Lanquidity
When Angels Speak of Love
Pathways to Unknown Worlds/Friendly Love (twofer on 1 CD)
The Great Lost Sun Ra Albums [Cymbals/Crystal Spears] (2 CD set)
Sun Ra’s Greatest Hits
(Evidence Music)
The Birmingham, Alabama-born composer/bandleader Herman “Sonny” Blount was undoubtedly one of the great American musical mavericks of the 20th century. Re-christening himself with the Egyptian moniker Sun Ra and claiming his origin as the planet Saturn were alternately part of an elaborate, cuttingly humorous social critique of a racist, unjust society and a declaration of separation from that society – a bold claim-lay to a culture of intellect, discipline, and mystery.
In his time on this planet, Sun Ra successfully realized many of the goals of his Quixotic ambition: he kept a big band together through the thick and thin (mostly thin) of the notorious world of jazz economics, he pioneered the use of electronic instruments and overt African influences in jazz, and he articulated a musical vision that encompassed the blues of the South, the sophisticated intervals of Thelonious Monk, the rhythm and pageantry of Egyptian/African ritual, the dignified discipline of the big bands, and the uncharted territory of outer space. Conservative tightasses in the jazz world freaked out over the whole thing, and many of them are still missing out on some of the greatest music of our times.
In the early 90’s (when Ra was still living) Evidence Music kicked off a miraculous reissue series of Ra’s rare recordings for his own El Saturn label. This series appeared to come to a halt a few years ago with the double-CD set “The Singles” (which collected all the bizarro El Saturn ’45s, including some doo-wop!), but thankfully it has returned to life with this latest pack of 5 releases containing some super-rare sides and even 3 complete sessions(!) that were previously unreleased.
Lanquidity comes from the Arkestra’s “Philadelphia period” of the late 1970’s and is an ultra-rare collectible on the vinyl market (copies have fetched $400 on ebay). Now an affordable CD, Lanquidity is a charming odd-bird, with hooky horn riffs over chugging funk rhythms sketching an early blueprint for Michael Ray’s Cosmic Krewe. Indeed, Ray (at the time splitting his waking hours between RA and Kool & the gang) is on board here, playing some fine trumpet solos over the somewhat monotonous rhythm section. This is not the most riveting disc of the lot, but there are gems like the Cosmic Slop-esque fawnk of “Where Pathways Meet.”
When Angels Speak of Love, considered to be the rarest of the El Saturn records, is a jaw-dropping document from an essential period in Ra’s development. The year was 1963, the Arkestra had just relocated to the East Village of New York, and the first sparks of the free-jazz revolution were in full combustion. While there is plenty of the headlong charge and saxophone squall associated with the free movement on Angels, an entirely different mindset is at work. RA often sculpted the group improvs with visual cues, exerting composerly control over even the most intense moments. Additionally, this record is sprinkled with Ra’s pioneering use of echo and reverberation, giving an ethereal, weightless feel to the Arkestra horns and percussion. It almost sounds as if Sonny turned the tapes over to dubsters Lee “Scratch” Perry and King Tubby for a remix, but it’s actually the result of a technique accidentally discovered by Arkestra drummer Tommy “Buggs” Hunter when he ran the headphone-out jack back into the input of the tape recorder. The famous John Gilmore-Marshall Allen-Danny Davis-Pat Patrick reed section is in gut-busting form throughout, with Patrick just flooring it on baritone sax in “Next Stop Mars.”
Pathways To Unknown Worlds / Friendly Love is the best value of the discs, collecting two complete sessions from Ra’s peak period of the early ‘70’s on one CD. At this time (1973) all the elements of Sun Ra’s concept – ensemble cohesion, aggressive soloing, african percussion, otherworldly/spectacular live show, Ra’s wild splashes of MOOG-synth – were fully integrated. Arkestra members like the aforementioned sax-section and underrated greats Ronnie Boykins (bass) and Eloe Omoe (bass clarinet) had now made Ra’s music their eat/sleep/breathe regimen for over 10 years, and their dedication is amply displayed in these sessions. Pathways was originally released during Ra’s brief dance with the high-profile Impulse label, but the Friendly Love session of the same year has never seen release til now and is a major find. Ra leads the group through many guided improvisations – not “free” improvs – as he favored discipline over freedom and was often playfully critical of the political and musical freedom rhetoric that was the vogue of the time. In these sessions, Ra uses his Arkestra like a palette of rich paints from which he can select, splatter, and smear vivid colors, textures, and delicate flourishes that emphasize the tactile properties of organized sound. The result is an aural canvas of unfolding beauty.
The Great Lost Sun Ra Albums is the treasure trove of the set, rescuing 2 more unreleased sessions from 1973. Unlike much of the necrophiliac detritus that winds up on jazz box sets these days (“hey, here’s 10 minutes of Trane and Miles crunching potato chips in between takes of ‘All Blues!’…”) these were actual recording sessions planned for release on Impulse before relations with the label soured. Impulse sure missed out, cuz these 2 discs are rife with inventive music from Sun Ra’s finest hours. The Crystal Spears session opens with a slicing blast of mini-MOOG that sounds like Ra auditioning to play “Sister Ray” with the Velvets, then proceeds into swinging grooves and ensemble ferocity. Cymbals is equally great, though utterly different. Ra is primarily featured on organ, with a smaller group playing the darker hues of his music – blues, violets, indigos. Ra’s organ ripples and swims over malletted drums, evoking the languid, peaceful darkness of the cosmos. Tenor saxist John Gilmore takes a marathon run of choruses over the bluesy vamp of “Thoughts Under a Dark Blue Light.”
The very idea of a Sun Ra’s Greatest Hits is ludicrous – how to sum up a 150+ album career (with no “hits” as such) in 70 minutes? Evidence knows this, so the collection is cheekily subtitled “Easy Listening for Intergalactic Travel.” For the total neophyte, this sampler makes for a nice introduction to the varied worlds of Sun Ra. From the early, tightly constructed big band works to the loopy afro-stellar vocal classics like “Rocket Number Nine” and “We Travel the Spaceways,” the scope of Ra’s vision is apparent. There’s not much extended-length improvising here, but any listeners so-inclined will want many of the complete albums anyway.
As with previous Sun Ra releases on Evidence, the presentation is top-notch all the way. Original cover art, period photos, copious liner notes by knowledgeable writers, best possible sound (especially considering the often rough condition of the master tapes), and original psychedelic designs on the discs make all these Evidence issues proud additions to anyone’s CD shelf.
One only hopes that the influence of Sun Ra and other crackpot American mavericks like Harry Partch, Moondog, Braxton, Harry Smith, John Fahey, Cecil Taylor and others will help restore depth and beauty to the horribly co-opted, Kapitalized, generic-scape our country is becoming. Discs like these could be the seeds.
