Search & Destroy: Sun Ra

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.

Part of press release email I received today

The Sun Ra Mastered for iTunes releases include material culled from session and rehearsal tapes, and production and album masters. The series includes a significant amount of previously unreleased material, some stereo mixes of tracks previously available only in mono, and complete versions of tracks which had been edited for the original LPs. Many of these tapes, and the records that were made from them, are high-quality lo-fi, having been recorded in studios, nightclubs, and ad hoc rehearsal spaces.

list of the remasters

Angels and Demons at Play
Astro Black
Atlantis
Bad and Beautiful
Cosmic Tones For Mental Therapy
Fate In a Pleasant Mood
Holiday For Soul Dance
Interstellar Low Ways
The Invisible Shield
Jazz In Silhouette
The Magic City
Monorails and Satellites Vol. 1
Nubians of Plutonia
Other Planes of There
Sound Sun Pleasure
Strange Strings
Supersonic Jazz
Universe In Blue
Visits Planet Earth
We Travel the Spaceways
When Sun Comes Out

Holy shit I was AT that '91 Toronto gig! (Or at least may have been - saw 'em twice during the weeklong engagement.)

Currently: tracks from Nothing Is, the 1966 college tour. At the moment: "Space Aura," with rollicking piano and rhythm section, tenor and bari saxes, suave, brawny trombone, a bit of freaky unison, steaming drum solo---if doing the Downbeat blindfold test, I'd guess Mingus. Next album: Atlantis.

Man, Ra was such an underrated pianist.

Ho, this last (?) one from Nothing Is is high North Africa-suggesting reed, bass figure I've never heard anywhere before, appropriate bell tree, cowbell, cymbals, kick drum in, piano now too---nobody but Ra's crew now; starting to sing, "This is the theme of the Stargazers now/Stargazers in the sky/This is the theme of to-morr-ow's world", horns cut loose. Piano, and: "If you find Earth bor-ing, just the same old place/C'mon sign up, Outer Space-ways, in-cor-por-ray-ted", jaunty now, and splee splonk splash the good rain.////
Something else: rocksichord and oboe? Electric guitar, or more keyboard? Into Atlantis now, I think.