Sitting here in the Media Room, wanting to get back to the relative 'normalcy' that is my so-called life after the utter friction of the holidaze, watching the embers in the fireplace consumed & crumbling symbols of the past several weeks. The band is practicing again this Saturday afternoon in our living room after a brief (two week) hiatus & that will lift my spirits to the heavens but for that immediate gratification that I'm so Jonesing for, I realize I should post something (more out of 'because every other blogger does it' than real desire) here & then I realize that copy-cat or not, that is exactly what I need for a little grounding/cosmic jubilation (caught in the micro/macro loop).I go instantly into magick mode as I enter the vinyl sanctuary, & with Nothin' on my mind I pick an album at 'random', put it on the turntable, drop the arm, flip on the Vapir, kick back in my chair, & partake. I present it here for your listening pleasure...a gift to the New Year from the past/future.
Jazz by Sun Ra, Transition Records #j-10, 12 July 1956.
Dale Young, Art Hoyle - trumpet
Julian Priester - trombone
James Scales - alto sax
John Gilmore - tenor sax
Pat Patrick - baritone sax
Sun Ra - piano, leader
Wilburn Green - electric guitar
Richard Evans - bass
Bob Barry - drums
Jim Hearndon - tympani
from the 1967 Delmark re-issue DS-411:
"Sun Ra styles himself a prophet, embroidered fez above that poached face, enrobed in dark material of dime-store sheen & spattered with a Milky way of stars. Laugh! He writes pamphlet-poetry & daydreams of a space Utopia. Go ahead, laugh! His band looks like a bunch of overgrown boys playing Flash Gordon in mother-made costumes. Snicker...snort...have your fun with this man, his strange garb & garbled strangeness, yet be warned. Don't laugh so hard that you miss his music. You may find a chorus of years & numerous musicians laughing right back in your face.
For Sun Ra is a prophet, & this album is his prophecy, preached & made a matter of record for all to hear, though few have, & too many of those few misunderstood.
July 12, 1956. Charlie Parker was but fifteen months dead, John Coltrane was barely beginning to tug ears as a sideman. No one expected the still-distant messianic coming of Ornette Coleman. The musician usually credited with being the first of the current avant-garde to make his statement, Cecil Taylor was gingerly putting together his pieces, & would have to wait two months for his first recording date, arranged by that aptly-named, far-sighted, though short-lived label, Transition.
On that day, Transition was busy elsewhere, having come to Chicago to summon to a recording studio Sun Ra & ten disciples, the men of his frankly far-out rehearsal band. On that day, this album was recorded."
J.B.Figi April 1965
Brainville
Call for All Demons
On New Year's Day 1938, Herman "Sonny" Blount was deep in the midst of religious concentration when a bright light appeared around him, &, as he later stated:
"....my whole body changed into something else. I could see through myself. & I went up … I wasn't in human form … I landed on a planet that I identified as Saturn … they teleported me & I was down on [a] stage with them. They wanted to talk with me. They had one little antenna on each ear. A little antenna over each eye. They talked to me. They told me to stop attending college because there was going to be great trouble in schools … the world was going into complete chaos ... I would speak through music, & the world would listen. That's what they told me."
Transition
Possession
He returned as Le Sony'r Sun Ra, a member of the "Angel Race", not of this Earth.
Sun Ra developed a complicated persona of "cosmic" philosophies & lyrical poetry that made him a pioneer of Afro-futurism as he preached "awareness" & peace above all else.
Street Named Hell
Lullaby for Realville
He became a world-renowned innovative jazz composer, bandleader, piano & synthesizer player, poet & philosopher known for his "cosmic philosophy", musical compositions & performances. He led The Arkestra, an ensemble with an ever-changing lineup & name (it was also called "The Solar Myth Arkestra," the "Blue Universe Arkestra," "The Jet Set Omniverse Arkestra,") & many other permutations. Sun Ra asserted that the ever-changing name of his ensemble reflected the ever-changing nature of his music.
Future
New Horizons
Jazz By Sun Ra, Transition Records #j-10 (later titled Sun Song) is the debut album to be released by Sun Ra. The LP originally appeared on Tom Wilson's short-lived Transition Records, dated 07-12-1956. In the mid-1960s it was licensed to Delmark Records, finally being reissued in 1967.
Fall Off the Log
Sun Song
It may be a new year, 2008, but we still haven't caught up to the more than 50 year old offerings of this Time/Space traveler. His trip to Saturn happened a full decade before Roswell & flying saucers entered public consciousness, about fifteen years before the contactees & their stories of benevolent Space Brothers were publicized, & almost twenty years before UFO abductions were a public concept. Sun Ra was both prophesying his future & explaining his past with a single act of personal mythology. This album is just the first chapter in the Sun Ra Time/Space journey.
Enjoy.
NØ
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