Search & Destroy: Sun Ra

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

Visiting Paris, seeing them Sunday night!

Sun Ra's house now a Philadelphia historic landmark
https://www.phillyvoice.com/sun-ra-house-philadelphia-historic-landmark-designation-germantown-arkestra/

Marshall Allen is still incredible at nearly 100. See them if you can!

Saw them open for Parquet Courts in 2018 - between both acts, it was one of the best shows I've ever seen.

"Sleeping Beauty" is one of the greatest compositions in any genre ever.

Sun Ra's Full Lecture & Reading List From His 1971 UC Berkeley Course, "The Black Man in the Cosmos" (Open Culture) : https://t.co/IdxXCyF2MS pic.twitter.com/nDKC3XWth2

— reaktorplayer (@reaktorplayer) July 29, 2022

Does anybody remember what year Sun Ra played Brixton Academy in the early to mid 80s. I thought I would find it with a simple google search but not finding a gigography that stretches back that far. Seeing listings for Academy cutting out in the late 80s.
Have been hoping i might be able to find out what he/they were playing. Should still be in a period where they were playing some really great space funk but also when he was doing gigs based in a more classic jazz style. I have some recordings from the time of the latter but do think I prefer the former.

according to setlist.fm he played there on 15 June 1984.

this Facebook post also refers to it.

this ad for it suggests the set style -- GLC always there w/the funk!:

Sun Ra headlines 3 days of jazz, funk, Latin, African and more... NME, 26 May 1984. #NME #MyLifeInTheUKMusicPress #1984 pic.twitter.com/cCeiZHfjRr

— nothingelseon (@nothingelseon) December 11, 2019

He played The Venue in Victoria Street (near Victoria Station) in 1982 and again in 1983, and the Fridge (Brixton) in 1985 -- with yrs truly reviewing lol (do not read if you hate me/want to post this on worst-music-writing-of-all-time thread etc)

Live! Sun Ra! The Chills! Three Johns! NME, 23 November 1985. #NME #MyLifeInTheUKMusicPress #1985 pic.twitter.com/eGILcKEka3

— nothingelseon (@nothingelseon) July 28, 2020

(@nothingelseon is a good resource for nme and mm ads, there's another guy who does pages from sounds)

ok thanks
Seems like it must have been a good one.

@dubdobdee wuz there: in the Fridge w @SunRaUniverse : (finding chaos under the sleek hood of taste &) "They pretend to indiscipline...they work for their fun here...it's the way it has to be." https://t.co/1HOByFZe0A

— Don Allred (@0wlred) August 27, 2022

Great review Mark! That Chills review was a stinker tho

I'm hoping that someone somewhere might have the audio of that night in June 84 cos I don't think I've seen it in the time I've been torrenting. Which is like 16 years.
Have heard some of his more classic jazz sets from the time which are pretty good and wondered to what extent a particular lineup of the band changed the sound o fa tune from 30 years or more earlier. Assuming that it was largely the same lineups playing the deep space funk and these standards etc anyway. Like if experience playing other musics put new slants on interpretation etc.
Do prefer the deep space funk but the standards and other older songs were done pretty well anyway.

I think I was still thinking that he was a pretty out free jazz player at the time so may have shaped my hearing of the set if he didn't get weirdly out. But have listened a lot more widely since. I think I enjoyed the set but probably didn't think it was quite up to like Say or the noisier parts of live at Montreux or something. So would love to get to listen back

https://www.library.upenn.edu/events/kislak-stacks/collecting-sun-ra

Zoom event tomorrow (Oct. 20 noon) with John Szwed talking about assembling an archive of Sun Ra recordings.

Thanks for sharing!

Marshall Allen interview - 100 years young this year!

https://www.theguardian.com/music/2024/feb/02/a-man-cannot-learn-without-discipline-jazz-guru-marshall-allen-on-life-with-sun-ra-and-turning-100