Sun Ra: Lights on a Satellite: Live At The left Bank

Sun Ra's 1978 performance at Baltimore's Left Bank Jazz Society ballroom had something for everyone. The great man and his Arkestra, along with singer June Tyson and dancers, performed jazz from its inception to what Ra predicted (correctly) as its future. This recording is the second unissued discovery from Zev Feldman, the "Jazz Detective," and it follows the sprawling At The Showcase: Live In Chicago 1976-1977 (Elemental Music, 2024). These years, the late 1970s, were an interesting time for Ra. He established a base for his orchestra in Philadelphia, after residencies in Chicago and New York, and toured Europe and Egypt. His music, first recognized in Fletcher Henderson's band, expanded outward, incorporating his claimed encounters with aliens and a trip to Saturn. Before this 1978 concert, he had starred in Space Is the Place (1974), an Afrofuturist film that mixed science fiction with Ra's philosophy, and released a recording of the same title on Impulse! Records.

While his direction was focused on the future, Ra was never finished with the past, and this concert is an excellent example of just that. We hear some Henderson classics, "Yeah Man" and "Big John's Special," performed with that get-up-and-dance swing. Sun Ra and his Arkestra, which included the jazz legends John Gilmore and Marshall Allen (who is still going strong at 100 years old, as this is written), execute these swing classics with perfection. They also navigate bebop compositions by Tadd Dameron and Miles Davis. Ra's piano performance of Harold Arlen's "Somewhere Over The Rainbow" and Arthur Johnston and Sam Coslow's "Cocktails For Two" begin with elegance. The latter merges into a duet (probably with Marshall Allen) before blasting into a modernist new-thing sound. This interweave of the old with the new is a hallmark of the Arkestra's performances. The two discs capture the majesty of his big band sound with now-classic hits like "We Travel The Spaceways" and "Lights On A Satellite," while Tyson's vocals are featured on "Tapestry From An Asteroid."

Wait, as they say in advertising, there's more. Ra mixes his classic sound with wild electric guitar on the percussion-heavy "Band Intro/Thunder Of The Drums" on which Ra's synthesizer sputters, adding spitting electric currents. There are two additional tracks, the swinging "Left Bank Blues" and Thelonious Monk's ''Round Midnight" remastered from Robert Mugge's 1980 film Sun Ra: A Joyful Noise, captured at the Left Bank performance. From the applause, the audience for this show was a mix of jazz traditionalists, rock and experimental music freaks. Everyone went home happy.