Fave Sun Ra tune

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So I'm sitting here in my office, playing We Travel the Spaceways, and I'm simply stuck on "Space Loneliness." It's just so smoky and slinky and bluesy and slightly discordant in a way that charms your ear rather than makes you wince--the title totally fits, in a Sun Ra sort of way. I keep punching the "back" button and playing it over and over again.

Anyone else have a seductive fave from the Arkives they wanna share?

― Lee G, Wednesday, 29 May 2002 00:00 (twenty-three years ago)

Rocket Number Nine take off for the planet -- to the planet -- VENUS!

― Colin Meeder, Wednesday, 29 May 2002 00:00 (twenty-three years ago)

Lights on a Satellite Live at Montreux

― jk, Wednesday, 29 May 2002 00:00 (twenty-three years ago)

speaking of tunes....yeah rocket number nine

― francesco, Wednesday, 29 May 2002 00:00 (twenty-three years ago)

there's a part on the "concert for the comet kouhoutek" where the sax player sounds like he's ripping the valves out of his instrument while eating it at the same time. lovely!

best sun ra-related moment: yochannon's "message to the earthman" (i think) from "the singles" - fucking great, crashing jazz noises and ranting.

― your null fame, Wednesday, 29 May 2002 00:00 (twenty-three years ago)

I'll go with YNF there. First time I heard "Message to Earthman," I was utterly befuddled and pleased at once.

― Ned Raggett, Wednesday, 29 May 2002 00:00 (twenty-three years ago)

I'd go for Outer Spaceways Incorporated, or else a song that I dont know the title of, which I only have on a tape of Gilles Peterson's radio show that a London-dwelling pal sent me a few years ago. If anyone knows what this is, do tell. It is pretty lush, very MOR by his standards, has a upward-spiralling sax solo part, and then Sun Ra says: (something like): "I wanna speak of black beauty (repeated), without Prince Charming it's nothing, black beauty" Really lovely stuff. I got tired of singing it to uncomfortable shop assistants, who had never heard it, though.

― Conor, Wednesday, 29 May 2002 00:00 (twenty-three years ago)

Ooooh. This is a VERY difficult question. For me, it's a very tight race between "Ancient Aithiopia", "We'll Wait For You", and "The Magic City". Something like that...

― f = r, Wednesday, 29 May 2002 00:00 (twenty-three years ago)

"State Street" from the 2-disc The Singles collection is one I can't listen to enough. Three minutes of pure joy.

― Andy, Wednesday, 29 May 2002 00:00 (twenty-three years ago)

really really partial to the "Love in Outer Space" from Somewhere Else, 1992 on Rounder

― M Matos, Wednesday, 29 May 2002 00:00 (twenty-three years ago)

One of those doo-wop Christmas songs.

― J Blount, Thursday, 30 May 2002 00:00 (twenty-three years ago)

I've always liked Sun Ra's early music, for example his album 'The Futuristic Sounds of Sun Ra'happens to be one of my favourite from him. A song from that album that I love is 'Bassism', with its minimalistic bass vamp, and layered brass/reed choruses. An attractive piece, less spacey than he later works. (Sun Ra plays Acoustic Piano). Another early song of his which I adore, is Enlightment fron 'Jazz in Silhouette', the meaty baritone saxophone playing gives the song a diffintive sound.

Well those are just some of my favourite early Sun Ra music, I also like a lot of Sun Ra's more modern music, for example 'Atlantis' is a great album to start off with, for his more spacier music, my favourite track from that album is not the massive title track but one of the shorter tunes called 'Mu', featuring heavily on Ra's organ playing rather than the big band sound. I also like Ra's 'Lanquidity', I friend sent me this song, so I'm not sure what album it comes from.

― Geoffrey Balasoglou, Thursday, 30 May 2002 00:00 (twenty-three years ago)

scene 1 take 1

― unknown or illegal user, Thursday, 30 May 2002 00:00 (twenty-three years ago)

Okay, I can't ignore this thread, but there are so many individual Sun Ra pieces/tracks I like that it seems pointless to respond.

"Somewhere in Space" and (the much more conventional) "Dark Clouds with Silver Linings" are favorites. "When Angels Speak of Love." "Pleasure" has been high on my list this past year. See Sun Ra: S/D thread.

― DeRayMi, Thursday, 30 May 2002 00:00 (twenty-three years ago)

I think that Sun Ra's opus is divisible into single songs (or short song-like pieces) more than that of most jazz greats. In jazz from the 60's on, it seems more common to talk about albums, but with Sun Ra, it makes a lot of sense to talk about individual songs. I'm not sure why. Possibly because so many of his albums compile material from various periods? But I think it's also because he recorded many short tracks, almost as short as an average pop song, which were imprinted with their own unique sound. (I'm not saying this all that well, but I thought I would just

― DeRayMi, Thursday, 30 May 2002 00:00 (twenty-three years ago)

To elaborate, I remember reading some discussion in rec.music.bluenote, in which someone new to jazz was making lists of his favorite jazz songs, etc. And one of the most intelligent contriutors to that news group made the comment that as you continue to listen to jazz, espcially after a certain point (Miles and Coltrane, forward, say), it makes more sense to talk about whole albums. Sun Ra seems to be an exception to this, much of the time anyway. Does this partly explain his ability to cross over to a more pop/rock oriented audience? I think, yes, but only very partially. Of course, Miles and Coltrane have crossed over just as much, so it's not much of a theory.

― DeRayMi, Thursday, 30 May 2002 00:00 (twenty-three years ago)

nine years pass...

the flute solo early on in "the magic city" might be my favorite ever

― reggie (qualmsley), Thursday, 23 February 2012 15:23 (thirteen years ago)

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