astro1_rohit started this list. If I remember correctly, he wanted to have a listener-collected and compiled list of about 15 albums to guide an unfamiliar listener into the waters called Sun Ra and the Solar-Myth Arkestra. (Pinning down the name for the Arkestra is a little like settling on a name for a deity--there are a 1000 names for the joy of the Arkestra.)
Rohit suggested that we tag the entries using commonly agreed upon top level tags to describe the music on the albums. Electronic, soul jazz, free jazz, bebop, big band. You get the picture. At first, I argued with Rohit that someone who was looking for soul jazz, after listening to Jimmy Smith, Dr. Lonnie Smith, Lou Donaldson, Gator Jackson, Eddie Harris, might think they had left reality behind looking for Sun Ra's soul jazz. And, I too, momentarily left my senses when Rohit described an album as free jazz. I argued with him that it was not! free! jazz!
First let me apologize to Rohit. As I have listened to hour after hour of Sun Ra over the last two weeks, I have to agree that from the perspective of listeners now approaching Sun Ra, much of his catalog
would have to be called free jazz.
I explain my perspective below in the write-up of Art Forms of Dimensions Tomorrow. I trust you'll see how I deluded myself into thinking it was not.
And not that those tags couldn't fit Sun Ra, I just don't know if they help--in such a large catalog--pick an entry point without some framing for why one think sso. I mean, I have around 45 or more Sun Ra albums, but I couldn't say I had ever heard
either of the albums Rohit nominated, so I wondered why these are great places to start with El Ra. I'm intrigued, of course, and will go out and get those on his recommendation, but the tags tell me nothing.
As if you could not tell by now, I am a huge Ra fan, one who had the thrill of seeing the Arkestra many times in many configurations. Once, he led a conga line around the Quiet Knight on Belmont in Chicago, the band passing through the audience, Ra pausing every several people to embrace them and whisper in their ear. In mine, he said: "To live forever, you must give up your death. Give up your death and live forever!"
And so, to the list:
Quoth Sun Ra:
the music is different here, the vibrations are different... not like planet earth... planet earth sound of guns, anger, frustration... there is no one to talk to on planet earth to understand... it would affect their vibrations, for the better of course... equation wise, the first thing to do is consider internal linktime as officially ended... we'll work on the other side of time... we'll bring them here through either isotope, internal linkteleportation, transmolecularzation... or better still, teleport the whole planet here through music..
For those who will remain skittish, I'm going to recommend a compilation, released in 2000 on Evidence. It is still widely available, and its name is
Greatest Hits: Easy Listening for Intergalactic Travel. I hesitate to put "best ofs" or greatest hits compilations on these sorts of lists, because I think it is a cop out to say that this serves as the best introduction to an artist.
In Sun Ra's case, I'll put this one as an addendum to the MAC Where to Start with Sun Ra Guide, because as accessible as Evidence tries to make this 18 song anthology, the Sun's peculiar rays manage to shine through. Also, because of the format, Evidence picks only a smattering of Ra's best known works but still manages to show the arc (the Ark?) from intergalactic swing band to full-blown Cosmic Exploration.
Music Advice Center: Where to Start with Sun Ra
(alpha by album title)
Sun Ra -
Angels And Demons At Play + Nubians Of Plutonia (1960 original releases on Saturn Research); These two albums span a range of recordings across six or so years, from their extended residency at Club de Lisa to the verge of their move to New York. I picked this one because it is easily available in this twofer form, and because together they take Sun Ra from his
Ellingtonia-on-steroids (Urnack, Tiny Pyramids, Angels & Demons) to the verge of the anthemic compositions that would repeat through much of the rest of his career (Nubia, an abbreviated Watusa, Aethiopia).
Sun Ra -
The Antique Blacks (1978) [electronic, free jazz, psychedelic]
Sun Ra - Astro-Black and Space is the Place (1972; Impulse); During the early 70s, Sun Ra improbably landed a contract with ABC/Impulse records. Impulse released a lot of the old Saturn Research recordings with new artwork and liner notes, but also some new, then-current material. Much of the ABC/Impulse catalog reverted to the Ra collective, and a lot of these were repackaged as twofer CDs. My next selection is two Impulse albums that
should have been packaged as an Evidence two-for-one, but I don't think they ever have been.
Astro-Black and
Space Is the Place are a faithful presentation of what the band was like in performance (although these are studio recordings) in 1971/1972.
Here's an important distinction to remember about Sun Ra and his Arkestra that will help erase the line between "live" and "studio," at least before the giant leaps in digital recording technology that started to be commonplace in the 80s, and also between the typical US venues that the Arkestra played live in the 60s and 70s. Many shows in jazz clubs that would book Sun Ra had an almost equal number of people in the band as in the audience. OK, that's an exaggeration, but it was common for a "crowd" of 30-50 to see Ra before he started to get a lot of festival bookings and caught on with the college crowds. The next consideration is that the band, the lifestyle, was no act. While I am uncertain how much the band put stock in Ra's Myth-Science, his creation and salvation stories are not all that unbelievable stacked up against Elijah Muhammed's "Dr. Yakub" and in fact share a similar outer-space origination myth. I note this because there was an element of communal living to the Arkestra, so when they played "in studio," that usually meant within the living complexes the band had fashioned in Chicago, New York, and eventually, Philadelphia.
So a "studio" audience frequently had as many fervent and appreciative guests as a live performance. So when I say that Astro-Black and Space is the Place capture the essence of what the Arkestra played live, you can believe it. Both feature the vocalese of June Tyson. No, she's no
Jeanne Lee or
Abbey Lincoln, but I don't believe they could dance or choreograph as well as Tyson could, so, nyah! Both albums feature the African Liberation (but in this case liberation for the entire planet) chants that became a fixture with the band from the mid-60s on (It's after the end of the world...
don't you know that yet?!?!?!) and through the two albums you get the sort of scope of a typical Arkestra concert, the cosmic explorations on the Solar Sound Organ, the Ellington-on-speed double time jump tunes, the free-sonic-jazz, and the rhythm and repetitions, the walking on a riff of the Sun Ra experience.
Sun Ra -
Cosmic Tones for Mental Therapy + Art Forms of Dimension Tomorrow (rec. 1961-1963?) Evidence 2-for-1 cd release mid 1990s); The first album I ever had by Sun Ra was Art Forms of Dimensions Tomorrow, that I bought around 1969 or 1970. I was not yet "into" jazz, although I had probably a dozen jazz albums by 1970. So, yeah, I had this album that I bought at a record shop because Ra's reputation was HUGE around Chicago, and I heard a couple of tunes on
Triad Radio, a progressive free form station in Chicago. They played Kraan, Amon Duul, Krokus, Elmore James, Etta James, Mingus, Coltrane, and, yes Sun Ra.
And my stereo consisted of a turntable, an all-in-one Panasonic tape player/AM-FM receiver, and headphones. I'd put on my headphones and fall asleep with Art Forms for Dimensions Tomorrow playing.
I didn't have any language for "jazz" at that time, so I related to Sun Ra's freeform explorations from music I was more familiar with, that of
Harry Partch and
Edgard Varèse. It seemed to me that Ra had some fringes-of-mainstream jazz mixed in with this free-form musique-concrete. So, I was still an outsider to jazz at that point and all my subsequent listening to Sun Ra made me put him in a category where he played raucous interpretations of mainstream jazz along with 20th century "classical" explorations. As I've been listening to
John Gilmore rip the ever-lovin' out of the tenor, I shake my head and say, "Sorry, Rohit, you ARE right, this IS free jazz."
Now, I put Art Forms of Dimensions Tomorrow on my list of albums to start with for Sun Ra because, well, because
I started listening to Sun Ra with that album.
Satellites Are Spinning is still a favorite, and at times, I am that 16 year old again, in bed under the rafters in my parents' unfinished attic, reading Catch-22 or Been Down So Long (It Looks Like Up to Me) or with all the lights off and the rumble of the heavy traffic providing muffled percussion to the Arkestra.
You can get Art Forms as a twofer with Cosmic Tones for Mental Therapy. I had to buy them as vinyl. On the plus side, I still have my vinyl.
Sun Ra - Discipline 27-II (1973) [free jazz, soul, vocal jazz]
Sun Ra - The Heliocentric Worlds of Sun Ra Vols. 1 & 2 (1965 original release dates on ESP); I had a completely other pick in mind when I started writing about A&D/Nubians. I was going to choose Lanquidity which is from the third great period, the space-jam jazz band. It's very accessible even for those who may be afraid of what they've heard
about Ra rather than having actually
heard him.
But for those looking for the more "free" as in free-improvisational, largely amelodic Arkestra, I'd start with ESPdisk 1014 and ESPdisk 1017, available again as a twofer: The Heliocentric Worlds of Sun Ra Vols. 1 & 2 (find the 2006 remastered version, ESPdisk 4026). This is the height of Ra's free jazz period, the claiming of the terrestrial territory of New York City, the Chicago hard bop receding in the mirror. This was a seminal album in the jazz world, its impact massive and well beyond its relatively small sales at the time. There is a later recorded--and much later released Volume 3. Can't say I've heard it.
Walt Dickerson and Sun Ra - Impressions of a Patch of Blue (rec. 1964? Verve CD release 1999); Impressions is a duet, an anomaly to the list, but not to anyone who has spent anytime delving into the Ra catalog.
Impressions Of A Patch Of Blue, recorded in 1964 or 1965 with Walt Dickerson on vibes and Ra on piano or clavinet. The eight tunes are Dickerson & Ra's impressionistic arrangements of the movie score for the MGM movie
A Patch of Blue, starring Sidney Poitier. This is a side of Sun Ra often overlooked, but present throughout his life, I'd argue, the cinematic sweep, the sound of the atmosphere that accompanies life as it is lived on the screen. One of two disks known/available from this duet. Dickerson was also once part of the Arkestra, but had a long career on his own merits. Sadly, Walt Dickerson died last month.
John Cage and Sun Ra - John Cage Meets Sun Ra (1987) John Cage Meets Sun Ra, Meltdown MPA1. The two giants met at Coney Island, June 8, 1986, 22 years ago this week. Ra improvises on his Yamaha keyboard & Cage reads interludes from
Empty Words (part IV). An arts organization put together something called Sideshows at the Seashore, and these two shared the stage for communal improv. I never knew this existed until Paul D. Miller gave a lecture at the U-M School of Architecture & Urban Planning, and his alter-ego DJ Spooky & I were giggling like fools over some of the rarities in his stacks. I saw this and was stunned. I guess I put it into the introduction to Sun Ra sets because a part of Sun Ra's persona wanted to be taken seriously, very seriously as a 20th Century composer/performer. I saw him play Bartok's
Music for Strings, Percussion & Celeste on his rocksichord with an army of percussionists and two guitarists and a bassist for the strings. For a complete introduction to Ra, you have to hear the Fletcher Henderson, the Cecil Taylor, the Bud Powell, the James Brown, the Pharoah Sanders, and the Bartok in him. btw, the Cage people have made it possible for you to find out more about this and to hear it at:
http://www.johncage.info/cdlabels/meltdown1.html
Sun Ra -
Lanquidity (1978; cd release 2000); Lanquidity is, again, one of those chill-out groove albums from Sun Ra to play for your skeptical friends when all they've heard or experienced from Sun Ra is the riotous cacophony of Solar-Myth or Nothing Is. Rhythm and repetition are two keys to Sun Ra, and Lanquidity came at a time when Sun Ra was hitting a glorious stride, but was already so far out of the popular mainstream opinion that these albums (Lanquidity, On Jupiter, Sleeping Beauty) had the sort of limited pressings and availability that plagued the Saturn recordings in Chicago. Limited distribution, a fierce (and justifiable) resistance to manipulation by record companies, and the ability to answer in 3-hour sentences when a simple Yes or No would suffice kept Sun Ra out of the public consciousness.
Sun Ra - Live at the Hackney Empire (rec. 1990; CD release 2000 on Leo); Which brings me to the next one, which
is a live date from the Arkestra, but by this time (1990), Ra is an elder statesmen, he's appearing in a concert hall(?) on
Live At The Hackney Empire. Guest artists include Charles Davis on baritone sax, Talvin Singh and Elson Nascimento on percussion, and India Cooke on violin. This one presents 2 & 1/2 hours over two disks (on Leo) of the band in concert as it was sequenced. Leo also recorded and released an Arkestra performance the night before in France,
The Pleaides,
which included a dozen Parisian symphonic musicians. The material was substantially different between the two nights--but this was typical of the Arkestra. When you've had the nucleus of a band together for 30+ years, you tend to develop a deep play book.
Sun Ra - Music for Tomorrows World (rec 1960; rel 2002)
Sun Ra - Outer Spaceways Incorporated (1968; Black Lion);
Outer Spaceways Incorporated is a gem that was released on Black Lion in the late 60s. The contrasts between the laconic rhythmic chanting (
We Travel the Spaceways) and the airy, piano-flute-bass-percussion of
Spontaneous Simplicity keep the listener interested, and the introduction to the Arkestra rewards the seeker for the effort. Also released as
Pictures of Infinity. Same album. The CD adds one track (which I
don't have.
Sun Ra -
Sleeping Beauty (lp 1980, check Dusty Groove for upcoming cd release June 15) Now for the late night, soulful-but-funky Sun Ra: Sleeping Beauty. This is what I've refered to as the jam-band Ra. I'm sure this is what Trey Anastasio must have heard as an introduction to Sun Ra, the trilogy of Lanquidity, On Jupiter, and Sleeping Beauty. Eddie Gale, Michael Ray and long time Ra colony member Akh Tal Ebah are on trumpet here, and John Gilmore, Eloe Omoe, James Jacson and Marshall Allen all play reeds, and someone credited in some places as "The Disco Kid" plays guitar. On all three of the albums cited, the band gets into a cosmic groove, with mystic crystal revelations from June Tyson and others, and Ra's suggestions become lengthy groove based solos for at least a couple trumpeters and a sax or two. Julian Priester supposedly guests on trombone, at least on Lanquidity. I don't have credits handy for Sleeping Beauty or On Jupiter. But of the three, I highly recommend dipping the toes in with Sleeping Beauty*.
Sun Ra - The Solar Myth Approach Vols. 1 & 2 (rec. 1967-1971; LP releases, 1971; 2-for-1 CD rel. 2001); The Solar-Myth Method 1&2 are two further excursions into out-there from El Sun Ra. They were released on BYG-Actuel (and rereleased on Varese-Sarabande) and fit in well with so many of the other explorations on BYG during that time: Alan Silva, Archie Shepp, Don Cherry's Mu Parts 1 & 2, Claude Delcloo.
Sun Ra - Some Blues But Not the Kind That's Blue (rec. 1977; Atavistic CD/eMusic release 2008); The Atavistic label (Chicago) newly unearthed and just released (2008) this 1977 studio recording of mostly standards, interpreted Ra style. I think the title is completely apt, as you can hear the deep connection with the blues that makes up this whole band. John Gilmore is in fine form. There's little of the Cosmic Sun Ra on this, but it's also safe to say that this is not a Stan Kenton band playing the same tunes. A similar album, also well worth it, but very rare, is
Blue Delight, which was on A&M for some strange reason, and included
Don Cherry and
Tommy Turrentine as well as several Arkestra alumni, who had moved on.
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Fifteen years after his ascension back to Saturn, we can be thrilled by this strange little being once again.
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*Personal aside: this one is another album that confirms that the reissue companies wait until I hunt down obscure vinyl or cds before they rerelease material. I finally got an lp of Sleeping Beauty in decent condition, but a white label pressing, so no personnel, no liner notes, no artwork. $25 to a starving overage graduate student is a lot of money. So, it's coming out on CD this month. Other recent (last several years) where this has happened to me: Richard Davis
Now's The Time/Epistrophy, Ginger Baker's Air Force, Clifford Jordan
In the World. Several others. Do you guys want me to let you know when I buy something oop on vinyl, so you'll know that the cd is coming?
The Musical Elitists
