Search & Destroy: Sun Ra

I got myself the Exotica comp for christmas and it's been a blast. It's really nicely put together and great sounding. I'd like to know more about who's in control of Ra's estate now as it seems like all of a sudden there are zillions of new releases & reissues.

Irwin is!

http://sunraarkive.blogspot.com/2014/09/exclusive-complete-interview-with-irwin.html

i too got a copy of exotica! so great. it’s been obvious for awhile that exotica is a big influence on his work but it’s really fun to hear it all compiled in one place.

i wonder how much of the influence was exotica-via-big-band (duke ellington's "caravan" e.g.)

or even this, from 1957:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oTEmX1tHOVY

Irwin is!

― kurt schwitterz, Tuesday, January 2, 2018 4:20 PM (six hours ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

at first i was like, bob irwin? that can't be right. and then i remembered irwin chusid, hence the interview link.

but then i was on the sun ra website (http://www.sunra.com/) and bob irwin gets a "thank you" at the bottom, so:

1. bob irwin is alive?

2. sundazed is involved w/ sun ra reissues?

ohhh i see. sundazed is the parent company of modern harmonic. huh.

thanks for the links- really cool. I'm so fascinated by how his music got preserved, maintained, and cared for. For someone so DIY and all over the place through every phase of his career, it seems like there should be hardly anything left, but instead there's scads of recordings & ephemera. It makes the sum total of Ra's work seem like all the more of a miraculous gift.

Speaking of xpost Art Yard, they've got a previously unreleased radio set, all of it posted here, and note other Ra linked from this same page:
https://sunrastrut.bandcamp.com/album/of-abstract-dreams

press release:
http://r.k7musicnews.com/7t3exsp9g7e.jp

UN RA - OF ABSTRACT DREAMS

Strut and Art Yard present another exclusive from Sun Ra: a previously unreleased radio session most likely recorded at the WXPN FM radio studios in Philadelphia, 1974-5.

This newly discovered session features a new version of Ra's earlier ‘Island In The Sun', a raucous rendition of ‘Unmask The Batman' and the first studio recording of ‘I'll Wait For You' There is no bass player on the sessions and Ra's left hand beats out a rhythmic bass pattern on the piano. All tracks are remastered directly from the original tapes. The album package features a cover photo by photographer Alan Nahigian and new sleeve notes by Paul Griffiths.

it is in fact credited to Sun Ra, not Un Ra (a name somebody might wanta risk litigation for, but his executors have to be cool, right?

never listened to much solo Sun Ra before, what an absolute marvel he was with just a piano as well as with his famous bands. listening to the Monorails & Satellites 3 volume collection of solo works today and so far it is A+.

it feels like you could go the rest of your life only listening to sun ra and never get bored

if i wanted to find out where sun ra lived during his chicago years, what would be the best resource? the szwed bio?

not sure if the szwed bio has specifics in terms of addresses, but it is a fantastic book nonetheless.

and yeah! i find something new and amazing in the sun ra universe every month it seems like.

like this solo electric piano show from 1980! holy shit. https://sunramusic.bandcamp.com/album/haverford-college-1980-solo-piano

he has THE BEST song/album titles too

I got totally re-obsessed last summer, love those cheap Scorpio reissue pressings

somebody should revive the listening thread!

he lived in washington park. or do you mean the exact address?

i was just thinking about the other day. anyone who wants to take up the mantle should do it! i gave it a shot but ended up like that cat who is passed out in a pile of food

i meant address, like could you go see his old house? but mostly just curious.

xp

sorry, that was in response to:

somebody should revive the listening thread!

i was reading my kids this book yesterday, it's pretty cool:
https://pictures.abebooks.com/HONEYANDWAX/22861078024.jpg

i meant address, like could you go see his old house? but mostly just curious.

i bet the info is out there somewhere! i haven't ran across it, though, just the general neighborhood.

I was into the listening thread in theory but I just dunno how you overcome organizing the catalog

xp

it is brutal

like for one thing there's the issue of availability - not everyone would be able to hear everything, it's definitely not all on the 'net - and then how do you even order stuff (by date of release? recording?)

I use the Szwed book and go by date of recording fwiw, also file my LPs by whatever track on it was the earliest-recorded

I might be open to giving it a try if ppl are OK with that

i would be very ok with that!

OK let me prep over the weekend and see what I can do!

awesome, thanks! i think 1961 was next up, and i still have this handy collaborative playlist with an attempt to put everything in chronological order. i think it goes up to the mid-60s before i passed out in the cat food:

https://open.spotify.com/playlist/4dAK9bNAV6C8zrf9twZpk3?si=aX5sJqtsTwKmqTP-f-965g

thanks! yes I have that in my Spotify playlists - did you get all the way through the Chicago years, do you recall?

yep - looks like it ends at the same point as the thread, at the end of 1961, as he's moving to NYC

sweet, nice time for a transition!

http://www.cyclesbyslo.com/

this is the guy who played guitar on lanquidity and sleeping beauty (and probably other sun ra releases)

Have been getting into Sun Ra for the first time in the last couple of months - thanks for the playlist, such a great resource!

no prob! when budo was first doing the thread, it was my initiation into sun ra as well, and i followed along obediently and didn't skip ahead too much. so i'm really into sun ra, origins to 1962, and still know pretty much nothing about what followed :D

but even that small chunk of his career, alone, is enough to spend years in. no complains here!

I might be open to giving it a try if ppl are OK with that

― The Squalls Of Hate (sleeve), Wednesday, January 29, 2020 2:46 PM (three days ago) bookmarkflaglink

i've been meaning to get back to that thread these last few months but keep being stymied by life things.

would totally dig if you, particularly you, were to do it

like for one thing there's the issue of availability - not everyone would be able to hear everything, it's definitely not all on the 'net - and then how do you even order stuff (by date of release? recording?)

― Οὖτις

is it definitely not all on the net? i believe i grabbed everything from the old rlc discog back in the early slsk days, and anything that's come out since then should theoretically be online, right?

for me it's mostly a time issue

So many things done in tiny pressings tho

budo I am planning the thread revive for Monday, thanks!

woohoo! can't wait, thanks sleeve!

xp I think most all the tiny pressings up to the late 70's have been reissued at this point, at least via Bandcamp

fyi

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

Happy 96th birthday to Marshall Allen!

Lol what??

BTW I'm also reading this - THIS PLANET IS DOOMED: the science fiction poetry of Sun Ra. Sensitive, visionary, sonorous and liberating verses. pic.twitter.com/wv7MmL2TI4

— Jayaprakash Satyamurthy (@flightofsand) June 19, 2020

This is really good. I never knew of those photos (or if I had read about them I've forgotten), vivid descriptions to be found.

https://www.nybooks.com/articles/2020/07/23/sun-ra-everything-nothing/

Our first issue of 2020 celebrates interstellar icon and generative force of nature: Sun Ra.

Contributors include Taylor Ho Bynum, John Corbett, Naima Lowe, Luke Stewart Thomas Stanley, and Ken Vandermark. The issue also features supplemental writing from Jessie Cox on Marshall Allen, Reg Bloor on Glenn Branca, Chris Pitsiokos on Miles Davis's On The Corner, Peter Margasak on Derek Bailey's On The Edge series, and a conversation between Audra Wolowiec and Freya Powell. The issue closes with the first exquisite corpse of the new season: a phenomenal text work by Camae Ayewa (Moor Mother).

This edition is available for preorder on our Bandcamp page and will be released on July 17th.

Sound American will host a special streaming event to celebrate this issue featuring solo performances of Sun Ra’s music by Taylor Ho Bynum, Luke Stewart, and Ken Vandermark as well as readings by and discussions with John Corbett, Naima Lowe, and Thomas Stanley. Donations will be accepted during the performance for Justice for Families, an organization dedicated to ending the mass incarceration of Black youth. Subscribe to our mailing list to receive information on how you can take part.

https://soundamerican.bandcamp.com/merch/sa24-the-sun-ra-issue-preorder

New Arkestra studio album is coming from Strut:

https://d1rgjmn2wmqeif.cloudfront.net/r/b/197728-1.png

Release Date: October 9

The planets align this October as the mighty Sun Ra Arkestra, under the direction of the maestro Marshall Allen, release their first studio album in twenty years, ‘Swirling’.
Recorded at Rittenhouse Soundworks in Philadelphia, the new recording represents the continuation of a heartfelt rebirth of the Arkestra under Allen’s guidance since Sun Ra left the planet in 1993, gaining new generations of followers from their regular touring across the globe.
LISTEN OR BUY IN CYBERSPACE https://strut.k7store.com/sun-ra-arkestra

^ this looks cool. they'll probably manage to release at least a few more by the time we get to 2020 in the listening thread :)

Blank Forms is pleased to present When Sun Comes Out, our first benefit exhibition including works by over 40 artists, nearly all of whom are collaborators or friends of the organization. Taking its title from Sun Ra’s 1963 album, for which a rare silkscreened cover designed by Claude Dangerfield is among the works on offer, the exhibition refers back to Blank Forms’ first gala in 2017 honoring Marshall Allen and the Sun Ra Arkestra, and also looks to the future with hope for sunnier days of music, celebration, and performance.

incl. visual art from peter brötzmann, moki cherry, and yusef lateef among others:

https://blankforms.org/viewing-room/when-sun-comes-out/

Haven't seen it yet but Uncut's new edition has an lp by lp of Sun Ra. Could be interesting. NOt sure how a magazine not dedicated to his discography could do that or what they'll boil down to 10 or 15 lps,