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

really dig the sparse vocal / percussion / keyboard track "the song of drums" from "sub underground #1" with these two:

Eddie Thomas (Thomas Thaddeus): vocal (3)
Akh Tal Ebah (?): 2nd vocal (3)

and then just BOOM right into the funk with "the world of africa"

stoked for OBTKO / D99

i definitely recognize this version of the cover art:

https://img.discogs.com/EZGlYPFi4Oy0cVb4bY5FwUulxtw=/fit-in/600x615/filters:strip_icc():format(jpeg):mode_rgb():quality(90)/discogs-images/R-8782338-1485363352-2577.jpeg.jpg

^^ yeah I posted that for the "Sub Underground" entry, can't check right now but maybe that design was used on multiple releases?

firing this new one up now

it is such a typical Sun Ra mess-with-yr-head thing that the intro was lifted from a totally different show!

the grand piano sounds really great on this one, no idea what all the whining about "sound quality" is on about

maybe it's because my brain is mush, but this "discipline 99" sounds so very different than the ones we've heard before. sounds very very indebted to ellington, beautiful dense harmonies with the swelling propulsion

xxxp to myself

oops sorry I posted that cover way back under "What's New/Invisible Shield", damn hybrid releases

August 17th, 1974 - The Antique Blacks

https://f4.bcbits.com/img/a3901814992_10.jpg

Another originally-rare one pressed to sell at shows that has gone through several updates/permutations. Today is it probably the best known of the 1974 recordings I think? Originally released on Saturn in 1974 with the cover art posted by budo jeru above:

https://img.discogs.com/lcxFmNb_alqpLv3gFloD77dcYyo=/fit-in/600x450/filters:strip_icc():format(jpeg):mode_rgb():quality(90)/discogs-images/R-2876404-1422207800-6418.jpeg.jpg

and a number of variants:

https://img.discogs.com/rJihg_S_B6uXbHY6pNeNKXYJ4ew=/fit-in/400x300/filters:strip_icc():format(jpeg):mode_rgb():quality(90)/discogs-images/R-2876404-1438454293-9800.jpeg.jpg

https://img.discogs.com/dFXaJQoeKjcFbkFYDxhR8OxXwNU=/fit-in/600x600/filters:strip_icc():format(jpeg):mode_rgb():quality(90)/discogs-images/R-2876404-1526984899-8676.jpeg.jpg

The Antique Blacks, original copies of which are quite rare, was one of those LPs that Sun Ra pressed in very limited quantities to sell at concerts and club dates. The recordings apparently originated from a 1974 Temple University (Philadelphia) radio broadcast. Like many independently pressed and self-released albums on Ra's Saturn label, it's a mixed bag of material with little continuity or consistency. That's not a bug—it's a feature. It contains a jaunty jam ("Song No. 1"), a few songs, and lots of Sunny's declamatory (and inscrutable) sermonizing.

Then, as usual, 35 years went by until Art Yard reissued it on 2009.

After a 30+ year absence from the market , it was reissued on CD in 2010 by the U.K. label Art Yard, who replicated the LP sequence. In fact, due to the absence of tapes, a vintage vinyl copy was used for the reissue, which included a mono bonus track, "You Thought You Could Build a World Without Us.”

But last year it got updated again, as per the 2019 Bandcamp remaster/revision:

After the completed CD production, Michael D. Anderson of the Sun Ra Music Archive discovered the master tapes from the date. One of the revelations was that three tracks from the LP, "There Is Change in the Air," the above-named bonus track, and the album title track, were actually part of a continuous 24-1/2 minute suite. When the original LP was compiled, some bridge material had been edited out, and three components of the suite were isolated as standalone tracks. For this digitally remastered edition, the entire suite is presented for the first time (and in full stereo). In addition, "Song No. 1," which was the opening track on the LP, has been placed where it stands in sequence on the tape, as track 4.

What sounds like an audio glitch at 7:21 in "Space is the Place" is in fact a four-second patch of tape spliced in reverse—Sun Ra's contribution to the sinister '70s practice of lyrical backmasking.

There was some speculation about the source of "You Thought You Could Build A World Without Us." Based on comments made by Sun Ra himself on WKCR in 1987 (when it was aired), Sun Ra discographers Robert Campbell and Christopher Trent speculated that the track was an outtake from the 1972 film soundtrack for Space is the Place. However, RC/CT note that electric guitarist Dale Williams did not join the Arkestra until 1974. The discovery of the master tape confirms the provenance of the performance.

Historical footnote: Producer Hal Willner claims he witnessed these sessions at Temple University. Ask him about it.

https://sunramusic.bandcamp.com/album/the-antique-blacks

interesting theories from Sun Ra Sundays on this one:

On August 9, 1974, Richard M. Nixon resigned as President of the United States. I imagine this extraordinary event was on Sun Ra’s mind when, a week later, he assembled a small Arkestra for a live radio broadcast at Temple University in Philadelphia on August 17 [FN1]. While not making any direct references to Nixon, Ra took the opportunity to sermonize at length and he felt strongly enough about the performance to edit the recording for an LP entitled, The Antique Blacks, released on his own Saturn label later in the year (Saturn 81774). Ra clearly felt he had to get his message out. In actuality, this record was pressed in vanishingly small editions, sometimes re-titled, Interplanetary Concepts or There Is A Change In The Air and with various covers, including a generic “Acropolis” sleeve (see Campbell & Trent, pp.212-213). Like the mystical texts in his personal library, The Antique Blacks was probably made available to only initiates or persons Ra felt could decode his deeper, spiritual meanings. The ever-resourceful Art Yard label has reissued the album on CD with a bonus track recorded at the same session—but beware: Ra’s philosophizing is as inscrutable as ever, making this a strange and difficult listen for the casual fan. Keep in mind: it was a different era.

https://nuvoid.blogspot.com/2011/05/sun-ra-sunday_29.html

v interesting

whoa the electric guitar 3 minutes in is nuts

I miss Outic and Kate’s reliable input on these, but I’m glad there are still people following along.

September 6th, 1974 - Wake Up Angels disc 2 (Ann Arbor Jazz & Blue Festival)

https://f4.bcbits.com/img/a2636405847_10.jpg

The last set included in the Art Yard double CD, once again John Sinclair has staggeringly extensive liner notes. Here’s a small excerpt, all typos in the original:

Meanwhile, In Windsor. Sun Ra & the Arkestra took the stage at the Ann Arbor Blues & Jazz Festival in exile following an Introduction by Bobby Bass of WJZZ-FM and-as the evidence on this disc Indicates-turned the place upside down. A long passage of introductory music improvised by Ra and the ensemble is followed by a seamless program of some of the Arkestra’s greatest hits – -Discipline 27″ and -27-11: ‘Love In Outer Space,” -The Shadow World: -Space Is The Place.- “Second Stop Jupiter: “What Planet Is This: “lmages,” “Watusi- and the closing “Sun Ra and His Band From Outer Space”-plus one number which is thought to have previously been unrecorded, the daring anthem titled ‘It Is Forbidden: The ranks of the Arkestra Included Ra’s greatest reed section ever, with Marshall Allen, John Gilmore, Elo Omoe, Danny Davis, James Jacson and Danny ‘Pekoe” Thompson. plus Kwame Hadi and Akh Tal Ebah on trumpets, Dale Williams on electric guitar, Detroit’s own Reginald –“Shoo-Bee-Doo” Fields on bass. Clifford Jarvis at the drums and Stanley “Atakatune” Morgan on congas. June Tyson and the Space Ethnic Voices, Judith Holton and Cheryl Banks, strutted and crooned out in front of the band, framing the mind-boggling keyboard improvisations and fierce chanted philosophy of their undisputed leader, the great Sun Ra. The multi-track master tapes of the Arkestra’s performance were quite reasonably withheld by recordist Chuck Buchanan when it became clear that he could not be paid for his work. and they’ve never been seen again. What remains is the cassette tape recorded from the board mix during the performance, now transferred Into the digital realm and available again on this two-disc set from Art Yard.

Once again there is some excellent historical context here:
https://aadl.org/node/197478

https://aadl.org/sites/default/files/aa_sun/aa_sun_19740809_p018-001.jpg

Bandcamp link here:
https://sunrastrut.bandcamp.com/album/wake-up-angels

i too miss the thoughtful contributions of shakey and Kate. hopefully they'll both be back at some point.

that ann arbor sun scan is fantastic: DO NOT BRING YOUR STASH ACROSS !!

i'd recommend to anybody who's interested to read john sinclair's full liner notes to the art yard release: it's a fascinating bit of history of the white panther party's evolution into the rainbow people's party and its efforts organizing the AABJ, with some behind-the-scene peaks at DIY booking + promoting, and also drug deals gone bad and conflicts with the squares on the city council.

i've really enjoyed all the ann arbor sets so far, will probably shell out for the 2xCD.

don't have much to comment on the music specifically except that i find this great. we've moved into an era where it feels like the music is almost uniformly exceptional and we're hearing so many re-workings of a core set of compositions that it's hard for me, as a layperson, to say articulate or meaningful things about a lot of what i've been listening to.

things are gonna change up again soon enough, the late 70's are a whole other world as I'm sure you know.

1975 and 1976 have a LOT less in terms of releases recorded in that time period, we're heading into a sparse zone.

May 1975 - What’s New (“We Roam The Cosmos”)

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The sole Sun Ra recording available from this year, amazingly. We’ve been through the earlier 1963 tracks on the A-side of the rare 1975 Saturn LP What’s New, but some even rarer versions came with this side-long B-side, “Live recording possibly May 23rd 1975 unknown venue”.

You can listen to this via the Bandcamp reissue page for the LP and associated tracks:

https://www.discogs.com/Sun-Ra-And-His-Astro-Infinity-Arkestra-Cosmo-Earth-Fantasy-Sub-Underground-Series-Vol-1-2/release/4085654

forgot to spin this — will check back in tomorrow !

my apologies, that's not the Bandcamp link and you can't stream it

https://sunrastrut.bandcamp.com/album/cosmo-earth-fantasy-sub-underground-vol-1-2

here's the Youtube:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=psvO0AIF3iA

whoa, intense one

this is awesome.

this is one of the ones i heard about but never managed to track down back in the day... eventually art yard put out "i roam the cosmos" and i sort of gave up. glad it's findable now, this is indeed an awesome and powerful variation on "space is the place".

1976 - Live At Montreaux

https://img.discogs.com/pThuKb8K9EtlI_A2PPll56BXtjE=/fit-in/600x600/filters:strip_icc():format(jpeg):mode_rgb():quality(90)/discogs-images/R-609984-1229180364.jpeg.jpg

https://www.discogs.com/Sun-Ra-His-Arkestra-Live-At-Montreux/master/319222

Szwed:

“In the summer of 1976 the Arkestra began their fourth tour of Europe with twenty-eight people and ended with fourteen, playing all the major festivals, Paris, Montreux (where they recorded Live at Montreux), Pescara, Nimes, Northsea, Juan-les-Pins, and Arles, and were greeted everywhere as celebrities. Yet once they returned home to Philadelphia, they still sank back into semiobscurity, the band playing down the block at the Red Carpet Lounge to a neighborhood audience of twenty, or at outdoor free concerts in the parks of North Philadelphia, to which sometimes no one came (p.341).

We now enter the brief “Inner City” era, a US label that released the studio LP Cosmos in 1976, and later reissued this LP in 1978. This 1975-76 era is the most under-documented period we’ve seen since the late 50’s, only a handful of releases over the two years. Then things explode again in ’77, but we have one more to go.

Sun Ra Sundays:

“While very little documentation survives of this tour, Live At Montreux was to become a watershed album for Ra. Recorded for a state television broadcast at the legendary Swiss jazz festival on July 9, 1976, it was first issued as a two-LP set as Saturn MS87976 and reissued by Inner City as IC1039 in 1978 (Campbell & Trent, pp.222-224). Live At Montreux would be one the few Sun Ra records to be widely available in the late-1970s and early-1980s and it was, for many people my age, their first (and perhaps only) exposure to his music. But what a great record it is! Ra was provided a decent piano and he makes good use of it (along with his battery of electronic keyboards), guiding the Arkestra through a remarkably inventive setlist. The enormous band includes many returning alumnus, including Pat Patrick on baritone sax and flute, Chris Capers on trumpet and Craig Harris on trombone, and their performance is uniformly first rate. Moreover, the sound quality is excellent—a blessed relief after all the grungy bootlegs we’ve been listening to lately. In fact, it might be one of the best-sounding releases in Ra’s enormous discography. In many ways, Live At Montreux is the definitive Sun Ra album.”

Unfortunately, this one isn’t on Bandcamp/Spotify, but there are some scattered Youtube links to parts of it:

https://www.google.com/search?q=sun+ra+live+at+montreux+1976

Dig this A+ version of ‘Take The A-Train” which I believe La Lechera used in her music class!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k341z3dsXy4

Sorry for the short week, will try to post more next week.

oh FFS I didn't fix my title typo, yes it is "Montreux"

here's a familiar release !

v happy to re-visit this today

huh, i never noticed before that sunny calls ellington the composer of "take the a train"! well he was always more into fletch...

on side 4 now, I have a US Inner City 2LP that survived an initial (ill-advised) purge of my Sun Ra section and has been in my stacks for decades now. yeah, this one has it all.

1976 - Cosmos

https://f4.bcbits.com/img/a1518380454_10.jpg

Originally released on the French Cobra label, the following year on Inner City in the US, and then on a series of ill-fated reissues with screwed up sound, some bootlegs, and finally a real Bandcamp remaster in 2016.

From Sun Ra Sundays:

While on their fourth tour of Europe in August 1976, the Arkestra (a portion of it, anyway) entered Studio Hautefeuille in Paris to record an album for the French Cobra label, which released later in the year as Cosmos (COB 37001).

Some notes from the Bandcamp remaster:

Each time it resurfaced, the audio quality changed, sometimes for the better, sometimes not. On the 1991 CD, the bass was mixed at woofer-quaking levels; the Inner City LP sounds flat.

The presence of the ROCKSICHORD—a slightly cheesy electronic harpsichord popular in the late 1960s with psychedelic bands and some avant-garde composers—links Cosmos with Ra's 1970 album NIGHT OF THE PURPLE MOON. Though six years apart, they are in some ways companion albums (and in some ways, not). Like Purple Moon, Cosmos features a more accessible side of Ra, a mix of relatively earthbound ensemble jazz and pan-galactic excursions.

This one is totally new to me but I am way down for a new studio session, time to cue it up.

oh see also this intriguing quote from SRS:

But as great as the band sounds on this date, it is Ra’s electric keyboard that makes this such a delightfully engaging record for me. Throughout the album, Ra’s Rocksichord has this weird, wire-thin, reedy sound quality, upon which he pours some molasses-thick phase-shifter that hisses away incessantly in the background. Now, in anyone else’s hands, this would be unbelievably cheesy, even amateurish. Yet Ra guilelessly tackles the wide variety material and, through his visionary technical abilities, miraculously balances the seemingly limited electronic keyboard textures with the expansive, acoustic Arkestra to create a decidedly strange, but appropriately otherworldly ambience.

i love the label design on the original french release:

https://img.discogs.com/1txp9NJicoFUJccvWHvGZqLmWNg=/fit-in/600x600/filters:strip_icc():format(jpeg):mode_rgb():quality(90)/discogs-images/R-1067705-1193094726.jpeg.jpg

i was initially relieved to hear how crisp the sound was and, like you, was looking forward to a studio session, but i just hate the way the electric bass sounds on this, especially when it's doing the more conventional walking lines on the more straightforward big band arrangements. it's a shame because the horn arrangements are great and the soloists are killing it. it's WAY cheesier than the rocksichord, which i actually think sounds really good. so in that regard SRS otm. bass sounds nice on "interstellar low ways" tho.

"moonship journey" refrain is going to loop in my head for the rest of my life

early 1977 - A Quiet Place In The Universe

https://img.discogs.com/QIwkLURdwrbG356tpHoD978qeBg=/fit-in/600x590/filters:strip_icc():format(jpeg):mode_rgb():quality(90)/discogs-images/R-2550456-1581183082-1110.jpeg.jpg

Released on CD by Leo Records in 1994. “Later Campbell-Trent discography (The Earthly Recordings of Sun Ra, 2nd edition, pp. 235) suggests early 1977 and add an unidentified female vocal.”

The first of ELEVEN releases recorded this year, an embarrassment of riches. Not on Bandcamp or Spotify but we got a Youtube:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=drs11_p7Pdw

SRS: “As befitting the title, A Quiet Place In The Universe is a somewhat subdued affair lacking any wild, skronky improvisations, rip-snorting big-band numbers—or even a single Gilmore solo. Nevertheless, it is a uniquely satisfying album with the title track worth the price of admission for its rarity alone. It also helps that the sound quality is excellent throughout. Leo CDs can be a little hit-or-miss, but this one is a keeper.”

Totally unfamiliar with this one, so just gonna dive in.

i feel like i need to find a quiet place in the universe right now, so this is perfect timing. thank you sleeve.

<3 love u Kate

i really enjoyed this

I got a little overwhelmed by the volume of stuff over the next few years, but I'm gearing up for this again. How's everyone doing? Any thoughts on the 70s so far?

heyooo

maybe i can find time in the next few days to do a refresher course of what we've covered so far, starting in 1970.

stoked to continue on at whatever pace feels good for you, sleeve

heh there’s actually been one late 70s album I’ve been waiting for you to get to, don’t know how renowned it is, I probably just like it because it’s gentle

well, not gentle, exactly, just... light?

1977 - Solo Piano Venice

https://f4.bcbits.com/img/a0751819819_10.jpg

As far as I can tell, Ra was in Europe during the early part of this year. Following on from the previous “A Quiet Place In The Universe”, here we have the first of numerous solo piano gigs that come up over the next few years.

I think the only other solo piano we’ve heard up to this point is Monorails & Satellites? Anyway, this was released via Bandcamp back in 2015, no physical release.

https://sunramusic.bandcamp.com/album/solo-piano-venice-1977

I stand corrected, this was released on CD and LP:

https://www.discogs.com/Sun-Ra-Piano-Recital-Teatro-La-Fenice-Venezia/master/313256

From the liner notes to a *different* 1977 solo piano release:

For a few years, beginning around 1977, Ra revisited the piano as a solo vehicle. He recorded two albums for the Improvising Artists Inc. label, as well as one, "Aurora Borealis," for his own Saturn label (recorded 1980, issued 1981). He also recorded a solo piano set in Venice in '77; it was posthumously released on CD (and is available digitally in our catalog).

ive got those two improvising artists LPs, i like them a lot. its fun to hear him in that intimate mode, just him and the keys

i thought this was nice. a nice space to be in, intimate for sure.

sleeve, thanks for starting this back up and for persisting through the overwhelming amount of material and discographical info. as always, feel free to get at me if you need help or feel like taking a hiatus !

1977 - In Some Far Place (Roma 1977)

https://img.discogs.com/vFLA-0D4BsmC4jUpBCxKY0vWFy8=/fit-in/600x590/filters:strip_icc():format(jpeg):mode_rgb():quality(90)/discogs-images/R-8710889-1470581437-5606.bmp.jpg

Recorded in Italy, but not released until 2016 on Modern Harmonic.

From Discogs:

Lovely live show from Sun Ra that was probably shelfed (sic) for years because Sun Ra's piano was recorded too high resulting in slight distortion. This is at its worst during the first couple of tracks but gets better as the show progresses. Despite its limitations it's nice to have this document that stretches over two records. Sun Ra is joined only by drummer Luqman Ali with the occasional vocals from Thomas Thaddeus.

Sadly this isn’t on Bandcamp or Youtube, but I did add it to the Spotify playlist.

5/20/77 - Solo Piano, Vol. 1

https://f4.bcbits.com/img/a2064659379_10.jpg

"Solo Piano, Vol. 1," the first of Ra's two albums for IAI, features four originals, a Jerome Kern standard, and Ra's arrangement of the traditional "Sometimes I Feel Like a Motherless Child." The album was issued on LP in the US in 1977, and on CD in Italy (1992) and Japan (2004). A live set—"Volume 2" of the IAI two-album deal—was recorded in 1977 at the New York venue Axis-in-Soho and issued the following year under the title "St. Louis Blues." The Axis performance was filmed and later issued for the home video market.

https://www.discogs.com/Sun-Ra-Solo-Piano-Volume-1/master/222835

https://sunramusic.bandcamp.com/album/solo-piano-vol-1

This one isn’t on Spotify, though.

7/3/77 St. Louis Blues

https://f4.bcbits.com/img/a1674820238_16.jpg

The 3rd solo piano release in 1977 alone, the second on the IAI label. The official Bandcamp has some serious revisionism going on:

"St. Louis Blues," was recorded live at the Axis-in-Soho venue in July 1977. It was issued on LP in 1978, and on CD in Italy (1992) and Japan (2004). The album presents four original works and Ra's interpretations of three Tin Pan Alley standards.

In 1996 IAI issued a videotape (VHS format) of the concert, which had been recorded live with multiple cameras. During the performance, the camera stream with applied video synthesis was projected for viewing by the club audience. On the VHS edition, the opening album track, "Ohosnisixaeht," was replaced with a live rendition of "Sometimes I Feel Like a Motherless Child."

For this Bandcamp-only digital release, audience response has been omitted before and after each track. All you will hear is the music performed by Sun Ra, none of which has been edited or processed in any way. If you prefer to hear the recordings in the original concert context, with applause, hooting, whistling, and exclamations, they can be heard on the LP and CD editions, as well as on digital editions at other platforms. We feel these audio artifacts intrude on intimate listening to Sun Ra's rhapsodic keyboard meditations. In addition, the digital album cover for this Bandcamp-only release differs from the original release, featuring an adaptation of the back cover of the original LP and CD. We opted to distinguish this modified music-only edition from the original version which contains audience response.

https://sunramusic.bandcamp.com/album/st-louis-blues

https://www.discogs.com/Sun-Ra-St-Louis-Blues-Solo-Piano/master/284136

(also not on Spotify, like the other IAI album)

i used to have vol. 1 on LP, not sure what happened to it.

just moved so haven't had a chance to check in, but looking forward to playing these in my new space

7/8/77 Solo Piano At WKCR

https://f4.bcbits.com/img/a1356730229_10.jpg

How about another one?

This set of Sun Ra solo piano works was performed and broadcast at WKCR Radio, on July 8, 1977. WKCR, the largely student-run station of Columbia University, has a decades-long tradition of fine jazz programming. During Sun Ra's career, he made so many appearances at the station that he probably had a front door key. Sometimes he performed (with or without members of the Arkestra), other times he would present rare and unreleased recordings. This solo piano set was rebroadcast several times over the years, and is documented in The Earthly Recordings of Sun Ra (Robert L. Campbell and Christopher Trent, 2nd ed., 2000), entry #252. ]

https://sunramusic.bandcamp.com/album/solo-piano-at-wkcr-1977

No physical release, added to Spotify.

for the rest of the year, we are going to return to our "regular" Saturn fare, FYI

i now have my “earthly recordings” and the szwed book out next to the stereo ... transmitting remotely but will check in via laptop tomorrow !!!