Sun Ra reissued on Evidence poll

From <A href=http://www.evidencemusic.com/artists/artist.cfm?artistID=jazz010>;here</a>, with the "Greatest Hits" left out.

don't have any of these yet, but may pick up a couple

Soundtrack to Space is the Place
Angels and Demons at Play/Nubians of Plutonia
We Travel the Spaceways/Bad and Beautiful
Other Planes of There
Cosmic Tones for Mental Therapy/Art Forms of Dimensions Tomorrow

^^ all crucial

I generally favor the earlyish swingin mingusy stuff, but I'm a big mingus dork.

Lanquidity has long been my favorite Sun Ra album, but I haven't heard that many.

That's one I don't know. How would you characterize it?

yeah Laguidity is really good. Its... languid

Lot's of electric piano, mellow and smokey. Funky in parts, too.

This is a tie between the very different Fate in a Pleasant Mood/When Sun Comes Out and Other Planes of There, with Angels and Demons at Play/Nubians of Plutonia close behind. I think I'm going to go with Fate in a Pleasant Mood/When Sun Comes Out, which is somehow a bigger revelation than Other Planes of There, and which I listen to more, though possibly not that much more. (I listen to Other Planes pretty regularly.)

Lanquidity has some of those really gently lyrical passages people tend to forget Sun Ra had in him.

Going with My Brother the Wind Vol.II as it was the first Ra album I ever bought and still one of my favorites.

oh man, this is fucking impossible. ok, i've narrowed it down to other planes of there, the magic city, when angels speak of love, and cosmic tones for mental therapy/art forms of dimensions tomorrow.

Cosmic tones all the way

Automatic thread bump. This poll is closing tomorrow.

yeah cosmic tones by a mile

Went for Angels/Nubians

why cosmic tones / art forms of tomorrow is easily the best

"and otherness" - pure menace. sounds like sumerian fanfare before a sacrifice to the gods or something. good way to start.

"thither and yon" - the primal fanfare moves into totally free jamming and back into primal fanfare. reminds me very much of what they'd be doing years later on "solar myth approach" / "out in space" / "after the end of the world" / "foundations de la nuits maeght"

"adventure-equation" - the horns have that questing don cherry / pharoah spiritual jazz vibe but a good 10 years early. but then there's this loping, exploratory "peter and the wolf" thing going on, like donald duck's on eaten mushrooms and is tripping out in mathemagic land (maybe it should have been called "equation adventure"). and then there's the amazing echoed percussion track. sun ra in dub!

"moon dance" - incredible freaked-out monster movie r&b track. the organ is straight psychobilly trash like the sonics or the animals or something. bizarre shambling pots & pans drum work sounding like lee perry's late 70s work w/ the wailers. bassline and other instruments may as well have been lifted from les baxter or martin denny. maybe the best sun ra track ever.

"voice of space" - like "adventure-equation", like a lost soundtrack to an amazing abstract disney movie sequence. i'm thinking the stravinsky dinosaurs thing from fantasia but instead of the rise of life on earth it'd be the story of LIFE on OTHER WORLDS or something like that.

if you close your eyes during "voice of space" it's like part of "war of the worlds" when they're hiding in the basement. the echoed horns are that crazy metal snake appendage w/ the camera at the tip, and it's coming out the stereo exploring around your living room and curling around your head. and the percussion work sounds like little martian feet tramping up and down the stairs. crazy!!

"cluster of galaxies" - here's the credits for this track: sun ra on "sun harp and spiral percussion gong", pat patrick and tommy hunter on "thunder drums". wasn't there some lame album by some shaggy fools from brooklyn called "field recordings from the sun"? this is like a field recording from a black hole. all you can hear is ... something ... moving.

"ankh" - swings like it's drunk, but in a restrained way. a little less than 2 minutes in sun ra and john gilmour solo over each other for a bit (or maybe they're just playing the changes in a really creative way, i'm not that up on words about jazz) and it sounds like they're whispering secrets to each other and i'm just a bit out of earshot and can't make out what they're saying but it's the most meaningful thing ever.

i ran out of words here, the rest of the tracks on the disc are either in "outer space ambient" mode ("infinity of space") or free-swinging mode ("lights on a satellite") but the quality level is remarkably consistent. there's not one minute of this album i'd get rid of!

^otm

I don't agree about Cosmic Tones being the best but I absolve myself from debating because I have been sick (either with the bug that's been going around, or with food poisoning) since early early Wednesday morning. I am now listening to Out There a Minute.

Automatic thread bump. This poll's results are now in.

"moon dance" - incredible freaked-out monster movie r&b track. the organ is straight psychobilly trash like the sonics or the animals or something. bizarre shambling pots & pans drum work sounding like lee perry's late 70s work w/ the wailers. bassline and other instruments may as well have been lifted from les baxter or martin denny. maybe the best sun ra track ever.

I do love the way this one comes out of the blue with that percussion and organ.

surprised not to see more love for the magic city. the title track isn't just the missing link between free jazz and ascension; it arguably betters both.

Voted for 'the magic city', I would def agree w/that assessment - unfortunately I've misplaced my CD so I can't do much more here.

Am v interested in 'Cosmic tones...'. I must get it.

Don't disagree with anything said about "Cosmic Tones/Art Forms", but I just listen to "Angels/Nubians" more because it's fun... but, in future, I will wipe the silly grin off my face, fix a stern expression, grap a hard backed chair, sit bolt upright and listen to "Cosmic Tones", all the while furiosly scribbling my thoughts on the experience

Shit, I forgot to vote in my own poll! Just pretend that Supersonic Jazz wasn't totally shut out.

Shame "We Travel the Spaceways" didn't get any votes, it's a nice album, but I suppose the album coupled with it isn't that great

I much prefer the extended freakout on When Angels Speak of Love to those on Magic City or Atlantis, neither of which I've ever really been able to get into. I tend to neglect to listen to it, because a big chunk of it appears on Out There a Minute, which I listen to regularly.