta love Sonny any day of the week.

Singles has surprises around every corner; especially the doo wop material.

I keep coming back to Sound of Joy from 1956 as my fave from front to back.

(form Wikipedia)
All tracks were written by Sun Ra, except "Two Tones," by Pat Patrick and Charles Davis.
Side A:

"El is a Sound of Joy" - (4.04)
"Overtones of China" - (3.25)
"Two Tones" - (3.41)
"Paradise" - (4.30)
"Planet Earth" - (4.24)
Side B:

"Ankh" - (6.31)
"Saturn" - (4.01)
"Reflections in Blue" - (6.21)
"El Viktor" - (2.33)

Bonus Tracks
"As You Once Were"
"Dreams Come True"

could you possibly upload the "space trio" session from february, 1951? it's on disc 5.

xpost

Sure thing, I'll put it up tomorrow as I'm heading out in a minute.

thanks. great posts btw. it's really nice to have the thread being filled out with some of the more obscure recordings.

agreed, good stuff

1949

Sonny Blount's apartment, Chicago, July 21, 1949

"Song Introduction"

"Somewhere over the Rainbow" (Harold Arlen, Yip Harburg)

"Out of Nowhere" (Johnny Green, Edward Heyman)

Herman “Sonny” Blount (vocals, piano)

Youtube Link

wow, that is great!

1949

Sonny Blount's apartment, Chicago, July 21, 1949

"Song Introduction"

"Somewhere over the Rainbow" (Harold Arlen, Yip Harburg)

"Out of Nowhere" (Johnny Green, Edward Heyman)

Herman “Sonny” Blount (vocals, piano)

Youtube Link

^oops!

1949

Beige Room, Chicago, August 17, 1949 - The Sunny Blount Trio

"You Go to My Head" (J. Fred Coots, Haven Gillespie)

"Blue Chicago Blues" (Herman “Sonny” Blount)

Herman “Sonny” Blount (vocals, piano)

Youtube Link

1951

Chicago, February 6, 1951 - The Sunny Blount Trio

"The Nearness of You" (Hoagy Carmichael, Ned Washington)

"Sunny's Place #1" (Herman "Sonny" Blount)

"The Man I Love" (George Gershwin, Ira Gershwin)

"All Alone" (Herman "Sonny" Blount)

Herman "Sonny" Blount (piano, celeste, Solovox); Leo Blevins (electric guitar); Wilbur Ware (double bass)

Youtube Link

X-Files vibe to that last ditty.

1952

Chicago, June 9, 1952

"Wonderful You" (?)

"A Place in My Heart" (?)

Herman "Sonny" Blount (piano); Laurdine "Pat" Patrick Jr. (baritone sax)

Youtube Link

so, total noob here, but should I be paying attention to key members of the Arkestra at this point, or was the membership pretty dynamic?

― Karl Malone, Monday, January 8, 2018 11:40 PM (two days ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

tbh i've been pretty lazy in this regard. and i'm not at all an authority on this, but it does seem there was a good deal of personnel fluctuation, with the exception of john gilmore maybe. some of that probably has to do with small combo vs. big(ger) band stuff, but also the well-documented rigors of working with sun ra, the lack of finances, etc. i'll start posting the line ups for 1957 and onwards (and also point out soloists who can be identified) so it will be easier to keep track of that in the thread -- much like fionnland has been doing, greatly to our collective edification.

I haven't listened to these Youtube uploads yet, but thank you in advance fionnland

Just here to say this thread is really special to me, devouring everything and listening my ears off, but it's almost at a too fast a pace! Which isn't to say it should go slower, mind! Just that: so much goodness. Do keep it up you beautiful ppl.

Haha, no problem guys! Inspired thread idea budo jeru..this is going to be a lot of fun!

I'll upload some really choice '53 tracks either late tonight or tomorrow morn (UK time).

And please call me Finn! :)

1953

Chicago, March 9, 1953

"The Many Thoughts of..." (Sun Ra)

"The Inner Being" (Sun Ra)

"The Haunted Melody" (Sun Ra)

"Pennies from Heaven" (Arthur Johnston, Johnny Burke)

"You and the Night and the Music" (Arthur Schwartz, Howard Dietz)

Sun Ra (organ); "Thea Barbara" (vocals); unidentified (vocals)

Youtube Link

1956

RCA Studios, Chicago April or May 1956 - Billie Hawkins, Sun-Ra and His Orchestra

I'm Coming Home (Berryl Orris, Sunny Lane)

Last Call for Love (Tom Seymour)

Billie Hawkins (vocals); Sun Ra (piano, arranger); Art Hoyle (trumpet); Dave Young (trumpet); Julian Priester (trombone); John Gilmore (tenor sax); Pat Patrick (baritone sax); Wilburn Green (electric bass); Robert Barry (drums)

Youtube Link

1956

RCA Studios, Chicago, May 16, 1956 - Le Sun-Ra and his Arkistra

Velvet (take 1, false start)
Velvet (take 2, false start)
Velvet (take 3, false start)
Velvet (take 4, complete)

Sun Ra (Wurlitzer, piano); Art Hoyle (trumpet); Julian Priester (trombone); John Gilmore (tenor sax); Laurdine “Pat” Patrick (baritone sax); Wilburn Green (electric bass); Robert Barry (drums); Jim Herndon (tympani).

Youtube Link

^ Velvet is a Sun Ra composition