Search & Destroy: Sun Ra

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,

oooh, i love normie sun ra takes!

(i genuinely do, this is not snark!)

lol have you ever seen a photo of robert campbell ?

anyway it seems i've misremembered what uncut magazine was — looking at the website now, yes, it seems a very unlikely publication to do such a thing. mostly they just do classic rock retrospectives and talk about oasis and paul weller, yeah ? weirder still that they've misleadingly made it seem like they're going through all the records which is just logistically impossible.

i've obtained my copy of the long-anticipated "egypt 1971" 5xLP box !

it rules !!!

JEALOUS

I guess I'm gonna go to the local RSD store today after all

currently 2.5 hrs into an 8 hr dj set at my local for RSD

they're paying me by giving me an egypt 71 box 😎

hell yes

People who know how to live!

i dunno my back is starting to hurt something fierce!!

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