cool, i'll be listening later today
― budo jeru, Friday, 8 May 2020 16:02 (four years ago) link
oops, July '72 not June
― sleeve, Friday, 8 May 2020 16:05 (four years ago) link
This is just so great, I'll go so far as to say that it's my favorite discovery so far. Epic, arresting, unusual, and unlike anything we've heard so far. This makes me think of another personal 1972 favorite that is coming soon.
This is like Sun Ra's "Sweet Sister Ray"
― sleeve, Saturday, 9 May 2020 01:40 (four years ago) link
okay so now this album has moved straight to the front of the cue for tonight's listening
― budo jeru, Saturday, 9 May 2020 01:43 (four years ago) link
or i guess i mean queue
― budo jeru, Saturday, 9 May 2020 01:44 (four years ago) link
this is also basically "A Love Supreme"?check around 44 mins in when he starts bragging about how in February, 4 labels will release records of his
― sleeve, Saturday, 9 May 2020 02:35 (four years ago) link
"by meeee and my arkestreeee"
― budo jeru, Saturday, 9 May 2020 03:51 (four years ago) link
1972 - Life Is Splendid (Live at the Ann Arbor Blues & Jazz Festival)
https://img.discogs.com/B0JX8OX1PUwG9FrdMZCFcjbhxFg=/fit-in/600x601/filters:strip_icc():format(jpeg):mode_rgb():quality(90)/discogs-images/R-1782829-1350258217-1437.jpeg.jpg
This might be my favorite Arkestra live set. Recorded in 1972, but not released until 1999 as a CD and LP on John Sinclair’s Total Energy label. Later reissued as a 3CD set including their 1972, 1973, and 1974 sets at the festival, we’ll cover the later ones in the appropriate year.
This plays as one single 37-minute track on the original CD, with no track breaks. It works well like that. The version I added to Spotify is from the Wake Up Angels 3CD, and the tracks are split.
One of the things I like about this set is that they sound really pissed off, lots of angry space chanting. And like Milton noted on the Nuits recordings, there’s a good overview of styles here.
― sleeve, Monday, 11 May 2020 16:31 (four years ago) link
also, what the FUCK is going on at the end of this "Space Is The Place"?
― sleeve, Monday, 11 May 2020 18:19 (four years ago) link
somewhere between thirty and four thousand simultaneous percussion solos
yep just bought the Wake Up Angels discs
― Milton Parker, Monday, 11 May 2020 19:33 (four years ago) link
<3 Milton
I was specifically referring to the high pitched shrieks which alternately evoke a June Tyson seizure, a synth malfunction, or an impossibly high horn register
― sleeve, Monday, 11 May 2020 22:52 (four years ago) link
1973 - Pathways To Unknown Worlds/Of Mythic Worlds side B/Friendly Love
https://f4.bcbits.com/img/a0620685382_10.jpg
Another LP in the ill-fated Impulse series, recorded in 1972 but not released until 1975 as a quad LP.
Sun Ra Sundays really likes this one:
A blow-by-blow description seems rather pointless; I can only say that the music is a model of tightly controlled chaos and this album stands with the best of that lineage of long form improvisations, like Magic City and Other Planes of There. Sun Ra disdained the excesses of the “free jazz” scene and his group improvisations are as thoughtfully constructed as any of his written compositions, full of startling dynamic contrasts and unusual instrumental textures, fueled by his own endlessly inventive approach to electronic keyboards.
After that initial 1975 iLP release, it was almost completely ignored for 44 years (a common theme among a lot of these, it seems) except for a release on CD in 2000 as part of the Evidence twofer series (see below). The new 2019 Bandcamp remaster features a missing 5-minute chunk and two tracks that were originally on the LP Of Mythic Worlds:
The two closing tracks on this remastered edition were previously released as Side B on the Of Mythic Worlds LP, issued in 1980 on the Philly Jazz label. The source of these tracks was uncertain, and Ra offered no clues. Decades later, these tracks were authoritatively determined to have originated at the Pathways sessions.
There’s also one previously-unreleased track:
An additional treat was discovered on the sessions reels: the brief yet compelling “View From A Mountain Top.” The track opens with a “Discipline”-styled scored eight-bar horn melody before Omoe and Gilmore skulk over Ra’s monotone organ. The track fades out quickly, implying there may be more on another as-yet unfound tape.
The Evidence CD also featured an entire second LPs worth of material, Sun Ra Sundays has the details:
Four more LPs were recorded by Saturn and offered to Impulse! as part of the proposed licensing deal, but were rejected. Across the Border of Time (Saturn 576), Flight to Mars (Saturn 547) and Tone Poem (Saturn 672) were never released, although Prof. Campbell has speculated that tracks from some of these records were cannibalized for later Saturn releases, such as the ultra-rare Song of the Stargazers (Saturn 487) (see Campbell & Trent pp.196, 270-271). However, while preparing these Evidence CDs, the two-track reel-to-reel tapes containing the long-lost Friendly Love (Saturn 565) were found in a box and issued for the first time, appended to Pathways to Unknown Worlds.
These tracks are out of print, and aren’t on Spotify or Bandcamp, but here’s a Youtube link:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tSzAQ5jaQV8
― sleeve, Tuesday, 12 May 2020 14:42 (four years ago) link
Bandcamp link:
https://sunramusic.bandcamp.com/album/pathways-to-unknown-worlds-remastered-2019
― sleeve, Tuesday, 12 May 2020 14:44 (four years ago) link
sleeve, do you have files for the ann arbor sets ?
― budo jeru, Tuesday, 12 May 2020 20:12 (four years ago) link
just 1972 if U want that one, untracked (OG CD)
sleeve (at) efn (dot) org
― sleeve, Tuesday, 12 May 2020 20:26 (four years ago) link
awesome, thx
― budo jeru, Tuesday, 12 May 2020 20:45 (four years ago) link
"pathways" is amazing so far, they sure are letting their hair down !
― budo jeru, Tuesday, 12 May 2020 20:46 (four years ago) link
1973 - The Cymbals/Symbols Sessions (partly released on Deep Purple side 2)
https://f4.bcbits.com/img/a0154135006_10.jpg
https://img.discogs.com/841Tin-ALyv64fgnxsrnTjPkkHQ=/fit-in/600x600/filters:strip_icc():format(jpeg):mode_rgb():quality(90)/discogs-images/R-4896795-1387945629-4440.jpeg.jpg
Quoting a big chunk of the relevant Bandcamp entry, it’s such a treat to have restored definitive versions of so many of these recordings.
In early 1973, thanks to the intrepid persuasion of jazz producer Ed Michel, Sun Ra signed a licensing agreement with the prestigious jazz imprint Impulse (then part of ABC/Paramount Records) to reissue catalog titles from Ra's proprietary Saturn label, as well as some new Arkestra recordings. Michel had produced Ra's most commercially successful album, Space is the Place, in 1972 for Blue Thumb Records, and he figured Ra was finally primed for a wider Earthly audience. The Impulse deal struck with Ra and manager Alton Abraham specified a cap of 50 albums — ten annually for five years — although all masters were subject to approval by Impulse and theoretically less than 50 could be issued.
William Ruhlmann at AllMusic notes, "This was Ra's first association with something like a major record company, and though it resulted in ten actual releases, it didn't last long; another 12 planned releases were cancelled." Eight (egregiously remixed and/or remastered) existing Saturn titles were repackaged; on other planets, extraterrestrial jazz scholars refer to the Impulse period as "Ra's Quadraphonic Years."
Besides the reissues, two newly recorded albums were released—Astro Black and Pathways to Unknown Worlds. Another pair, Cymbals and Crystal Spears, recorded in 1973, were assigned catalog numbers before being shelved. They must have been rejected quickly, because that very year three Cymbals tracks were incongruously grouped with some of Ra's earliest 1940s & '50s recordings on a Saturn LP entitled Deep Purple.
The Cymbals sessions took place at one of Ra's most favored recording venues, Variety Studios, in New York. Other than the three tracks on Deep Purple, the Cymbals (a.k.a. Symbols) sessions were unissued during Sun Ra's lifetime. Five tracks from these sessions (tracks 1 thru 5 on this 11-track complete edition) were posthumously issued on a 2-CD set by Evidence in 2000 under the title The Great Lost Sun Ra Albums (which included Crystal Spears). The Evidence CDs had to rely on substandard source tapes, which at the time were the only tapes available.
This 2018 double album on Modern Harmonic used session master tapes from Michael D. Anderson's Sun Ra Music Archive, and represents the complete Cymbals/Symbols sessions.
So it’s nice that we’ve come back full circle to Deep Purple. I just love the idea of some true jazz head getting their mind blown at an Arkestra gig in 1973, staggering up to the merch table afterwards in a daze, and buying something that looks really out there and wild. Then they get it home and play it, and it’s, like, 1950s cool jazz with Stuff Smith. Until they flip the record over…
I remember when the Evidence CD was released, but I am totally unfamiliar with this one. Sun Ra Sundays has a detailed writeup on the tracks from that CD:
Cymbals was to have been another in a line of great blues-based records a la My Brother The Wind, Vol.II and Universe In Blue, with Ra leading a small-group Arkestra from his patented “space-age barbeque” organ. Significantly, Ronnie Boykins is back in the band with his huge-toned bass adding heft to these five loosely structured pieces.
A great quote from Ed Michel on the Impulse deal:
…I never saw a copy of the original contract (I do have some deal memo notes, but recall that the contract proffered turned out to be a whole lot different), but I know it could have been drawn up rather succinctly: “Sun Ra and Alton will give ABC twenty-one masters, which ABC will clean up as well as possible, provide new cover designs, sit on for a while, then return to Sun Ra and Alton, in return for which ABC will give The Saturn Guys a bunch of money, including a nice payoff to terminate the original agreement.” Would have saved a lot of extra typing.
Also noted: “Sun Ra continued on his own way and would not make another record for a major label until 1988, when A&M offered him a two-record deal.”
I am totally unfamiliar with this one, diving in now.
― sleeve, Wednesday, 13 May 2020 18:27 (four years ago) link
https://sunramusic.bandcamp.com/album/the-cymbals-symbols-sessions-new-york-1973
― budo jeru, Wednesday, 13 May 2020 18:52 (four years ago) link
thanks!
― sleeve, Wednesday, 13 May 2020 18:54 (four years ago) link
so far this sounds very of a piece with the "pathways to unknown worlds" LP, which i guess makes sense.
― budo jeru, Wednesday, 13 May 2020 18:55 (four years ago) link
(np)
it definitely gets into space barbecue mode around track 3
― sleeve, Wednesday, 13 May 2020 18:56 (four years ago) link
lol
here's what ed michel looked like by the way:
https://i.imgur.com/lvK3IjG.pngwith archie shepp and roy burrowes c. 1972
― budo jeru, Wednesday, 13 May 2020 19:06 (four years ago) link
lol, hippie!
― sleeve, Wednesday, 13 May 2020 19:20 (four years ago) link
1973 - Crystal Spears
https://f4.bcbits.com/img/a2150585143_10.jpg
Yet another studio album from the Impulse sessions, the 2019 Bandcamp remaster notes:
In 1972-73, Ra reportedly produced eight newly recorded projects for Impulse!—two were released at the time, and five have been issued since 2000.
Four of those five mentioned are Friendly Love, Cymbals, this one, and the yet-to-come Sign Of The Myth - anyone know what the other one is? I assume it’s the extra “Symbols” material on the Cymbals Bandcamp release and/or the extra tracks from the ‘Pathways” sessions, and that we’ve covered all of the Impulse era recordings now, but of course nothing is certain.
Continuing from the Bandcamp notes:
Crystal Spears, intended for release in 1975 by ABC/Impulse! and assigned catalog # AS-9297, was ultimately rejected by the label. Ra and business manager Alton Abraham retained the rights, rechristened the album Crystal Clear and assigned Saturn Records catalog # 562—but never got around to issuing it. The first three tracks on this album were mastered from that tape, a 1/4-inch four-track (15 IPS) brand favored by home recording enthusiasts—and generally disfavored by pro engineers. The sessions took place at Variety Recording Studio in New York on February 3, 1973, a month before the Ark returned on March 8 to record another Impulse-rejected album, Cymbals/Symbols
Sun Ra Sundays discusses it as part of the Evidence twofer:If Cymbals is relatively earthbound, Crystal Spears is a rocketship ride to the planet Saturn, showcasing Sun Ra’s more experimental compositional techniques and radical orchestral strategies. A full contingent of Arkestrans is present, although Boykins is notably absent and no one steps in to play bass. It doesn’t really matter as Sonny is by now well used to this arrangement and fills out the space with his electronic keyboards and the addition of marimbas and multiple percussionists, while Clifford Jarvis’s return to the drum stool allows for a steadier, more intuitive rhythm section.
This is one I’m kinda scared of, but hey I’m working form home and I might as well blast it.
― sleeve, Monday, 18 May 2020 14:12 (four years ago) link
recently discovered this one, love it, esp the title track, which sounds like the title suggests. doesn’t seem to have attracted much notice yet since its release but it’s great esp if you like the more pared down stuff like heliocentric vol 1, cosmic tones, etc
― no (Left), Monday, 18 May 2020 15:58 (four years ago) link
god I fucking love it when Allen plays the oboe
cool soundz on this one
― sleeve, Monday, 18 May 2020 16:31 (four years ago) link
1973 - Sign Of The Myth
https://img.discogs.com/4NzhwlNxtqMjfo1A69ZEyvhl724=/fit-in/600x600/filters:strip_icc():format(jpeg):mode_rgb():quality(90)/discogs-images/R-6365153-1433694352-2996.jpeg.jpg
The last Impulse recordings to be released, on a limited vinyl-only edition in 2014. Not much to go on here, but I did find a review on a free jazz blog:
https://www.freejazzblog.org/2015/01/100-years-sun-ra-revisited.html
Sign of the Myth originates from the Pathways To Unknown Worlds sessions and like In the Orbit of Ra, maybe the best of all 2014 releases, it also captures the brilliant and underestimated bass work of Ronnie Boykins – while Ra concentrates on spooky, spacey and psychedelic synthesizer sounds, which are like an electric carpet contrasting the wave of percussion and the free jazz reeds lines of the reed section consisting here of Eloe Omoe, Danny Ray Thompson, Kwame Hadi, Akh Tal Ebah, Marshall Allen, Danny Davis, and John Gilmore. With a constantly shifting array of Moog horror movie sounds, Ra structures the pieces, for example the title track, which can keep up with the best Arkestra tracks. Ra, Boykins and the percussion section start off before the saxes fall in trying to take control of the improvisation but in the end it is Boykins’s walking bass and Ra’s synth lines which prevail and even give an outlook to where the Arkestra was heading with Disco 3000 only five years later.
Not on Spotify or Bandcamp, here are some Youtube links:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DAhEUPL_Zl8
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YIpI6PlII3g
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VXAfwpxWsik
― sleeve, Tuesday, 19 May 2020 14:13 (four years ago) link
this one sounds pretty unfocused to me, nothing really clicked listening to those links
― sleeve, Tuesday, 19 May 2020 15:47 (four years ago) link
1973 - Wake Up Angels (Disc 1 part 2 - Sept. 9th 1973, Live at the Ann Arbor Blues & Jazz Festival)
https://aadl.org/sites/default/files/aa_sun/aa_sun_19730423_p008-001.jpg
The second of three consecutive years that the Arkestra played, and the first of four live recordings to round out this very busy year. I found some cool links for this show, like this original newspaper scan with text added (the image above):
https://aadl.org/node/195629
Art Yard’s website has EXTENSIVE notes from the one and only John Sinclair, I will quote at length:
Sun Ra was one of the biggest hits of the 1972 Ann Arbor Blues & Jazz festival. The Solar Myth Arkestra appeared on opening night and completely wowed the crowd with Its spectacular presentation of space-age Improvisational music and brilliant costumes Sun Ra & His Arkestra would have been considered an unlikely audience pleaser In Ann Arbor and the Detroit area were It not for the band’s historic performances with the MC-5 during 1967-69, including shared bills at Community Arts Auditorium, the Grande Ballroom, Ann Arbor Armory, and the first Detroit Rock & Roll Revival festival at the Michigan State fairgrounds In June 1969. Ra was a particular favourite of the MC-5, who adapted his wild space-Jazz style and his poem ‘There ls” Into their tour-de-force number called “Starship,” and the band’s enthusiasm was quickly picked up by Its legions of followers In the area. The Arkestra’s appearance at the 1972 Blues & Jazz festival marked Its return to the area after a three-year absence and became widely regarded as a must-see event. Just over a month after Its triumphant 1972 appearance in Ann Arbor, the Arkestra made Its first major label recording, a magnificent opus titled Space Is The Place Issued by Bob Krasnow’s Blue Thumb Records. His reception in Ann Arbor and widespread positive critical response to the new album served to thrust Sun Ra much further Into the consciousness of muslc-lovlng Americans than ever before, beginning a 20 year period of steadily Increasing performance opportunities and international acclaim. When we began programming the 1973 Ann Arbor Blues e Jazz festival, the closing show on Sunday night was set aside to showcase the most popular artists from the previous year’s festivities: the great Luther Allison, the Irrepressible Hound Dog Taylor & the Houserockers. the mighty Sun Ra and his Intergalactic Discipline Arkestra, plus a star-studded Chicago Blues Revue featuring Otis Rush, Homesick James, Eddie Taylor, Carey Bell, and Lucille Spann, all backed by the Mighty Joe Young Blues Band. Sun Ra’s 1973 appearance was even more highly anticipated than ever before. The Arkestra-16 members strong-was at the peak of its powers, with an array of brilliant soloists like John Gilmore, Marshall Allen, Eloe Omoe, Ahk Tal Ebah, and Kwame Hadi continually swirling forth from Ra’s inexhaustible font of music and color, fired by three sets of drums and an equal number of hand percussionists end topped by Sun Ra’s Inter-galactic keyboards and the space voice and interpretive dancing of the magnificent June Tyson… A new suite based on the previous year’s smash success, Space Is The Place, had been prepared to Introduce Ra’s concept of an “Outer Space Employment Agency” which would put the Idled workers of post-industrial America back Into a productive mode outside the tired orbit of Earth.
For more local color and background, see this archived link to the Ann Arbor Sun, issue 49, June 5-18, 1973.
While the 1972 set was originally released in full by Sinclair in 1999 (see upthread), I missed earlier that one track from it WAS released at the time - a 1973 double LP compilation of performances from the festival included 6 minutes of “Life Is Splendid.”
The 1973 and 1974 sets are only on the 3CD Wake Up Angels set from 2011, also noted upthread.
https://img.discogs.com/-nmhiGnPDTzhes9XEp8J4ZxNtyc=/fit-in/600x600/filters:strip_icc():format(jpeg):mode_rgb():quality(90)/discogs-images/R-3264781-1360625222-3691.jpeg.jpg
I haven’t listened to this 1973 set yet, but my anticipation level is high.
― sleeve, Wednesday, 20 May 2020 15:23 (three years ago) link
they go in hard here, starting out with a raucous 13-minute improv blowout
― sleeve, Wednesday, 20 May 2020 15:36 (three years ago) link
my favorite thing about this thread is how many ra releases this is alerting me to that went under my radar, boykins is killing it on "sign of the myth".
― Kate (rushomancy), Wednesday, 20 May 2020 16:36 (three years ago) link
yes he's fantastic
― budo jeru, Wednesday, 20 May 2020 17:01 (three years ago) link
love the crowd noises on the '73 ann arbor set. around 12:43 on the opening improv track some guy yells "ROCK N ROLL !! YEAH !!"
― budo jeru, Wednesday, 20 May 2020 17:06 (three years ago) link
xxp yes I did notice his excellent bass playing amidst the aimless horns
― sleeve, Wednesday, 20 May 2020 17:37 (three years ago) link
:D
― sleeve, Wednesday, 20 May 2020 17:57 (three years ago) link
after listening to the '73 set, I don't like it quite as much as Life Is Splendid but then again that one is in my personal top ten
― sleeve, Wednesday, 20 May 2020 17:58 (three years ago) link
'73 ann arbor notes
1. love in outer space > watusi !! so intense. a highlight of the performance. love how all the tinkling jangling hand percussion sits so forward in the mix.
2. the vocal refrain + groove on "outer space employment agency" is sublime. i also love how ra lists off planets ("don't you wanna got mars?") and each time the crowd roars in the affirmative.
― budo jeru, Wednesday, 20 May 2020 18:08 (three years ago) link
yeah that whole part is great
― sleeve, Wednesday, 20 May 2020 18:59 (three years ago) link
(Outer Space Employment Agency)
HAPPY BIRTHDAY, SUN RAhttps://m.youtube.com/watch?v=1P_J9iOWbTw
― sleeve, Friday, 22 May 2020 18:45 (three years ago) link
oh FFS
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1P_J9iOWbTw
― sleeve, Friday, 22 May 2020 18:55 (three years ago) link
Unlike the previous European tour (an extended sojourn which ranged widely across the continent, culminating in an impromptu trip to Egypt), the 1973 visit seems to have consisted of barely a handful of gigs in and around Paris. Also unlike the well-documented 1971 excursion, there were no high-profile radio broadcasts and very few amateur recordings survive. The tour likely began with the ill-fated Fête de l’Humanité at the end of September (possibly found on Transparency’s Lost Reel Collection Vol.5) and while Prof. Campbell mentions a 180-minute audience tape from the Nancy Jazz Festival on October 14, that’s about it (p.203) (and I haven't heard this tape). Otherwise, it seems the Arkestra settled into a multi-night stand at the famed Gibus Discotèque in Paris until their return to the states sometime in mid-to-late-October. Fortunately, the French division of Atlantic Records recorded a portion of this gig and released it as Live In Paris at the “Gibus” (Atlantic 40540) in 1975—but only in France (Id.). It remained an obscure collector’s item until 2003, when the Italian Comet label reissued it on CD on their Universe imprint in a deluxe, gatefold mini-LP package with excellent sound quality. Finally! This is one of the essential Sun Ra albums: an impeccable performance, well-recorded, documenting a crucial period in the Arkestra’s development.
https://nuvoid.blogspot.com/2011/01/sun-ra-sunday_23.html
Not on the Bandcamp page, or on Spotify.
― sleeve, Friday, 22 May 2020 18:57 (three years ago) link
1973 - Planets Of Life Or Death (Amiens, France, 21st October 1973)
https://f4.bcbits.com/img/a0089314253_16.jpg
A relatively recent release on the Strut label for Record Store Day 2015:
https://sunrastrut.bandcamp.com/album/planets-of-life-or-death-amiens-73
https://www.discogs.com/Sun-Ra-And-His-Intergalactic-Research-Arkestra-Planets-Of-Life-Or-Death-Amiens-73/master/836601
Looks very similar to the other shows from right around this time period.
One more 1973 release left after this, it was a busy year for the Arkestra.
― sleeve, Monday, 25 May 2020 22:59 (three years ago) link
^ worth noting that strut is offering the digital version for only €3
just getting around to listening now, i really like this version of "love in outer space"
― budo jeru, Wednesday, 27 May 2020 19:08 (three years ago) link
1973 - Concert For The Comet Kohoutek (Dec. 22nd 1973)
https://img.discogs.com/PiWLLKMluyGH-GKLdh3PPAjqdwE=/fit-in/600x600/filters:strip_icc():format(jpeg):mode_rgb():quality(90)/discogs-images/R-1144525-1574642832-2195.jpeg.jpg
The last entry for this busy year, for some reason I though this was released by ESP in the 70’s but it turns out that this was first issued in 1993. On Spotify, but the rights must be tied up in some weird ESP-related limbo as it is not on either official Bandcamp page.
CD version has more tracks than the LP fwiw.
― sleeve, Friday, 29 May 2020 15:35 (three years ago) link
the whole concert is on youtube
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZZ-4rpmepXA
― budo jeru, Friday, 29 May 2020 15:41 (three years ago) link
sweet, thanks.
on a side note, this is my 50th entry in this thread! time flies when you're having fun... thanks for starting this and let me know if you or Karl want to step back in at any point.
― sleeve, Friday, 29 May 2020 15:45 (three years ago) link