Sun Ra in Chronological Order: An Arkestra Listening Thread + Related Solar Sounds

I was just reading his wiki bio and had not realized he was buried in Birmingham. I guess I'd assumed he was buried in Philadelphia. I think I'll try to make a brief pilgrimage to his grave in 2018.

the magic city

So this thread could potentially go on forever, right?

At least it's good music and not greatest outtakes of The Eagles or some such.

i'm on board though as always spotify is out for me. are we going to cover the doo-wop stuff at all? because man i love his doo-wop stuff, and if we're getting into his mambo i want to talk about "teenager's letter of promises".

sleeve: thanks for your diligence. it's sure to be useful at almost every point (i'll do my best, too). and yeah, pointing out discrepancies as they come up between release / recording date -- that's what i had in mind. otherwise i'd just feel incapacitated. we'll sort it all out as we go.

rushomancy: we'll definitely cover the doo wop stuff. re: listening, since KM is doing spotify, i'm trying to post youtube links as we go along. there's also the (official, more or less) sun ra bandcamp: https://sunramusic.bandcamp.com/ (and that material is also available on itunes)

So this thread could potentially go on forever, right?

yeah.

hopefully!

interlude, 1948-1954

most of this information and ALL of the quoted text comes from this article, which i HIGHLY recommend for its exhaustive coverage of sun ra's chicago period through 1961: From Sonny Blount to Sun Ra: The Chicago Years

1. the "deep purple" duet with stuff smith, recorded in 1948 and first made available in 1973 on saturn 485

http://campber.people.clemson.edu/saturn485act.jpg
listen on youtube

On his very first tape machine, Sonny recorded Stuff Smith and himself playing in his tiny apartment at 5414 South Prairie Avenue. They performed a duet featuring the Solovox, a primitive electronic instrument that Sonny had picked up back in 1941, while still in Birmingham. Sonny had a thing about purple (he thought people would be healthier if they ate more purple food). He released Deep Purple nearly a quarter century later on his Saturn label, and the tune remained in his repertoire for the rest of his career. It would be featured on his very last recording session, when he accompanied Billy Bang for Soul Note in 1992.

2. solo church organ recording, 1948

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IPO7oY8riXc

3. piano accompaniment for the dozier boys

http://campber.people.clemson.edu/aristocrat3002a.jpg
listen on youtube

In October 1948, Sonny became the music director of a successful medium-sized band. Bassist Gene Wright, at the tender of age of 23, was simultaneously running a big band and a 10 or 11 piece aggregration called the Dukes of Swing (two previous incarnations of the Dukes had been in operation in 1943 and 1946). For a while, the big band was upstairs in the Pershing Ballroom while the Dukes held the gig at the Beige Room (as the basement club in the Pershing Hotel was then known). During most of the engagement, the Dukes worked with a vocal-instrumental quartet called the Dozier Boys. Sonny composed or arranged the Dukes' entire book. Many of these pieces were of a strictly functional nature (floor shows again) but their theme number was a suite based on the theme from Spellbound, an ambitious work by composer Miklos Rozsa. If only we were lucky enough to have that on record....

The engagement with the Dukes did bring Sonny some recording work, first as session pianist for the Dozier Boys, then with the entire band. Both sesssions were done for the fledgling Aristocrat label. It was the Doziers who came to the company's attention first, courtesy of bassist and songwriter Willie Dixon.

4. various solo, duet, and trio recordings made at home w/ the ampex. many featuring the nu-sounds of the solovox. most of these recordings are available on the norton and transparency labels (see article linked at beginning of post for specifics). some of these recordings document SR's first compositions, performed by his proto-arkestra small combo.

In 1950 or 1951, he started a band to play his own, frankly far-out music. He called it the Space Trio: one charter member was Laurdine "Pat" Patrick (1929 - 1991), who played alto and baritone sax. The drum chair was occupied on some occasions by Tommy Hunter. On other occasions it was taken by Robert Barry, who would soon emerge as a leading bebop drummer in town.

5. arrangements and accompaniment for the red saunders orchestra, 1948-1953 (see szwed quote upthread). red saunders backed joe williams (see scott's post above), lavern baker, jo jo adams, and dorothy donegan.

http://campber.people.clemson.edu/bluelake101a.jpg

1953 was the year of the arrangements. Sunny was making no commercial recordings of his own, and probably didn't feel that his experimental ensemble was ready to make them. But he was willing now to put his stamp on arrangements written for others, to a degree not previously heard. His name did not appear on a single record label in 1953—in one case the band's didn't either—but Red Saunders was now recording his aggressively "modern" arrangements: "Voodoo Blues," "It's Raining Again," "Summertime." And the opening bars of "Call My Baby" announce, for all who care to hear, that Sun Ra has arrived.

6. six cuts with coleman hawkins, rec. 1953 and released in 1955 on savoy

https://img.discogs.com/CcbBqut9Rvf616wHhj-torO4Le4=/fit-in/592x600/filters:strip_icc():format(jpeg):mode_rgb():quality(90)/discogs-images/R-7877514-1450726598-7314.jpeg.jpg

7. possible arrangement for king kolax, 1954

https://img.discogs.com/iUxyQwP098dGUe58pXDsSJLoKeQ=/fit-in/600x601/filters:strip_icc():format(jpeg):mode_rgb():quality(90)/discogs-images/R-9243083-1477238533-6355.png.jpg
listen on youtube

There is no need for Sun Ra arrangements (or anybody's arrangements) on generic jump band-style R&B like "Right Now," "What Have You Done to Me?," or "Goodnite Blues." However, "Vivian" (presumably named after Vivian Carter of Vee-Jay) is a mysterioso Latin number with percussion breaks built right into the theme. Off the beaten path for King Kolax, but straightforward for Sun Ra at this time. Harold Ousley did not want to rule out "Vivian" as a Sun Ra arrangement either: "Kolax wrote a lot himself, but he also used a lot of other people's stuff."

OKAY! that gets us into 1954/1955, so next we'll move onto the nu sounds / cosmic rays stuff and the rest of THE SINGLES

That Red Saunders "Summertime" is Ra all over.
https://open.spotify.com/album/6olv4cjXzSpX72WATWZomA

oh man, this is a good batch of stuff! the meager musical critical sensibilities i have fall to the wayside when i hear early 1950s music. just about everything of the period sounds good to me.

i updated the playlist where i could - red saunders "summertime", "riverboat", and the red saunders orchestra's "honky tonk train blues". but spotify is missing the sun ra releases that feature a lot of his early recordings through the late 40s and early 50s - Deep Purple (or Dreams Come True) - as well as most of saunders' other recordings. and no dozier boys or king kolax, sadly.

man it all goes weird when you get to "India", huh? jazz heads back then must have not known what hit 'em

"Sun Song" gets there first imo

OK I'll give that a closer listen, thanks! I was making dinner for some of the Spotify playlist last night and I think that's one of the tracks that Karl added later

yeah, it's definitely a work in progress! and any track in the playlist beyond what budo jeru has posted here is very, very provisional.

those Red Saunders tracks are so good

wow, that version of "deep purple" with stuff smith from 1948 is so good. it has a lovely, meandering melancholy sound. stuff smith is good!

This is a great thread, I'll be here for the ride.

(also ty for spotify playlist km!)

no prob! i just hope no one skips ahead of the thread and thinks that the next songs on the playlist represent the correct order! i'm just kinda searching for songs that I think will be upcoming and adding them in the generally correct area of the playlist, but as the thread progresses I'll keep adjusting things to match it.

the solo church recording from 1948 youtube posted above is really good, too. in the midst of these more traditional sessions with other musicians, it shows that he was already interested in going on cosmic voyages in his own work

more youtube links:

Andy Tibbs Dozier Boys with Sax Malllard's Combo + Sun Ra on piano, recorded nov 1948, released dec 1948: In a Traveling Mood (just the first song)
Andy Tibbs & the Dozier Boys + Sun Ra on piano, recorded nov 1948, released jan 1949: In Every Man's Life

Dozier Boys with Eugene Wright + Sun Ra on piano and arrangements, recorded dec 1948, released Sept 1949: Music Goes Round and Round
(couldn't find "Pork n Beans" or "Dawn Mist", from the same session)

after some searching, i found the 6 tracks that Sun Ra/ Blount played on The Hawk Returns (search for "Sun31" here on the amazingly exhaustive Chicago Years link posted above: . They were included on the Confessin': The Astounding Coleman Hawkins comp, which is on Spotify.

Sun Ra studies should be a standard department at universities

Not to be too much of a party pooper, but is the idea of the thread to listen to all the stuff that's been posted so far and then discuss at some point? Or are we going to go song by song like the Billy Joel thread?

(looking forward to 1965 -- "cosmic chaos" is my jam)

xpost
not sure! personally i'd rather go release by release since there are around 125 LPs to go through, not even counting other releases.

i'm not trying to be dismissive but i guess i just don't understand your question. my idea was to post stuff and then anybody is welcome to discuss it, right? or other people can post things, too, that's fine. and also discuss them. maybe once we get to the albums it will be more straightforward. since i feel like we could manage to do a record / day, plus maybe links to archival / live / home recordings from the same period.

oh do you mean like are we going to break down the albums track-by-track? no i'm with KM, i don't want to do that. too much stuff to get through.

xpost @ moodles

all of that sounds good to me

Yep, thanks

(1978 is another banner year. lanquidity!)

i'm pretty sure that these sun ra arrangements of "call my baby" and "rebecca" by jo jo adams (rec. 1952, backed by red saunders) are the same versions as the ones available on spotify.

The pieces may both be midtempo blues in the same key, but the band is clearly reading from charts. The arrangements definitely are by Sun Ra; especially on "Call My Baby," they keep threatening to turn into early Arkestra numbers, then veer temporarily back to the usual formulae. The arrangements are not just remarkable in their own right; they show Sun Ra's "far out" style emerging from its chrysalis. Our thanks to the late Otto Flückiger for careful listening to these sides.

(campbell et al.)

sorry, 1952

errrr 1953 ****

also yeah "lanquidity" rules!

wow there are 1953 sessions with Coleman Hawkins! I'm diving into that crazy "Sonny Blount To Sun Ra" link now

Maybe a couple of days per album...

not a chance! buckle up, pal!

got the jo jo adams, thanks!

and yeah, i'm enjoying the coleman hawkins stuff a lot too. i think the only stuff i've heard with him as a leader is Night Hawk, so it's really cool to get another view of his sound from earlier in the 50s. Blount on the keys is a nice bonus!

also it looks like this comp is the way to go if you want to hear the space trio + other early home recordings. so if any of you heads want to dig into it and then report back, that'd be cool. there's also a discogs review (posted, apparently, by the same person who made a number of the 78rpm youtube videos we've linked to) purporting that the compiler was too speculative re: whether SR is actually the sideman, so it looks like the mystery only deepens the deeper you dig:

https://img.discogs.com/XiHykR2372o7dKLxXBqg5Mu-WjY=/fit-in/312x498/filters:strip_icc():format(jpeg):mode_rgb():quality(90)/discogs-images/R-3282915-1403207320-7971.jpeg.jpg

14 x CD !!!

it's been linked to a few times upthread, but esp. while we're still in this era this is such a great resource: http://campber.people.clemson.edu/sunra.html

just wanted to make sure no one misses it because it's one of those links that you can easily spend an entire evening reading through

highly recommended reading

that entire website is great. the sun ra page is just one of many exhaustive biographies/discographies of musicians of the era. all put together by robert campbell, psychology professor at clemson university. thanks robert campbell!

https://i.imgur.com/lwwa6lT.jpg

btw for those without spotify, there's a lot of stuff on bandcamp. here's a recent A Guide to the Many Sun Ra Albums Now Available on Bandcamp

https://i.imgur.com/qd4Mpp0.jpg

church organ recordings are amazing.

may I suggest we spend approx. 1 week listening/posting/talking per calendar year, with this first week devoted to pre-Sun Song recordings i.e everything before 1956?

I like "Dig This Boogie". His piano already had an aggressive overabundance, like it was trying to stretch beyond the boundaries of the blues.

sleeve: the more i think about, the more i think it would be less stressful to organize this thread by year. i had a sort of release-focused approach in mind, but just coming to the thread and saying "okay, 1957 this week. here's this stuff i know is from this year. what else do we know is out there? and how do we feel about it?" -- that's both less stressful for me and also encourages more thread participation i think.

and then in terms of how much time we allot for discussion, probably somewhere between 3-5 days seems right to me (WilliamC, i was only joking, sorry if that didn't come across!)

but of course that's going to depend on how much stuff there is to listen to, and also of course i'd like to give people the opportunity to listen, formulate thoughts, express them, link to articles even, or point out live / archival material from the same year that was missed, etc. so maybe a week is better. i'm honestly not sure.

how does everybody else feel? i've been off from work for a week, so my sense of free time might be skewed.

i'd guess that everyone is going to prefer a different timeline. personally i prefer a brisker pace, so i'm going ahead into the 60s because i've already listened to all the 1950s material that i can get my hand on, several times over. but i'll still look forward to circling back and taking a deeper dive into each year as the thread progresses!

and actually, maybe a more useful suggestion is to just be flexible. i'm guessing that some years of sun ra's life will be more filled with music and other ephemera to absorb than others, so there's nothing wrong with adjusting the rollout accordingly!

okay. for sleeve i'll wait until monday to post about "jazz by sun ra" and the rest of '56. after that i'll post every few days and adjust according to what's going on in the thread and how much material there is to cover.

right now i'm reading szwed, the campbell discography, and the essays in the '96 2xCD singles comp (came across a copy by chance last night in a record store). '55 coming tonight.

that Singles comp is so essential. can anyone tell me about Vol. 2?

i think that art yard broke the vinyl release into two volumes, each three discs.

other than that it looks like the 2016 art yard 3xCD release covers 1952-1991 (while the evidence 1996 2xCD only does 1955-1982). since there were no singles recorded before 1955, it looks like art yard included home recordings in addition to newly-discovered releases + intended releases that never made it, most of which were made available on this atavistic comp from 2003

yep, this one is a blast

this was fun, even if it felt at times like chintzy '70s roller rink music / wacky blooper reel soundtrack. sort of jubilant throughout, with shades of ellington. not something i'm likely to return to, but it's nice to confirm that the sun ra bandcamp folks lurk here, even if they won't admit it !!

November 1977 - The Soul Vibrations Of Man

https://f4.bcbits.com/img/a2617198911_16.jpg

“The Soul Vibrations of Man and a companion LP, Taking a Chance on Chances (or "… on Chancey"?), were pressed shortly after being recorded at a November 1977 gig at Chicago's Jazz Showcase. […] It's a typically eclectic set: loose improv, coalescing flutes, insistent horns, and restless percussion, amid space chants, cosmic sermons, and ballads.”

Bandcamp link

Revive! This pair of LPs closes out the year 1977, There are cheap Scorpio vinyl presses of at least one of these but as always the Bandcamp versions are definitive.

I have not actually listened to this one yet, but it felt like a good time to revive.

"If Unity presents the more approachable, trad-jazz side of Sun Ra and his Arkestra, the next item in the discography shows they were still capable of getting mighty strange during this period"

https://nuvoid.blogspot.com/2013/03/sun-ra-sunday_31.html

Good one, thanx. For last year's blog roundup, beyond constraints of some ballots (which I did send in), this 'un made my Real Top list (of first time releases and reissues):
Sun Ra & His Arkestra: Somewhere Over The Rainbow (Beyond Saturn)
And these made More Top Reissues:
Sun Ra & His Arkestra,Lanquidity (2-CD Ed.)
Sun Ra & His Arkestra, Sleeping Beauty (Expanded)
Comments:

Sun Ra & His Arkestra's Somewhere Over The Rainbow (Beyond Saturn) is mah ideel, at least in 2021, combo of SRA exotica, relatively other originals, and respectfully recharged covers, though Sleeping Beauty (Expanded Edition)comes close, while lingering too wispy w the exotica for my tastes. Despite its title, this 2-CD version ofLanquidity is not so languid, more of a sly, lean grid excursion, bra hook braille, that electric Miles might approve, or should.
https://sunramusic.bandcamp.com/album/somewhere-over-the-rainbow-beyond-saturn Also see bandcamp for my other picks, and several more from over the years and sources.

we're gonna be getting into all of those soon! part of the very productive and creatively amazing 1978-1979 period

oh wait we covered SOTR previously, the other ones were recorded after the Italian tour material

another relevant note as I start to dig in to this one:

"Considering the rush-release of these two albums, the mystical cover illustration for Soul Vibrations is quite elaborate, which (with a few notable exceptions) was not standard practice for Ra's private pressings during the 1970s. Most Saturn LPs appeared in blank, generic—though often hand-decorated—sleeves. The Soul Vibrations artist is unidentified."

We’re starting to get into that weird period of the 70s where some of these live recordings clearly have a lot of visual elements as well, that don’t come through in the audio. At any rate, this is a solid set and probably my favorite version of “Enlightenment.”

Talking of which, got to give credit to Morgan Fisher for covering it on his 1979 Hybrid Kids album!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9juDVbMuhBY

pretty soon i'll be in a spot where i can resume weekly updates to this. if anybody's interested in a reboot

hell yeah!

hell yes

I’ve been meaning to get into Sun Ra, so count me in.

yessss

fwiw for budo jeru, here's my unofficial list of what we still have to cover:

taking a chance on chances 11/77

1978
new steps
other voices, other blues
Of Mythic Worlds side A (April ’78)
media dream 2CD
sound mirror
disco 3000
lanquidity LP
the other side of the sun
the spirit of jazz cosmos (WUHY live)
solo keyboards (Minnesota 1978)
visions (w/Walt Dickerson)

1979
song of the stargazers
on jupiter LP
sleeping beauty FLAC
strange celestial road
god is more than love could ever be
omniverse
I, pharoah
live from soundscape

1980
sunrise in different dimensions
voice of the eternal tomorrow
aurora borealis
dance of innocent passion
beyond the purple star zone
oblique parallax
haverford college 1980

1982
ra to the rescue
just friends
(a fireside chat with lucifer) FLAC
celestial love FLAC
nuclear war

1983
Paris 1983 (Bandcamp)
meets salah ragab
stars that shine darkly
love in outer space (live in utrecht)

1984
live at praxis 1-3
star that shine darkly vol. 2
cosmo sun connection
when spaceships appear

1986
hours after
reflections in blue
phil alvin?
john cage meets sun ra?
a night in east berlin

1987
v/a bratislava jazz days (1 track)

1988
hidden fire 1 & 2
“pink elephants on parade” from stay awake
cosmo omnibus imaginable illusion
Blue Delight
somewhere else (a)

1989
second star to the right
stardust from tomorrow
Purple Night
somewhere else (b)

1990
live in london 1990
“egyptian fantasy”
pleiades live
mayan temples
live at the hackney empire

1991
live at inter media arts
friendly galaxy
at the village vanguard

1992
Live in Ulm 1992
destination unknown
a tribute to stuff smith
“I Am the Instrument”

great.

sleeve, that looks good. i'll cf. the discos i have and get something posted next week

Taking a Chance on Chances
November, 1977
first released as Saturn 772 (LP) in '77
aka "a tonal view of times tomorrow" and "saturn research"

https://i.discogs.com/HQGuDoSuCsPTT5JXH5M-ZTZ-WJVOGQDrVt05zq1PNMU/rs:fit/g:sm/q:90/h:600/w:598/czM6Ly9kaXNjb2dz/LWRhdGFiYXNlLWlt/YWdlcy9SLTI0MTM3/NzktMTYxNzYyNTc3/MC03OTkyLmpwZWc.jpeg

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VOKbOvBGRN0

This was recorded in Chicago and is from the same session that produced the previously-discussed companion LP, SOUL VIBRATIONS OF MAN.

I dig how funky and bluesy this rendition of "St. Louis Blues" is. Also am all about this clippy, cosmic organ version of "Take the 'A' Train."

////

I'm consulting the classic Trent/Campbell disco (ed. 2) and the newer Geerken/Trent disco (Art Yard) as well as sleeve's list. Next week we'll close out 1977 with three solo piano performances recorded in Italy, before moving into 1978 w/ NEW STEPS.

(i just moved and finally got all my books out of boxes, so hopefully that will mean i can update more regularly from here on out ...)

wooooo thanks, will listen later

this album is prob one of the most glaring examples of the many well-known issues with original Saturn pressings. from the Bandcamp reissue liner notes (digitally, this is effectively a different release entirely)

As for the manufacturing flaws in Taking a Chance, here's a description by blogger Rodger Coleman: "The pressing defect manifests itself in a woefully unbalanced stereo presentation and a near-constant overlay of scratchy noises and horrifically ugly distortion which only begins to clear up towards the end of the side. Ugh. Pressing the mono button helps a little (if you have one) but not much. As listeners to Soul Vibrations already know, these are not great-sounding recordings to begin with; the pressing flaw renders them almost unlistenable."

We can attest, having borrowed a sealed Saturn original from our friend Freddie Patterson, who allowed us to slit the shrinkwrap and drop a stylus in the LP's virgin grooves. Hoping to discover the world's only sonically pristine copy for a premiere reissue, we were disappointed to hear on Side A the "horrifically ugly distortion" described by Coleman. (Someone suggested we issue it that way for its "exotic mix." We demurred.)

Fortunately, Michael D. Anderson of the Sun Ra Music Archive unearthed a tape in 2016 that proved to be the closest thing to a "pristine" version. It's got problems, sure, but compared to the Saturn pressing, it's Rudy Van Gelder-grade. For the first time, we can hear what Side A was intended to sound like. The recordings capture some incidental noise (beyond applause) from patrons, but these artifacts convey an intimate club atmosphere and are not intrusive.

(that's all re: Side A)

https://sunramusic.bandcamp.com/album/taking-a-chance-on-chances

lol sorry to continue to geek out over this one, but there's also an unreleased track on the digital version:

A bonus track has been added:

"The Sound Mirror" (9:03, stereo)
This is a previously unissued recording. A regrettably lo-fi 14-minute version was issued as the title track on Saturn 19782 in 1978. This performance, believed to date from late 1977 or early 1978, features a tighter arrangement and greater sonic clarity.

so I guess that means they won't reissue the OG version of Sound Mirror?

i guess not!

and this thread is here for you and everyone else to geek out, as far as i'm concerned.

bit of a detour, but i just found out that Irw!n Chu$id is a right-wing crank? although unlike others on the board, i'm not an avid WFMU person, so maybe that's already well-known around here. it's just kind of jarring to be reading this dude's extensive archival commentary on Sun Ra of all people, only to go to his website and find him talking about things that i won't even bother invoking on this thread.

anyway, "lady bird" is one of my favorite tunes, by one of my favorite composers-arrangers. one of the things that has become clear to me (or rather is continually being brought to my attention in different ways) in the 4.5 years since starting this thread is that Sun Ra, as singular and "outsider" as he often is, was also of course in deep conversation with his contemporaries and the broader history of jazz music -- in ways that are actually super exciting and even helpful / instructive to me as a listener of "trad" jazz. or i guess i'm trying to say that i've had multiple versions of that epiphany, and this is just another dimension of that.