Search - Sun Ra & His Arkestra :: Music from Tomorrow's World

More Unheard Music

Christopher Forbes | Brooklyn,, NY | 11/14/2002

(3 out of 5 stars)

"Atavistic, those sly folks from Chicago, are at it again with their unheard music series. This time they have unearthed two live sessions from Sun Ra's Chicago version of the Arkestra. The first session comes from Ra's legendary stint at the Wonder Inn on Chicago's South Side. This tape has been rumored to exist for years but this is it's first appearance to the general public. It is a fascinating document of a formative period in the Arkestra's history. The band is small but many Arkestra stalwarts are here including John Gilmore, Marshall Allen and the marvelous Ronnie Boykins on bass. They play a mix of Ra originals and standards. Included are a stunning version of Angels and Demons at Play, better known in it's Saturn records "studio" version. Allen is featured on the atmospheric Sponteneous Simplicity along with another unnamed flautist. John Gilmore shows his bop chops on Space Aura, though you can here him drifting toward the rougher style he would use in later years. The standards are also fascinating. The version of Ain't Necessarily So is classic hard bop, but with it's own weird quirks including some Ra breaks on electric piano. The Majestic Hall sessions are even more obscure than the Wonder Inn sessions. They have not even been rumored to exist. The band is an octet as opposed to the Wonder Inn's sextet. The material is dominated Ra originals, along with some standard ballads, mixing beautiful, almost cocktail style piano from Ra, romantic playing from Bari saxist Ronald Wilson, exotica like Ankhnaton which recall the Arkestra's origins as a stripper show band, modal vamp numbers like Majestic 2, hard bop, tense and dissonant music like Majestic 4 which feature a stunning bari sax solo, and "afro-chants" like A Call for All Demons. The material is fascinating. Words to the wise however...the sound on these recordings is primitive, to say the least. Most of them were probably recorded using primitive homemade equipment. Much of Ra's piano is nearly inaudible when the rest of the band is playing. The horns, particularly Gilmore, don't suffer quite so much, but Ronnie Boykins bass is all but obliterated. And often the audience is louder than the entire band put together. This is particularly distracting in the first two numbers, as they are rather quiet and we get to hear details of the dinner plans of several customers. (Actually, it's kind of refreshing to hear the enthusiasm and spontaneity of the crowd later in the gig.) The Majestic sessions are a little better and the band has more presence. But neither session sounds as good as the first Saturn records and that's faint praise indeed. So this album is really for the specialist...jazz composers, Ra enthusiasts, fans of the wonderful John Gilmore, and anyone interested in a slice of Chicago jazz in the 50s and 60s should definately get this disc. I'm certainly glad I have it. But I'm only giving it three stars, because the sound is so bad and therefore this should not be the CD that a novice to Sun Ra should get. If you are beginning your journey to Saturn with Ra, choose one of the Studio sessions from the 50's...Fate in a Pleasant Mood, Interstellar Low-ways, A Call for All Demons, Jazz in Sillouette. Any of these would be better introductions to the wild, weird world of Ra."

Good for Collectors

Patrick More | Columbus, OH USA | 12/10/2002

(3 out of 5 stars)

"I give this three stars, taking away two for the bad sound quality. It sounds like music on a cheap AM radio in the next room.Don't get me wrong. The performances are great, and every Ra album is important.I especially like the rare vocal version of "China Gate," hitherto available on the studio "Futuristic Sounds" album issued a year later, in 1961. "China Gate" is a kind of Vaughn Monroe thing, but Ra was into exotic foreign settings at that time, like some of Les Baxter's records. It's historically interesting in retrospect because Ra was so avant garde elsewhere.If you are not a collector, you are better off buying any of the 15 or so excellent CDs issued by Evidence Records and available from Amazon."

Oh, if only it sounded a little cleaner...

Kepros | Nampa, ID USA | 12/10/2002

(4 out of 5 stars)

"While the recording quality of these shows leave a lot to be desired, the music is inspired nonetheless. A great window into the variety and energy that made up Sun Ra shows (as I understand them, being far too young to have actually seen one)."