Search & Destroy: Sun Ra

you should have had your manager work free beer into the deal !

Lol, that Egypt box sounds so good!

https://sunrastrut.bandcamp.com/album/swirling

This should be fun

"seductive fantasy" sounds amazing

Found out that people are selling the 3cd Singles set for £11.50 online. That is a reduction on its initial price isn't it?

Anyway will soon have both versions of the singles.

Found out that people are selling the 3cd Singles set for £11.50 online. That is a reduction on its initial price isn't it?
I believe so. I noticed this on Amazon, ebay and elsewhere that it was marked down quite a bit. (Last I checked, the label itself was selling low-priced copies on discogs.) I picked up a copy from moviemars for really cheap myself. It's possible they're clearing out overstock and it's not going out-of-print, but anyone who's been thinking of getting this should do so now because even if stays in-print, it'll probably creep back up in price.

I was getting excited seeing all of these Egypt 71 posts on twitter and instagram, but of course it's one of those stupid fucking Record Store Day exclusives. Only $165 on discogs right now. I hate this stupid fake holiday.

I thought I got a set called Egypt 71 from Honest John's several years ago

you may be thinking of the 80's set with Salah Ragab

THere wee 2 sets reissued by Art Yard Horizon and a 2fer of Nidhamu + Dark Myth Equation Visitation not sure if I got one or both of those.

In 1971, in Denmark, at the end of a tour, Sun Ra suddenly decided to take his whole band to Egypt. They had no concerts and no contacts there, but Ra sold some recording rights to Black Lion to pay for the tickets and they flew out. They were stopped at customs and their instruments were temporarily impounded, but they were let through as tourists. Then they booked into a hotel facing the pyramid at Giza. Word got to Hartmut Geerken, then working at the Goethe institute, and he quickly threw a concert together at his house in Heliopolis, for which Brigadier Salah Ragab borrowed army instruments for the Arkestra to play (he was later disciplined for it). Ra's Moog had made it through customs and a Tiger Organ was hired. One of the audience (of 25) booked the band in for a Cairo TV session the following day. Then Ragab persuaded the Ministry of Culture to book a concert at the Balloon Theatre (for another tiny audience: only the first 4 rows were occupied). Two more concerts followed -- at the American University (for the cab fare) and the Versailles Club. They stayed for more than a fortnight, making a film while they were there and finally, by band-members selling various personal items, raised the money to fly home. Horizon (also known as Starwatchers and Sun Ra in Egypt Vol. 2) contains a big chunk of the now legendary Balloon Theatre concert (it burned down soon after their visit, as did the hotel in which the Arkestra stayed while they were in Cairo). The Balloon extract is an uncut block (tracks 1- 4 on the CD) and features a lot of Sun Ra's all-hell-let-loose Moog soloing, as well as a great version of 'Discipline #2.' The rest of Horizon is from the Heliopolis concert, kicking off with an instrumental version of 'Enlightenment' and 'Love In Outer Space,' (neither are on the original LP) segueing slowly into 'Space Is The Place' -- followed by drum orchestra, more Ra soloing on Moog, Tiger Organ and detuned piano (bloops, hoovering, whistles, Concords taking off) leading to a first lurching, then wild, 'Discipline #8.' Two bonus tracks, for the first time restored from the original concert, follow: 'We'll Wait For You' (with June Tyson) and 'The Satellites Are Spinning' -- which ends in full-on percussion. A classic recording of a classic band in great form."

that was from the forcedexposure page, not sure where it was being quited from but its between sets of quotation marks.

this is really hard to parse but it looks like the Egypt 71 box is coming out on CD in November?

https://sunrastrut.bandcamp.com/album/egypt-1971

looks like maybe just the unreleased material on CD, and the three original LPs will be available as individually-reissued vinyl releases ?

ah that makes (a little) more sense, thanks

however many extra box sets they got sold out in minutes, I looked 45 minutes after the email and they were gone

https://sunrastrut.bandcamp.com/album/swirling

this is fabulous!

Does anyone know anything about this book? http://artyardrecords.co.uk/its-after-the-end-of-the-world-by-gerald-jenkins/

sweet new single with 2 unreleased tracks

https://sunrastrut.bandcamp.com/album/sun-ra-quartet-featuring-john-gilmore-the-sky-is-a-sea-of-darkness-when-there-is-no-sun-to-light-the-way

My Egypt 1971 CD set finally showed up this week, it’s great so far. Really digging the weirdo synth stuff at the end of the first disc.

I didn't realize Marshall Allen still lives in the Sun Ra house in Germantown!

https://whyy.org/articles/jazz-legend-after-house-partially-collapses-gets-help-from-philanthropist-neighbors/

The fact that he still lives is already notable.

Unexpected Sun Ra update:

They're selling a 3CD complete album set in Edinburgh Woollen Mill for £4.99

Super-Sonic Jazz (Saturn)
Jazz by Sun Ra (Transition)
Jazz in Silhouette (Saturn)

Their James Pringle cardigans are nothing to sniff at either

Visiting Paris, seeing them Sunday night!

Sun Ra's house now a Philadelphia historic landmark
https://www.phillyvoice.com/sun-ra-house-philadelphia-historic-landmark-designation-germantown-arkestra/

Marshall Allen is still incredible at nearly 100. See them if you can!

Saw them open for Parquet Courts in 2018 - between both acts, it was one of the best shows I've ever seen.

"Sleeping Beauty" is one of the greatest compositions in any genre ever.

Sun Ra's Full Lecture & Reading List From His 1971 UC Berkeley Course, "The Black Man in the Cosmos" (Open Culture) : https://t.co/IdxXCyF2MS pic.twitter.com/nDKC3XWth2

— reaktorplayer (@reaktorplayer) July 29, 2022

Does anybody remember what year Sun Ra played Brixton Academy in the early to mid 80s. I thought I would find it with a simple google search but not finding a gigography that stretches back that far. Seeing listings for Academy cutting out in the late 80s.
Have been hoping i might be able to find out what he/they were playing. Should still be in a period where they were playing some really great space funk but also when he was doing gigs based in a more classic jazz style. I have some recordings from the time of the latter but do think I prefer the former.

according to setlist.fm he played there on 15 June 1984.

this Facebook post also refers to it.

this ad for it suggests the set style -- GLC always there w/the funk!:

Sun Ra headlines 3 days of jazz, funk, Latin, African and more... NME, 26 May 1984. #NME #MyLifeInTheUKMusicPress #1984 pic.twitter.com/cCeiZHfjRr

— nothingelseon (@nothingelseon) December 11, 2019

He played The Venue in Victoria Street (near Victoria Station) in 1982 and again in 1983, and the Fridge (Brixton) in 1985 -- with yrs truly reviewing lol (do not read if you hate me/want to post this on worst-music-writing-of-all-time thread etc)

Live! Sun Ra! The Chills! Three Johns! NME, 23 November 1985. #NME #MyLifeInTheUKMusicPress #1985 pic.twitter.com/eGILcKEka3

— nothingelseon (@nothingelseon) July 28, 2020

(@nothingelseon is a good resource for nme and mm ads, there's another guy who does pages from sounds)

ok thanks
Seems like it must have been a good one.

@dubdobdee wuz there: in the Fridge w @SunRaUniverse : (finding chaos under the sleek hood of taste &) "They pretend to indiscipline...they work for their fun here...it's the way it has to be." https://t.co/1HOByFZe0A

— Don Allred (@0wlred) August 27, 2022

Great review Mark! That Chills review was a stinker tho

I'm hoping that someone somewhere might have the audio of that night in June 84 cos I don't think I've seen it in the time I've been torrenting. Which is like 16 years.
Have heard some of his more classic jazz sets from the time which are pretty good and wondered to what extent a particular lineup of the band changed the sound o fa tune from 30 years or more earlier. Assuming that it was largely the same lineups playing the deep space funk and these standards etc anyway. Like if experience playing other musics put new slants on interpretation etc.
Do prefer the deep space funk but the standards and other older songs were done pretty well anyway.

I think I was still thinking that he was a pretty out free jazz player at the time so may have shaped my hearing of the set if he didn't get weirdly out. But have listened a lot more widely since. I think I enjoyed the set but probably didn't think it was quite up to like Say or the noisier parts of live at Montreux or something. So would love to get to listen back

https://www.library.upenn.edu/events/kislak-stacks/collecting-sun-ra

Zoom event tomorrow (Oct. 20 noon) with John Szwed talking about assembling an archive of Sun Ra recordings.

Thanks for sharing!

Marshall Allen interview - 100 years young this year!

https://www.theguardian.com/music/2024/feb/02/a-man-cannot-learn-without-discipline-jazz-guru-marshall-allen-on-life-with-sun-ra-and-turning-100

yes please

https://sunramusic.bandcamp.com/album/pink-elephants-on-parade

There was an earlier record of Disney tunes, may be OOP:

https://www.discogs.com/master/2260915-Sun-Ra-His-Intergalaxtic-Arkestra-Second-Star-To-The-Right-Salute-To-Walt-Disney

yep, and these are all different versions believe!

*I believe

That seems so. I bought the new one, wish that old one was streaming or available in a legit download.

I can YSI if u ilxmail me, I have a flac rip

I've seen the Sun Ra Arkestra twice live in the last two years, and two by streaming. They are so much fun, even though Marshall Allen sat out the most recent DC appearance. Knoel Scott's just as valuable a leader, even if he hasn't been with the band since day 1.

Search: Excelsior Mill, Ra's only(?) solo pipe organ recording, from 1984 on a Wurlitzer Theatre Organ at the Dupre Excelsior Mill in Atlanta. Up and down and around the twists and turns of the instrument, a pretty thrilling 42-minute ride, highest recommendation. Released this past April on Modern Harmonic.

ooooh!! that album of sun ra disney tunes is one of my faves -- "the forest of no return" is SO GOOD

I love it so much I made it the theme song to my radio show!

ha! good choice