Sun Ra • At the Showcase: Live in Chicago 1976-1977
Sun Ra • Lights on a Satellite: Live at the Left Bank
almost certainly saw Sun Ra before I heard any of his music. He was very photogenic. There were the robes and headdresses, which made him resemble a ruler or holy man, although he claimed to be from Saturn. His music is often called experimental or avant-garde jazz, but that pigeonholes it too much. Imagine a musical Venn diagram that includes Esquivel, John Cage, Captain Beefheart, Brian Eno, Art Ensemble of Chicago, and Count Basie. Where they intersect is Sun Ra, a profusion of color, his boundless unpredictability and improvisational genius on full display. Unpredictability and improvisational genius mean different things to different listeners. What I hear in Sun Ra's music is a teetering between overt, in-the-moment expressions of the creative process -- the sense that you are hearing the very genesis of a composition, its right-nowness -- and the pure joy of making music. He was born Herman Sonny Blount in Birmingham, Alabama. In the 1940s, he worked with bandleader Fletcher Henderson as a pianist and arranger, and then with Coleman Hawkins and Stuff Smith as a sideman. He began leading his own band in the mid-1950s, evolving from playing bop to music that interwove diverse cultural influences. He experimented with early electronic keyboards and began playing a kind of free jazz before it was established. These two concerts come from the 1970s, after Sun Ra achieved a level of renown and founded the Archestra, a group of over a dozen like-minded, eclectic instrumental and vocal musicians that still exists today, over thirty years after its leader's death in 1993. The Chicago concerts were recorded at the Jazz Showcase, while the Left Bank is in Baltimore, Maryland, not Paris. The concerts were only a couple of years apart, but Sun Ra's approach to his music ensures they are not carbon copies of each other. They are distinct moments in time, like bugs caught in amber, unique and amazing. The Baltimore concert audaciously begins with a drum solo, followed by some Theremin-like electronic near-noise and shouts from the band, then a serene female vocal accompanied by drums and other voices. It's deconstructed jazz at its most charming. In Chicago, the music begins with a flute solo that may seem like noodling until the percussion kicks in. Then African drumming and sounds from deep space (?) enter. In both cases, the entirety of the music -- two LPs worth, over a dozen long and short numbers -- flows at its own pace, under its own logic, punctuated by moments of swing and honky-tonk, followed by cheers from the audience. The various numbers become at times like one long cut. It's surprising and disorienting, and great fun, which is the point. I would say that you have to open your mind to appreciate this music, that it's the proverbial acquired taste, but if you've listened to enough modern jazz, it will seem both familiar and brand new. While these sets are on different labels, both are Zev Feldman productions, with the help of Michael D. Anderson, who oversees the Sun Ra Musical Archive and transferred the music from the original tapes. Joe Lizzi remastered the audio, and Mathew Lutthans cut the lacquers at Cohearant Audio. The LPs were pressed at Le Vinylist in Quebec City, Canada. These sets were released in 2024 Record Store Day and RSD Black Friday in runs of 2300 and 3000, but copies of both are still available. In many ways, I'm surprised at the sound of these not-for-release sets. It preserves the sense of a soundstage while never losing individual instruments in what is a busy mix. The included booklets contain the standard reminiscences and overviews of Sun Ra and his ever-changing oeuvre from writers and musicians. I enjoyed reading the various materials, but the photos drew my closest attention. I can only imagine what seeing it all was like: a stage full of musicians, Sun Ra in the center, resplendent in his regal garb. It must have been a feast for the eyes and ears. If you are unfamiliar with Sun Ra, consider these
recordings both a primer and a musical vacation. On some vacations, people sit on the
beach and take in the sun. On others, they climb a mountain. These recordings are like
climbing a mountain on a sunny beach -- the best of both the routine and the challenging. |
