Search & Destroy: Sun Ra

I'll try to track some of this stuff down (yet some more for the record pile but I need to visit the 'world music' section at tower anyway).

I don't care much for Flamenco singing, which sounds to me like degenerate Arabic singing (not that I am saying it really is, but to my Arabicized ears, it kind of sounds that way); but I do like the guitar. Where I take salsa classes, there is also a Flamenco dance class. The teacher's husband is a guitarist who plays for the class. When I first heard him playing I was amazed by how good he is. I did kind of a double take, like, wow, this guy is actually really good, not just the teacher's husband who happens to play a little guitar or something. In fact, do you know much about Flamenco guitar, because that's something I'd be interested in hearing recommendations for? (I probably should get off my butt and be daring and go to a little bar at the edge of what used to be the barrio, where this guitarist sometimes accompanies his wife, etc.)

yeah...i've looked into flamenco guitarists but I can't remember any names (i think there was a webpage somewhere, I suppose I feel a thread coming).

If not, could somebody hurry up and do it?

there WAS a bootleg about a year ago but i was assured this was official. i don't really know what to believe with rough trade cos it all depends who you speak to. try the scot with the beard. i assume you went to the covent garden one with the tramps and the cheese and the skaters and whatnot

if all fails i'll dub it 4 u

yes, I went to the covent garden shop.

muhaha in that case i will get a another copy and flog it on eBay

High points from "Live at the Wonder Inn": a performance of "Angels and Demons at Play" and "How High the Moon." The latter, of course, is just the sort of "material in a traditional jazz vein" I was talking about, but I like it nevertheless. I think I like this song now. I notice that during much of "Spontaneous Simplicity," someone is playing a clave rhythm. I have heard something close to the clave rhythm before in Sun Ra songs, but I don't think I've ever heard it played this overtly.

The sound on "The Majestic Session" is a little more problematic. When the music gets loud and all musicians are playing simultaneously, the distortion is pretty bad. It's a pity, since the energy is definitely there. I like Sun Ra's solo at the beginning of "Velvet," though it's hard to make it out. I haven't quite sorted through the four pieces titled "Majestic" 1-4. I think my favorite is the 4th.

I like the CD as a package (aside from the nasty adhesive which doesn't want to come off). The liner notes are good, and there are some very cool photos from the Wonder Inn. (For a more adequate review, check the one somebody who knows a lot mroe than I do posted on amazon.com.)

how about all of the supposedly 200-odd el-saturn lps out there that aren't re-issued ? anybody got some saturn vinyl they'd like to mention ? ok, recommending these odd small-run bootleg type lps would be pointless, but if everyone here had one real el-saturn piece of vinyl, it might be a different one from anyone else's here, hopefully

200+ privately issued lps -- some very limited, issued casually at gigs from the '60s to the '80s -- let's hear about the ones that haven't made it to the re-issue process and maybe may never re-appear -- made it into anyone's collection ?

how about it ? not s/d, more a special swap meet on saturn ?
some el-saturn record that you and possibly you alone might be able to say something about ..

I'm not a collector of rarities. There is too much that is easily available which I haven't gotten to (not just for Sun Ra, but in general).

Space is the place, what else?

Singles is an invaluable reference.

Solo Piano (Vol. II) (a.k.a. St. Louis Blues) is a revelation.

Presumably it's http://www.allmusic.com/cg/amg.dll?p=amg&uid=11:11:51|AM&sql=Bcnez97u7krat

'Strange Strings' is relentless acoustic noise, it does not let up. It's what I was hoping 'Atlantis' would sound like.

'Secrets of the Sun' is probably my favorite of the early stuff, where they're still caught between big band traditional playing and free form.

I remember hearing a version of "Astro Black" (presumably from the album of the same name) that sounded better, but this was back when I was a teenager, and my recollection is pretty vague after 20 or so years of not hearing it since.

well done ra-kist. nothing to fear as i said on top of the thread to deraymi (you both thought it was diff...that's 'uncanny' (sp? vocab?), that is).

(yes i tried html type stuff and i fucked it up)

[Note: kist=stone sarcophagus, therefore: ra-kist would be the coffin of the sun, or the earth itself, since the sun descends into the earth, each night.]

(So Ra-Kist Scientist is my esoteric name.)

o. nate, I'm honestly a little leery of the live recordings in general. (Nothing Is. . . is probably my favorite of that bunch, though I also really like the live half of the quirky Music from Tomorrow's World that came out last year, but that's from the 60's. I don't especially like anything I've heard on Leo records, except for brief moments. Actually Live at the Pitt Inn (in Japan) is not bad, but I still listen to that more for individual tracks than as a whole album (and it's expensive).

First musician to release an album of any sort at age 100 I would have thought?

Elliott Carter lived to see the release of an album of only the compositions he wrote at age 100 and up.

people who have figured out how to live #onethread

the marshall allen "solo debut" is more than a great story, it's incredibly lovely

FYI he's doing a show at Roulette this spring which will be his solo album's live debut.

https://roulette.org/event/marshall-allen-the-new-dawn/

this really is great, thanks xxp

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RpZOcDPjV20

gonna get an american masters feature on the 20th. don't know if it's been mentioned elsewhere, and definitely excited enough to repeat things.

trailer looks great.

I checked out"Cosmic Tones for Mental Therapy" recently, pretty wild this was recorded in '63, legit psychedelia and even some dubby sounds

Just saw this trailer -- should be good.