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Sun Ra in the '70s: Disco and Some Blues
by Clifford Allen
Sun Ra Disco 3000: The Complete Milan Concert Art Yard 2007 Sun Ra Some Blues But Not the Kind That's Blue Atavistic 2008
The free innovations of the '60s brought Sun Ra to New York and into contact with composer/ improvisers like Bill Dixon, Alan Silva and Michael Mantler, a scene ...
Continue ReadingSun Ra: Springtime in Chicago & Concert for the Comet Kohoutek
by Francis Lo Kee
Sun Ra Concert for the Comet Kohoutek ESP-Disk 2007 Sun Ra Springtime in Chicago Leo 2007
The great composer/bandleader Sun Ra would urge his musicians, “play what you don't know to become “tone scientists . Hence, Sun Ra Arkestra concerts would vary greatly in detail and feeling from one night to ...
Continue ReadingSun Ra: The Night Of The Purple Moon
by Troy Collins
One of a rare handful of small group sessions, The Night Of The Purple Moon is one of bandleader Sun Ra's most accessible and enjoyable albums. Similar in scope to side one of Atlantis (Evidence, 1967), Cymbals (Evidence, 1973), New Steps (Horo, 1978) and Other Voices, Other Blues (Horo, 1978); this stripped-down studio session is a unique example of Ra's wide-ranging artistry. Dominated by the sound of the Rocksichord (or, in Saturnian parlance, Roksichord) Ra plays the newly ...
Continue ReadingSun Ra: Toward The Stars
by Nic Jones
The bandleader, keyboard player and composer christened Herman Blount made his reputation under the name of Sun Ra, and this compilation of pieces from the early years of his career could almost be an exercise in confounding expectations at the same time as it amounts to a strong case for Ra and his recorded legacy.
In later years his band became a whole lot more than a band; never was the notion that the band that plays together stays together ...
Continue ReadingSun Ra: Strange Strings
by Troy Collins
Emblematic of its title, this is one of the most unusual albums in the vast discography of visionary bandleader Sun Ra. In league with such classics as Heliocentric Worlds (ESP, 1965), The Magic City (Evidence, 1965) and Atlantis (Evidence, 1967), this obscure session focuses on similarly intense long-form improvisations. Originally recorded in 1966, Strange Strings is the culmination of Ra's most otherworldly experiments.
Pre-dating the comprovisations of Butch Morris and the game pieces of John Zorn, this is ...
Continue ReadingSun Ra and His Space Arkestra: What Planet Is This?
by John Eyles
It is appropriate that this double album is being released by Leo Records' Golden Years imprint. Recorded in New York in July, 1973, it features as large an Arkestra as any that Sun Ra put together and includes all of his key collaborators. What Planet Is This? comes from the crucial period when Sun Ra had progressed from cult status to wider recognition, a process aided by a strange alliance with the MC5. But unlike the '50s and '60s (which ...
Continue ReadingSun Ra: Nothing Is...
by Rex Butters
ESP's welcome reactivation continues with this reissue of Sun Ra's Nothing Is. The 1966 live recording has been resequenced to the set list's playing order, and it includes newly discovered performances. The improved package offers a more intimate look at one of Ra's most attractive ESP sessions.
A dramatic build deflates to cubist Harlem with Sun Ra's piano solo intro to the opening “Sun Ra & His Band From Outer Space. Following the chant, the Arkestra blooms in sound and ...
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