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

no kidding

1971 - France, 1/8/72 "Jazz Session"

Weekend bonus viewing, video shot in France on their way back home from Egypt:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=guQUde8MOyc

oops that should read 1972, my bad

an uncharacteristic evening post:

1972 - Soundtrack to “Space Is The Place”

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“Space Is the Place is an 85-minute Afrofuturist[1] science fiction film made in 1972 and released in 1974.[2][3] It was directed by John Coney, written by Sun Ra and Joshua Smith, and features Sun Ra and his Arkestra. A soundtrack was released on Evidence Records.”

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Space_Is_the_Place

From that wiki link:

“During the late-1960s and early-1970s, Sun Ra and his ensemble made several forays to California. In 1971, Sun Ra taught a course, "The Black Man in the Cosmos", at University of California, Berkeley.[4] Over the course of these California visits, Sun Ra came to the attention of Jim Newman, who produced the film Space Is the Place starring Sun Ra and his Arkestra, and based, in part, on Sun Ra's Berkeley lectures.”

While the song itself is probably the Arkestra’s most well-known endeavor, true heads know that the soundtrack and the studio LP of the same name are different beasts altogether. We start with the actual soundtrack to this fully zonked flick which I proudly own as a legit DVD release.

I feel like this merits a lengthy excerpt from the notes to the 2019 Bandcamp edition:

Despite being called as much in its original 1993 issue, this album is NOT the soundtrack of SPACE IS THE PLACE. This is the music that was recorded by Sun Ra & His Intergalactic Solar Arkestra FOR the film. Most of the music on this album is not heard in the film except in short excerpts, and there's music in the film which is not on this album. Hence, this is not a soundtrack album. It's a first-rate Sun Ra studio album that stands on its own, apart from the film.

The film was produced while Ra and his entourage were based in Oakland CA. The bandleader booked a recording session at an unidentified studio originally thought to be in that city. However, Jim Newman told Sun Ra discographers Robert L. Campbell and Christopher Trent that the studio was “on Connecticut Street at the foot of Potrero Hill in San Francisco." The album features a mix of reworked Ra evergreens (e.g. "We Travel the Spaceways," "Satellites Are Spinning," "Watusa," and "Love in Outer Space") as well as tracks used in the film and appearing nowhere else (e.g. "The Overseer," "Cosmic Forces," and "Mysterious Crystal").

Singer/dancer June Tyson offers sparkling lead vocals on "Outer Spaceways Inc.," "Satellites Are Spinning," and "We Travel the Spaceways," as well as impassioned declamations on "Black Man." John Gilmore, one of the greatest tenor saxophonists of his generation, largely served as drummer on these sessions. Ra provides his customary cosmic pyrotechnics on a battery of electronic keyboards.

These tracks were first issued on CD in 1993 by Evidence Records; the package was subtitled "Soundtrack to the film" and featured different cover art. That CD is long out of print, but can be purchased on the secondary market. The contents of the album were issued on LP by Sutro Park in 2010, and they created new cover art. (So did we.) Yet another CD edition was included (along with a DVD of the film) in the 40th Anniversary coffee-table book published in 2014 by Harte Recordings.

The audio for this digital release has some minor improvements over the Evidence and Harte CDs (including the reduction of 60Hz electrical hum during quiet passages), but the respective editions are largely comparable. Wherever the tracks were originally recorded, they were well-recorded. However, according to Jim Newman, the original master tapes were destroyed in a studio fire. All that remains is a quarter-inch stereo mixdown tape.

i'm liking "mysterious crystal" quite a lot

OK I guess this still isn't the "actual soundtrack" - how about "used and unused cues and incidental music for/from the film"

1972 - Astro Black

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The beginning of the “Impulse era” and the first studio recordings since 1970’s The Night Of The Purple Moon. Recorded in 1972, released on (quad) LP in 1973. This wasn’t physically reissued for 45 years! The new version has a much worse album cover which I will not link here. I was previously unfamiliar with this one, Sun Ra Sundays likes it a lot:

According to the jacket of Astro Black, Sun Ra’s first new recording for ABC/Impulse! was made at “El Saturn Studio” in Chicago on May 7, 1972, but that date is questionable since the Arkestra was just leaving California in May -- and the studio name is “strictly mythic” (Campbell & Trent p.186) Whatever the date or actual location, it was clearly made in a professional recording studio as the sound quality is exceptionally good. Sun Ra was obviously determined to take advantage of the mass exposure a major label could bring, producing one his finest albums. Notably, Ronnie Boykins makes a welcome return on bass after a long absence and he is prominently featured here, driving the band to great heights. The Arkestra is augmented with both Akh Tal Ebah and Kwami Hadi on trumpets, Charles Stephens on trombone, Alzo Wright on violin and viola, along with several conga players, who give much of this record its avant-exotica feel. But Boykins’s clearly inspires Sonny and his fluent explorations on organ and synthesizer throughout the album demonstrate a consummate mastery of electronic instruments. Astro Black is, in my opinion, one of Sun Ra’s crowning recorded achievements.

The 2018 Bandcamp edition is remastered, but has no extra material. The liners there give more detail about the Impulse deal:

After years of self-releasing albums on his own Saturn label, Sun Ra signed with ABC's Impulse jazz imprint in 1972. A reissue series of earlier hard-to-find Saturn LPs was undertaken, along with a few new projects. The first premiere, Astro Black, was recorded and released in 1973 in the now-obsolete quadraphonic format (tho it was playable on stereo phonographs). The undertaking signaled a noble campaign on the part of Impulse producer Ed Michel to mainstream Sun Ra and broaden his audience, without any sacrifice of artistic integrity.

But the effort was doomed: the label suffered commercial losses on the project and lost faith in avant-garde space funk. Within two years, after corporate reshuffling (i.e., firings and hirings), ABC's Sun Ra project was abandoned. The company clipped the corners of the cardboard sleeves and dumped the lavishly illustrated gatefold LPs in record store discount bins (or as some disgruntled fans claimed, UNDER the bins). Yet the Sisyphean venture produced some worthwhile new music.

remastered, but has no extra material

every once in a while, this is a relief to read :)

really enjoying "astro black" so far; this is the first time i've encountered this one. "hidden spheres" is particularly good, i love ronnie boykins's bass playing, reminiscent maybe of cecil mcbee from the same era. and i think i'm hearing a stray cuíca yelp towards the beginning ?

Impulse producer Ed Michel

i knew that michel had taken over for bob thiele (who went on to form flying dutchman), but i had never heard the reasons for thiele's departure. from wikipedia:

One of Thiele's last productions was the Louis Armstrong song "What A Wonderful World", which Thiele co-wrote and produced for ABC's pop division shortly before Armstrong's death. Although the musicians were apparently unaware of the drama, the recording session is reported to have been the scene of a clash between Thiele and Newton. When Newton arrived at the session he became upset when he discovered that Armstrong was recording a ballad rather than a 'Dixieland'-style number like his earlier hit "Hello Dolly". According to Thiele's own account, this led to a screaming match; Newton then had to be locked out of the studio and he stood outside throughout the session, banging on the door and yelling to be let in.

anyway, ed michel gives an account of how he signed the arkestra in "The house that Trane built: the story of Impulse Records" which i'll reproduce (partially) here:

Impulse was sensational from my point of view. Nobody involved with the operation knew anything at all about jazz. I was doing lots and lots of new recording, and lots and lots more reissues—the only time my presence was required anyplace besides the studio was during semiannual Sales Meetings. I would be advised that I’d be given perhaps half an hour to play excerpts from from upcoming new releases for the Sales and Promotion guys from the distributors.

I’d spent a bunch of time in meetings grousing about how swell it would be to do some interesting artist-signing, and pointed out, repeatedly, that Sun Ra had never had any representation on a “real” label.

[…]

Remember, this is 1972, when, in terms of radio play, “underground” press exposure, and an open-minded buying market, it seemed like anything was possible. So, after some telephone conversations and a couple of deal memos went forth from ABC to Saturn, into a meeting in Jay Lasker’s office went a fully enrobed Sun Ra and his Chicago-based business partner Alton Abraham. A standard Artist’s Contract was presented. Alton put it in his briefcase, shook hands all ‘round, and said, “We’ll look it over and get back to you,” and they were gone.

The following day, Alton was back with a retyped contract, turning everything on its head, with ABC, rather than Saturn, at the short end of the stick.

All the air puffed right out of the deal. I tried to explain the Inexplicable Behavior of These People, and pointed out that if it wasn’t possible to make a New Recording Artist Deal, perhaps it might be possible to make a Licensing Agreement for part of the Saturn catalog.

Amazingly, it worked. I still don’t know why or how. So an agreement was drawn up, under which twenty-one Saturn LPs were to be made available on Impulse, along with a sampler to be drawn from those sides.

also want to add this ed michel anecdote from the studio:

I liked to mix at the pain threshold. It was really loud. We were mixing it quadraphonically in a relatively small room. Sun Ra was sleeping deep and snoring loud. For some reason, I stopped the tape in the middle of the tune. He came awake, wheeled his head like an owl does—all around the room, checking everything out. He said, 'You Earth people sleep too much.' He put his head down and started to snore again.

1972 - Space Is The Place

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An enduring classic, most of us gathered here have probably heard this. ILX’s own stevie writes for the BBC:

“By the time Ra recorded Space Is the Place in 1972, many of his contemporaries in jazz were also exploring the very Outer Reaches he’d made his own several years earlier. But even in the era of free jazz and fusion, Ra was plotting his own path.”

Originally released in 1973 on LP. I’m not sure if this was released on Blue Thumb because the Impulse deal didn’t cover this LP, or what. Most of what comes out around now is on Impulse. Weirdly, Impulse got the reissue rights and issued it on CD in 1998.

Sun Ra Sundays has some details as well:

“Hoping to capitalize on the impending release of the movie, Space Is the Place, producer Ed Michel brought the Sun Ra and his Arkestra to Chicago’s Streeterville studios to record an eponymous album for the Blue Thumb label on October 19 & 20, 1972. In all, enough material for four albums was cut on these dates although only two were ever issued (see Campbell & Trent pp.189-192). Blue Thumb LP BTS 41 was released in 1973 and reissued on CD by Impulse! in February 1998. Why Impulse! chose to release this instead of their own (arguably superior) Astro Black remains a mystery to this day. Still, Space Is the Place is an (almost) great album, cunningly compiled to represent the panoply of Sun Ra’s music from swing to bop to free-jazz to outer-space chanting and beyond.

By 1972, sixteen-track recording was becoming more common and it is apparent from the side-long title track that Ra (and/or producer Michel) was keen to take advantage of this new technology by the use of overdubbing and elaborate stereo mixing strategies.”

While this record is on the Sun Ra Bandcamp page, there is no remastering or other extra stuff, must be a rights thing with the master tapes. Added to our Spotify playlist.

https://sunramusic.bandcamp.com/album/space-is-the-place

i introduced my students to sun ra this week :)

yaaaay!

that's awesome LL! which one did you play? did they like it?

This performance of "Take the A Train" because we had already listened to other versions of it & they would be able to tell that his interpretation was a departure from the ones they had heard previously
https://youtu.be/k341z3dsXy4

i'm not sure they liked it exactly, but they definitely appreciated the inventiveness of his playing and dedication to experimentation. it was the best class i have had with this group in quar time, that was nice.

that Montreaux version is so good

1972 - Discipline 27-II

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Released as an LP on Saturn in 1973, the only quadrophonic record to be released on Saturn proper (“a sign of the times” as Sun Ra Sundays dryly notes). Legitimately reissued just a couple of years ago after almost 50 years of zero reissues or press aside from a couple of grey-area bootlegs. The remastered version on Bandcamp notes:

Discipline 27-II was recorded in 1972, a product of the same sessions that would yield Sun Ra's legendary Space Is the Place LP. The recordings took place October 19–20 at Streeterville Studios, Chicago, featuring the largest Arkestra line-up Ra had taken into a studio. The date was produced by Impulse! and Riverside veteran Ed Michel.

There have been several atrocious-sounding bootleg editions on the market, but this 2017 fully authorized remaster reveals the rich clarity of these sessions. This edition was remastered for Strut Records by Peter Beckmann from the original master tapes in the Sun Ra Music Archive, under license from Sun Ra LLC.

On the original 1972 Saturn version released by Sun Ra, the 24-minute title track was inexplicably divided into four separate tracks at arbitrary points, thus interrupting the flow of the work. On this remastered edition, the title track has been restored to its proper length without interruption.

The LP version, released by Strut for Record Store Day 2017, features complete original artwork, full roster of players on each track, and new sleeve notes by Francis Gooding.

A CD edition was issued in October 2017 by Corbett vs. Dempsey Records.

Note yet another blatant fuckup in the Impulse reissue series, random silences inserted into a sidelong track, what a travesty.

Sun Ra Sundays writeup in the link, he loves the first side and hates the second. I will listen after posting here and see what I think.

OK "Neptune" is awesome, and apparently only on this release and a recent comp? I swear I've heard it before.

idk I dig the second side, I like the vamp the band grooves on, and the vocal interplay

the swelling, undulating horn motif + the hyper-tense free improv interplay of "discipline 8" are amazing. disjointed and tense, and then it sort of falls apart: cue "neptune" (welcome respite from tonal confusion and rhythmic uncertainties while still crisp and sharp), great moment.

1972 - I Roam The Cosmos

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Just gonna C&P the entire Bandcamp writeup for this relatively new 2015 release, recorded in June 1972.

The composition "I Roam the Cosmos" has never before appeared on a commercial release. (It should not be confused with "We Roam the Cosmos," an entirely different Sun Ra title which has been issued.) The massive Campbell-Trent Sun Ra discography contains only two references to this title: a Voice of America monophonic tape of a 1973 performance at Carnegie Hall; and an audience tape of a 1974 performance at Hunter College. This recording is neither—it's clearly a soundboard recording and it's in extreme stereo.

The cosmo-drama begins with June Tyson reciting the lyrics to "Astro Black" over the dirge-like "Discipline 27-II" groove; it then segues into call-and-response declamations between Sun Ra and Tyson as the Arkestra sustains the languid "D27-II" rhythm for close to an hour, punctuated by choruses of horns. Seemingly switching identities—all in the first person—Ra intones cosmic philosophy, conjures enlightenment, proffers myths, and delivers dire forecasts, with Tyson echoing and dramatizing each invocation.

Based on tape box markings, the performance took place in July 1972 at the Lower East Side jazz mecca Slug's Saloon, located on East 3rd Street, where from the late 1960s to the early '70s Ra and the Arkestra frequently performed all-night sets. The personnel fluctuated, depending on who showed up, who could play (or capably fake) an instrument, and the bandleader's divinations. These legendary evenings were raw and unpredictable, often calamitous, and not without artistic controversy. They brought Sun Ra to the greater attention of New York jazz habitués and advanced his reputation for audacious showmanship. The 1972 album Universe in Blue contained performances recorded there, and many Slug's tapes survive in the Sun Ra Music Archive collection. The audio fidelity, room tone, channel separation, and mic artifacts on "I Roam the Cosmos" are very similar to those on Universe.

These recordings are not hi-tech; they were reportedly captured with a pair of microphones placed on or near opposite sides of the stage. Considering this primitive set-up, the fidelity is quite good, and the raw cosmic soul of this Sunny-June duet is undeniable.”

https://sunramusic.bandcamp.com/track/i-roam-the-cosmos-premiere-release-1

No physical release, added to Spotify playlist.

cool, i'll be listening later today

oops, July '72 not June

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"

okay so now this album has moved straight to the front of the cue for tonight's listening

or i guess i mean queue

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

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

"by meeee and my arkestreeee"

1972 - Life Is Splendid (Live at the Ann Arbor Blues & Jazz Festival)

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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.

also, what the FUCK is going on at the end of this "Space Is The Place"?

somewhere between thirty and four thousand simultaneous percussion solos

yep just bought the Wake Up Angels discs

<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

1973 - Pathways To Unknown Worlds/Of Mythic Worlds side B/Friendly Love

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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

Bandcamp link:

https://sunramusic.bandcamp.com/album/pathways-to-unknown-worlds-remastered-2019

sleeve, do you have files for the ann arbor sets ?

just 1972 if U want that one, untracked (OG CD)

sleeve (at) efn (dot) org

awesome, thx

"pathways" is amazing so far, they sure are letting their hair down !

1973 - The Cymbals/Symbols Sessions (partly released on Deep Purple side 2)

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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.

https://sunramusic.bandcamp.com/album/the-cymbals-symbols-sessions-new-york-1973

thanks!

so far this sounds very of a piece with the "pathways to unknown worlds" LP, which i guess makes sense.

(np)

it definitely gets into space barbecue mode around track 3

lol

here's what ed michel looked like by the way:

https://i.imgur.com/lvK3IjG.png
with archie shepp and roy burrowes c. 1972

lol, hippie!

1973 - Crystal Spears

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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.

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

god I fucking love it when Allen plays the oboe

cool soundz on this one

1973 - Sign Of The Myth

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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