Jazz Articles about Sun Ra

Sun Ra: Sun Ra Featuring Pharoah Sanders & Black Harold

by AAJ Italy Staff
October 1, 2009

Esce in CD un leggendario disco dell'orchestra di Sun Ra, registrato dal vivo nel 1964, stampato in quantità limitata dalla Saturn nel 1976 e per lungo tempo introvabile: l'interesse degli appassionati era dovuto soprattutto alla presenza del giovane Pharoah Sanders, colto prima di entrare nell'orbita coltraniana. Quest'edizione è molto più di una ristampa in quanto aggiunge quasi 45 minuti di musica che erano state escluse dall'edizione in Lp. La registrazione risale al 31 dicembre 1964, uno dei giorni del festival ...

Sun Ra: Sun Ra (featuring Pharoah Sanders & Black Harold)

by Jerry D'Souza
June 10, 2009

The event was billed as Four Days in December, and on the last four days of 1964, Judson Hall in New York City was witness to a torrent of free jazz. The series of concerts featured Cecil Taylor,Bill Dixon, Archie Shepp, Paul Bley, John Tchicai, Roswell Rudd and, perhaps fittingly enough on New Year's Eve, the Sun Ra Arkestra.

The Arkestra was without regular tenor saxophonist John Gilmore. His place was filled by Farrell Sanders who changed his ...

Sun Ra

by Stuart Broomer
June 6, 2009

Sun Ra and his Arkestra New Horizons Fresh Sound 2009 Sun Ra Featuring Pharoah Sanders and Black Harold ESP Disk 2009 Sun Ra Live at the Electric Circus/Newport Jazz Festival Transparency 2008 Sun Ra Live in Cleveland Leo Records 2009

Sun Ra: Live in Cleveland 1975

by AAJ Italy Staff
June 3, 2009

Fantastico Sun Ra! Questo concerto registrato a Cleveland nel gennaio del 1975, sebbene la qualità del nastro non sia delle più brillanti, si apre all'insegna del funk-rap più immediato, con il basso elettrico di Dal Williams a sorreggere le voci dei componenti dell'Arkestra in una “Astro Nation" che è gospel cosmico e mantra propiziatorio, stordente come un Gil Scott-Heron che conduce le creature della galassia in una marching band... cose da brividi! Il 1975 è anno di forte transizione per ...

Sun Ra: Featuring Pharoah Sanders and Black Harold

by John Sharpe
April 23, 2009

Sun Ra Sun Ra: Featuring Pharoah Sanders and Black Harold ESP-Disk 2009

Any newly available, 1960s vintage Sun Ra would be cause for celebration, so ESP's unearthing of 45 minutes of well-recorded stereo is wonderful indeed. Five new pieces supplement the six tracks which made up the previously issued version of this title on the keyboard player and bandleader's own Saturn label. Often disputed, the provenance of the original release, which didn't ...

Sun Ra: Concert for the Comet Kohoutek

by Henry Smith
February 25, 2009

Composer, keyboardist and bandleader Sun Ra's intimate connection with the cosmos is well documented, but it was rare that Ra was given cause for real celestial celebration. That opportunity did come in 1973 however, when Ra and his orchestra played a show in celebration of Kohoutek, a comet whose sighting was billed as the “Comet of the Century." Though the comet was ultimately a visual disappointment, the concert was an aural success; the Arkestra is in a loose and comfortable ...

Sun Ra: Secrets of the Sun

by Troy Collins
October 10, 2008

Another recently unearthed rarity in a seemingly endless discography, Secrets of the Sun documents a fruitful yet somewhat under-represented period in the storied career of iconic keyboardist and bandleader Sun Ra. Recorded in New York in 1962 at jazz workshop sessions, only Blast First's 1996 compilation Out There a Minute contains comparable material.

Originally based in Chicago, Sun Ra's Arkestra underwent a gradual conceptual evolution upon moving to New York City in 1961. Marking a transition in its ...