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Search Result for Artist sun ra
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LP
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AKU 1055LP
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$27.00
PREORDER
RELEASE DATE: 11/29/2024
Iranian multi-instrumentalist Kamyar Arsani (Faraway Ghost) and Indian-born drummer/electronic music producer Ravish Momin (Sunken Cages) create their own brand of digital folk music that draws on Sufi mysticism, traditional Persian Music, street rhythms from Mumbai and contemporary electronic music at once. Momin accompanies Arsani's vocals and daf (frame-drum) with a masterful blend of electronic and acoustic percussion, including live-looping via his unique drum-loop performance system. Kamyar Arsani is an Iranian multi-instrumentalist, singer and songwriter based in Washington DC. Through his solo work and numerous collaborations, Arsani creates music across an array of styles, ranging from classical Persian music to genre-defying electronic experimentation. A teacher, performer and scholar of the daf (the Iranian frame drum), Arsani has been a featured artist at the Kennedy Center, the Library of Congress, Voice of America, Georgetown University and numerous other stages throughout the region. Along with his solo work and collaborations, Arsani is also the singer and lyricist of Shadow Riot, a Washington D.C punk band. Sunken Cages is the moniker of drummer/electronic music producer Ravish Momin, who studied with US Jazz master-drummer Andrew Cyrille. He has worked as a sideman with a wide array of musicians including US avant-Jazz legend Kalaparush Maurice McIntyre (AACM/Chicago.) In addition, he has also led his own Jazz/global group Tarana on international stages for the past 14 years. As Sunken Cages, Momin plays electronic and acoustic drums. He layers loops while manipulating them in real-time to blur the lines between composition and improvisation. While rooted in Indian and Black Music traditions, he is also influenced by the street sounds of underground dance music from Sao Paolo to Durban to Mumbai and beyond.
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2LP
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IOR 771581LP
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"As if from the farthest reaches of space, a tremendous positive energy has come via Light on a Satellite: It is Sun Ra's music, played by his Arkestra, more than 30 years after the legendary band founder's earthly demise -- or, in other words, after his reported ascent to Saturn. Under the direction of Marshall Allen, the NEA Jazz Master (2025) and multi-instrumentalist, who celebrated his 100th birthday on May 25, 2024, Sun Ra's big band has arrived safely in the 21st century, after traveling Sun Ra's space ways for almost 70 years. This album pays tribute to the lifetime achievement of Marshall Allen, who has led the Sun Ra Arkestra since 1993. Recorded in Studio A at New York's Power Station on June 16, 2024, the album celebrates the mastery of the exceptional musician Marshall Allen as a multi-instrumentalist, arranger, bandleader, teacher, and guardian of Sun Ra's unique legacy. Perhaps this day will one day become part of the collective jazz memory, for here is a simultaneity of the non-simultaneous, projected into the future, a time machine traveling through 100 years of jazz, out of the free approach of the Sun Ra Arkestra and in its signature groove right into the heart of swing -- with a century-old jazz master as captain. That in itself is a superlative. As a tribute to the life's work of Marshall Allen, Frank Kleinschmidt of IN+OUT Records invited the Sun Ra Arkestra into the studio with 24 musicians in the largest possible line-up, with the goal of documenting the music in its polyphony and expansion in space and time in the best possible way. It is not only the variety of instruments used, but also the fact that musicians from four generations come together with a repertoire that spans 100 years of jazz history."
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CD
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CVSD 113CD
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The beginning of the 1970s was a watershed moment in the terrestrial life of Sun Ra. With his band, the Arkestra, he began touring internationally. He and his manager Alton Abraham penned a deal with ABC-Impulse! for a series of records which introduced him to many new and distant listeners, as did his Blue Thumb LP Space is the Place. The film of the same name was under way in northern California at the time, too, and Ra accepted a lectureship at University of California, Berkeley, in 1971, teaching a class titled "The Black Man and the Cosmos." This course of study was held in some secrecy, apparently open exclusively to Black students who were strictly forbidden to record the lectures. Ra's assistants did, however, document the sessions, and some of these recordings have made their way to YouTube. The incredible half-hour of Berkeley Lecture presented here, however, is previously unknown, extracted from the Creative Audio Archive's extensive holdings. It presents Ra walking his students through a series of wonderful paradoxes and riddles, the sound of his chalk on the chalkboard serving as a kind of Greek chorus, commenting on or complementing his highly creative pedagogy. At the end of the lecture, Ra performs two musical demonstrations, the first a piano version of the Arkestra classic "Love in Outer Space," followed by a blistering 16-minute solo on the Moog synthesizer. Available for the first time ever, with cover images of the original tape box and reel featuring Ra's annotations. Transfer by Todd Carter. Mastering by Alex Inglizian. Original tape box and reel from CAA. CD designed by David Khan-Giordano. Produced by John Corbett.
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2LP
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SA 070LP
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"Lifetime is the tenth studio album from Sun Araw. Sun Araw continues to investigate space as a motionless field against which many motions are observed! Stasis: wheels within and wheels without! Please enjoy this adventure in sound! Mixed by Cameron Stallones and Jake Viator. Mastered by JJ Golden."
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CMR 008LP
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LP version. "Fans of Sun Ra's Space Bop and genre-bending jazz were in for a shock with Strange Strings. Even in the eclectic and sometimes baffling Sun Ra catalog, Strange Strings is an outlier. It's primitive, it's sophisticated, but it's not a gradient of either. It's brutal, yet highly sensitive. Is it music, or just noise? Or noise as music? John Cage could not be reached for comment. For this album, Sun Ra collected an arsenal of exotic string instruments and handed them out to his Arkestra on the precept that 'strings could touch people in a special way.' That the Arkestrans didn't know how to play or tune these instruments was not beside the point -- it was the point. Ra framed it 'a study in ignorance.' The result was primitive, yet sophisticated; brutal, yet highly sensitive. In his essay for this expanded edition of the 1967 Saturn LP, musician-curator David Toop calls Strange Strings 'saturated in mystery.' The original 1967 Saturn LP version of Strange Strings was monophonic, contained three tracks, and suffered distortion in the mastering (perhaps due to the high-decibel studio performance and excessive reverb). Yet some sessions were captured in stereo. A dozen strange-string works have been located, five of which are included on this remastered edition. (The others have been released on other labels; see discography inside gatefold.) No track titles appeared on the original Saturn LP verso, but the three works issued were later identified as 'World's Approaching,' the LP title track, and an inversion of the title, 'Strings Strange.' A belatedly discovered tape box listed the third recording as 'Strange Strange,' a title which has been used in this edition."
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CD
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CMR 008CD
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"Fans of Sun Ra's Space Bop and genre-bending jazz were in for a shock with Strange Strings. Even in the eclectic and sometimes baffling Sun Ra catalog, Strange Strings is an outlier. It's primitive, it's sophisticated, but it's not a gradient of either. It's brutal, yet highly sensitive. Is it music, or just noise? Or noise as music? John Cage could not be reached for comment. For this album, Sun Ra collected an arsenal of exotic string instruments and handed them out to his Arkestra on the precept that 'strings could touch people in a special way.' That the Arkestrans didn't know how to play or tune these instruments was not beside the point -- it was the point. Ra framed it 'a study in ignorance.' The result was primitive, yet sophisticated; brutal, yet highly sensitive. In his essay for this expanded edition of the 1967 Saturn LP, musician-curator David Toop calls Strange Strings 'saturated in mystery.' The original 1967 Saturn LP version of Strange Strings was monophonic, contained three tracks, and suffered distortion in the mastering (perhaps due to the high-decibel studio performance and excessive reverb). Yet some sessions were captured in stereo. A dozen strange-string works have been located, five of which are included on this remastered edition. (The others have been released on other labels; see discography inside gatefold.) No track titles appeared on the original Saturn LP verso, but the three works issued were later identified as 'World's Approaching,' the LP title track, and an inversion of the title, 'Strings Strange.' A belatedly discovered tape box listed the third recording as 'Strange Strange,' a title which has been used in this edition."
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CREP 103LP
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The long running vessel for Cameron Stallones' psychedelic excursions, Sun Araw, returns to Discrepant after 2023's split with Tarzana via Keroxen sister label. Without much precedent in his own -- already wide-ranging -- back-catalog, Cetacean Sensation discards the dubby vibes, psych-rock sunburnt jams, tropical visions, or stalking sensibilities of such classic efforts as On Patrol or Ancient Romans towards a deeply focused and vivid solitary approach, while still retaining this Sun Araw blissed out escapist feeling. Composed of hydrophone recordings of whales and dolphins sourced during a summer in Galicia, Cetacean Sensation paints an impressionistic and sensory floating canvas that expertly escapes both academic-like documentarian purposes and any new-age spa vibrations one could associate with such subject matter. Processing those raw recordings into alluring collages that flow gracefully between moments of clear eco-location and submerged impressions of wildlife social dynamics. By the third track -- "Dance of the Minke"-- listeners are introduced to this ringing MIDI tone that evokes a CD-ROM era of mystic educational programs and click-and-deploy strategies that still feel very much like an unfulfilled future, conjured again by "Spider Crab Elegy's" sparse keyboard pads and sound effects that give way to this properly elegiac tentative melody. "The Spider Crab Point" ends the album on a more uneasy vibe, with synth tones pointing towards no particular direction, confounding and strangely inviting at the same time. As sensations often do. Music written and produced by Cameron Stallones using hydrophones and digital synthesis. Recorded in 2019 in Galicia, ES Mastering by Rashad Becker.
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2CD
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HOL 136CD
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Limited restock. Born Herman Poole Blount in Alabama during 1914, Sun Ra first emerged on the Chicago jazz scene during the late 1940s. One of the great avant-garde composers of his generation -- leading the way on piano, organ, and (eventually) synthesizer -- beginning in the mid-1950s and lasting until his death in 1993, led the Arkestra, a band through which a near countless number of important artists passed and collaborated with, and many remained for the duration of their careers, notably Marshall Allen, John Gilmore, and June Tyson. Known for their wild costumes and theatrics, Ra's eccentric image and claims that he was from Saturn was deeply political, imagining an alternate social order, history, and future for African Americans that rests as a pioneering force in the Afro-Futurist movement. Recorded live at Teatro Giulio Cesare on March 28, 1980, comprising an astounding 27 compositions, including the highly celebrated "Astro Black," "Mr. Mystery," "Romance of Two Planets," "Space Is the Place," "We Travel the Spaceways," and "Calling Planet Earth." High among the greatest live gigs by the Arkestra captured on tape, carefully mastered by Matt Bordin at Outside Inside Studio, Live in Rome 1980 is a near perfect snapshot of the band's versatility and range, including many of their most notably and famous songs, as well as striking renditions of the Horace Henderson penned Benny Goodman number "Big John's Special," Fletcher Henderson's "Yeah Man!," and "Limehouse Blues," displaying Ra's willingness to address and rework the entire, diverse history of jazz in a single go. Heard in its totality, perhaps what makes Live in Rome 1980 most striking is the way in which the concert plays out. Roughly the first half encounters the band locked in some of the most out-there, free jazz fire that can be imagined, weaving a startling sense of interplay and furious energy into a brilliant tapestry of writhing sonority, the likes of which were only really achieved by this band. The second half, with only moments of exception that return to the furious energy of the first, is a very different affair, easy toward the vocal standards, led by June Tyson's vocals and the joyous collective chanting of the band, for which they have become so widely celebrated, threading the sounds of off-kilter big band swing with heavy grooves and imagines of outer space.
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LP
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SV 143C-LP
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"To understand the significance of the word 'featuring' on Featuring Pharoah Sanders And Black Harold, consider how infrequently Sun Ra used it and the exact way it had been used. The October Revolution in Jazz, organized by Bill Dixon in the West Village in 1964, presented a vivid cross section of approaches to the new music, including a sextet led by Ra. For the October Revolution's continuation, titled Four Days in December, held at nearby Judson Hall on the last days of 1964, the Arkestra performance presented Pharoah Sanders as well as a flautist (who was and remained obscure thereafter) named Harold Murray, nicknamed Black Harold. It wasn't until long after Sanders had achieved worldwide acclaim with John Coltrane that Ra and manager Alton Abraham decided to issue the music they'd recorded at Judson Hall. After its first release in plain or hand-decorated covers in 1976, Featuring Pharoah Sanders And Black Harold remained an exceptionally rare item in the El Saturn discography, known to a few lucky collectors. Now on limited green vinyl."
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ORGM 2110G-LP
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Originally released in 2023. "Sun Ra, the extraordinary, outlandish, and sometimes controversial pianist, is often described as an 'acquired taste,' with a massive and diverse catalog. This release is a good place to start for uninitiated or dismissive listeners. The album showcases Ra's grounding in the jazz tradition, with unique takes on standards like 'Time After Time,' 'Easy to Love,' and 'But Not for Me.' Not unordinary for Sun Ra, the recording process was informal; 'Can This Be Love?' was recorded in his Chicago apartment in 1955; he is accompanied only by the great Wilbur Ware on bass. The other five tracks, which feature, among others, Ra's longtime associate John Gilmore on tenor saxophone, were recorded at the Choreographer's Workshop rehearsal space in 1962 and 1963. The album was mastered for vinyl by Dave Gardner at Infrasonic Mastering, and pressed at Pallas Group in Germany."
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3LP BOX
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HOL 136LP
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Repressed on LP. Born Herman Poole Blount in Alabama during 1914, Sun Ra first emerged on the Chicago jazz scene during the late 1940s. One of the great avant-garde composers of his generation -- leading the way on piano, organ, and (eventually) synthesizer -- beginning in the mid-1950s and lasting until his death in 1993, led the Arkestra, a band through which a near countless number of important artists passed and collaborated with, and many remained for the duration of their careers, notably Marshall Allen, John Gilmore, and June Tyson. Known for their wild costumes and theatrics, Ra's eccentric image and claims that he was from Saturn was deeply political, imagining an alternate social order, history, and future for African Americans that rests as a pioneering force in the Afro-Futurist movement. Recorded live at Teatro Giulio Cesare on March 28, 1980, comprising an astounding 27 compositions, including the highly celebrated "Astro Black," "Mr. Mystery," "Romance of Two Planets," "Space Is the Place," "We Travel the Spaceways," and "Calling Planet Earth," over six vinyl sides. High among the greatest live gigs by the Arkestra captured on tape, carefully mastered by Matt Bordin at Outside Inside Studio, Live in Rome 1980 is a near perfect snapshot of the band's versatility and range, including many of their most notably and famous songs, as well as striking renditions of the Horace Henderson penned Benny Goodman number "Big John's Special," Fletcher Henderson's "Yeah Man!," and "Limehouse Blues," displaying Ra's willingness to address and rework the entire, diverse history of jazz in a single go. Heard in its totality, perhaps what makes Live in Rome 1980 most striking is the way in which the concert plays out. Roughly the first half encounters the band locked in some of the most out-there, free jazz fire that can be imagined, weaving a startling sense of interplay and furious energy into a brilliant tapestry of writhing sonority, the likes of which were only really achieved by this band. The second half, with only moments of exception that return to the furious energy of the first, is a very different affair, easy toward the vocal standards, led by June Tyson's vocals and the joyous collective chanting of the band, for which they have become so widely celebrated, threading the sounds of off-kilter big band swing with heavy grooves and imagines of outer space.
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LP
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ORGM 2014G-LP
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Gold-color vinyl. "Sun Ra's Arkestra was at its most radical during this period, alternating simple chants with very outside playing and dense ensembles. Although no precise date is given, these five cuts are thought to have been documented circa 1967 - 1968 by Sun Ra (piano) and his Arkestra in New York City, where the band was in residence at the time. A must have for any serious avant garde jazz fan."
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CD
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SNS 026CD
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Spuren & Gegenworte began with a quasi-telepathic collaboration between Kohei Matsunaga and Ralf Wehowsky. Both recorded a track on May 3, 2021, from 8:00 PM to 8:10 PM. These recordings were subsequently transformed, combined, juxtaposed, and further modified over the course of several months, resulting in the completion of the four pieces on the CD. Spuren & Gegenworte can be translated as "traces and antonyms," opening up a wide range of interpretations. "Traces" may refer to the remnants of the original sounds that have been transformed in the process of reworking, or it can symbolize the cultural and musical influences that can be discerned. "Antonyms" oscillates between contrasting/contradictory and complementary meanings. Of course, other interpretations are also possible. The four titles are indicated as Japanese terms on the cover: 痕跡、対立、変動、補完. They stand for the themes of traces, confrontation, fluctuation, completion.
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LP
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R 106LP
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Recital presents a newly unearthed recording of an interview between Sun Ra and composer Charlie Morrow recorded at his New York studio in 1989. This voice-only recording develops more like a kaleidoscopic sermon than any standard interview. Charlie Morrow recalls: "My 1989 Summer Solstice Celebration featured Sun Ra and his Arkestra. On March 29, 1989, ahead of this historical performance, Sun Ra came to New York to plan the performance and do an interview with me in the Charles Morrow Associates studio. There were members of the Sun Ra Arkestra, some of my team, and a photographer present. Once in the sound studio, Sun Ra wanted to record the discussion. What he says is so much more than anyone expected. I pushed record on the tape recorder, which quietly took it all in. What Sun Ra recorded is a breathtaking expression of his feelings and strong convictions, illustrated with personal memories and stories. My few questions to him about the upcoming Solstice and about the sun and his thoughts about a dawn event triggered his mind. He launched into a nonstop journey of ricocheting stories and concepts, climaxing when I started jamming with Sun Ra on conch horn. Our duo drives to a climactic peak with explosive conch breath sounds giving line-by-line affirmations to Sun Ra's points. The 1989 Summer Solstice event brought together Sun Ra and his constellation of musicians and fans with my large-scale gatherings and work with the New Wilderness Foundation. Here in 2023 and beyond, the events live again. Sean McCann of Recital was drawn to Sun Ra's words, which inspired the production of this edition. Sun Ra's words seem to have an even greater resonance in present time. Ra is calling out the turbulence of the bad actions of the righteous and the good actions that an evil man, as he dubs himself, can perform, all the time believing that music has the possibility to bring all humans to a better place." One-time pressing of 425. Includes 12-page booklet with photos and full transcription of interview. Also includes 24"x18" poster of Sun Ra 1989 Solstice performance photograph.
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2LP
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SA 039LP
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2023 restock. "S. Araw "Trio" XI is a new configuration of the Sun Araw band, the live-action collaborative branch of Sun Araw. Over the course of several studio dates in Hollywood, California, 'Trio' players Cameron Stallones, Alex Gray, and Mitchell Brown (with no prior intentions of doing any such thing) successfully planted a garden of 'non-dimensional' objects, not only spontaneously generating these objects but also mastering their nurture and cultivation. And you can too! Gazebo Effect is a 2LP nocturnal stroll into the depths of the garden, its upper lawns and outbuildings. The listener is advised that as the objects have been 'set growing' their location at any given time is difficult to predict. The garden cannot be exited by the path it is entered, the angles involved being extremely precise. These factors (and others) clearly illustrate the value for oneself (and others) in the building of an observational structure: the gazebo. However, it must be understood that the presence of this structure has a transformative effect on the garden itself. In other words, the 'gazebo effect' is a music production system that allows a performance to be obstructed & (thus) interpreted while it is being played. What a savings!"
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LP
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ORGM 2091LP
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2018 release. "Janus is a compilation of rare material from Sun Ra and his Arkestra, drawing from tapes recorded between 1963 and 1970, taken from both live and studio performances. The space-age jazz shaman conjures up a variety of styles and moods along the way. The album has been remastered, and pressed on audiophile-grade vinyl at Pallas in Germany."
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2CD
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CMR 007CD
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"Sun Ra's Jazz in Silhouette was enshrined in the Penguin Jazz Guide's 'Core Collection' as an album that 'will someday be recognized as one of the most important post-war jazz records.' Jazz in Silhouette is the quintessential record of Sun Ra's late 1950s Chicago period. Recorded and issued in 1959, it marks a coda for the bandleader's bebop/hardbop stage, as his interstellar traveler persona began to transform the band (and the music). It also charts the future, showcasing the brilliant tenor sax stylings of John Gilmore, and introduces the iconic playing of Arkestra mainstays Marshall Allen, Pat Patrick, and Ronnie Boykins. Many of the early works on these recordings would remain staples in Arkestra set lists for the rest of Sun Ra's life. This expanded edition includes the complete, contemporaneous "Sound Sun Pleasure," rare stereo mixes, and bonus tracks."
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2LP
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CMR 007LP
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LP version. "Sun Ra's Jazz in Silhouette was enshrined in the Penguin Jazz Guide's 'Core Collection' as an album that 'will someday be recognized as one of the most important post-war jazz records.' Jazz in Silhouette is the quintessential record of Sun Ra's late 1950s Chicago period. Recorded and issued in 1959, it marks a coda for the bandleader's bebop/hardbop stage, as his interstellar traveler persona began to transform the band (and the music). It also charts the future, showcasing the brilliant tenor sax stylings of John Gilmore, and introduces the iconic playing of Arkestra mainstays Marshall Allen, Pat Patrick, and Ronnie Boykins. Many of the early works on these recordings would remain staples in Arkestra set lists for the rest of Sun Ra's life. This expanded edition includes the complete, contemporaneous "Sound Sun Pleasure," rare stereo mixes, and bonus tracks."
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10"
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PPMTEN 003EP
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"A limited-edition Sun Ra 10-inch EP cut at 45 RPM. Four tracks, two unreleased. Features artwork by Georgia Hubley (Yo La Tengo), lettering by Archer Prewitt. Mastered by Dave Cooley. 'Just Friends': This live recording was only issued on a rare 1982 Saturn album entitled Just Friends. So few copies of 'Just Friends' were pressed, that this track is almost unknown to Ra fans. This is the first reissue of this track in any format. The location and actual date of the recording are unknown. Recorded 1982, location unknown. 'Just Friends': This is a recording made around 1960 of Sun Ra playing organ in his Chicago apartment while softly singing the song 'Just Friends.' It has not been previously issued in any format. Recorded 1960 at home, Chicago. 'Under the Spell of Love': This live recording was also issued on the rare 1982 Saturn album Just Friends. This is the first reissue of this track in any format. As with the title track on side A, the location and actual date of this performance are unknown. Recorded 1982, location unknown. 'Cherokee': This work was composed by Ray Noble. 'Cherokee' was a 1940s big band standard, and was a big hit for Charlie Barnett. It was also recorded by Charlie Parker, Count Basie, Duke Ellington, Lionel Hampton, Bud Powell, and many others. This is the only known recording of the title by Sun Ra. There is no information about the date, location, or personnel. It sounds like a home rehearsal, and probably dates from the 1970s. It has not been previously issued in any format."
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CD
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CMR 006CD
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"A collection of torrid live club performances at the legendary NYC venue Slugs. Originally released in 1972, these recordings provide an intriguing glimpse of the Arkestra's repertoire and virtuosity towards the end of their first decade in New York. Universe in Blue is a rarity. After-hours music, showcasing Sun Ra's twisted take on the Blues, these recordings brought him to the greater attention of New York jazz writers and helped cement his reputation for audacious showmanship. Ra and his band performed at the famed East Village Slug's almost every Monday night for several years through the late sixties, and took the stage sporadically for several years thereafter. This collection of undated performances from 1970-71 was issued in small-run pressings with two different LP covers on Sun Ra's Saturn label around 1972, but has largely escaped further notice."
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LP
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CMR 006LP
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LP version. Tip-on jacket. "A collection of torrid live club performances at the legendary NYC venue Slugs. Originally released in 1972, these recordings provide an intriguing glimpse of the Arkestra's repertoire and virtuosity towards the end of their first decade in New York. Universe in Blue is a rarity. After-hours music, showcasing Sun Ra's twisted take on the Blues, these recordings brought him to the greater attention of New York jazz writers and helped cement his reputation for audacious showmanship. Ra and his band performed at the famed East Village Slug's almost every Monday night for several years through the late sixties, and took the stage sporadically for several years thereafter. This collection of undated performances from 1970-71 was issued in small-run pressings with two different LP covers on Sun Ra's Saturn label around 1972, but has largely escaped further notice."
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2LP
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IOR 771221LP
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"Forever alterable, young again & freshly strengthened, the Sun Ra Arkestra under the direction of Marshall Allen presents itself on Live at the Babylon the 14-piece Centennial Dream Arkestra at Istanbul's Babylon music club. It is a landing to the spot on the hundredth birthday of its founder, Jack-of-all-trades Sun Ra, kicking off the jubilee tour 2014, which led the band around the globe. The ensemble sparks with a briskness that is testimony to the timelessness and infinity of the mission. The jubilee-concert at the Babylon is an illustration of to the enthusiasm of the brothers Mehmet and Ahmet Uluğ. The tenacious Sun Ra fans indeed made it happen, to bring the Sun Ra Arkestra to Istanbul for the very first time on April 1990. Marshall Allen, Knoel Scott and Elson Nascimento are the eyewitnesses within the Arkestra, who extend the grand moment of Istanbul into this truly amazing recording. Attracted by rhythm layers which reach into each other, the listener gets into the musical cosmos in a quite gentle way, as if sleepwalking. The pieces build upon each other and grow into each other. Microton-sequences oscillate across the entire interplay of compositions, they emerge and dive, change perpetually, as if the tones were alchemical ingredients of a lively and ever more self-generating primeval soup. The merit goes to Marshall Allen, who is tirelessly evaluating and interpreting the immeasurable treasure of the tone-documents Sun Ra left behind. These recordings stem from the never-ending rehearsals in Sun Ra's headquarter, and their musical treasure has never before been unveiled in front of an audience, and also never before been recorded with decent quality. Being reconstructed from the original, compositions such as 'Ra #2' and 'Carefree #2' experience a splendid resurrection, be it in the live concert or on the recording Live at the Babylon. It is a sensation. It is Sun Ra rediscovered."
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7"
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CVSDS 003EP
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In 1961 Sun Ra took off from Chicago -- where he had established the Arkestra, his dedicated ensemble and the vehicle for his mission to better the planet -- and with a scaled-down version of the band he landed in New York. Their first recording session was in Newark in October of that year. The Futuristic Sounds of Sun Ra, recorded for the Savoy label, is a beautiful document of the material they'd honed during a long residency at the Wonder Inn at the end of the Chicago period. Among tracks left in the vault from that day in the studio were these two great ballads sung by Ricky Murray, both of them redolent of the bright popcraft that had long been part of Ra's repertoire, with classic Afrofuturist themes of navigating outer space and altered destiny cloaked in sweet songs with tart arrangements. This 7-inch vinyl single is limited to 1000 copies, with full-color cover including a rare photo of the band with Ricky Murray. Ricky Murray remembers: "We did that at the Wonder Inn, just before going to Montreal. When we played the Wonder Inn didn't have too big a crowd but we were playing like it was a concert! In Montreal, though, we packed them in! College kids from McGill. They thought we were going to play rock 'n' roll, but Sunny said we didn't drive all this was to do that. Sunny said: 'We're going to New York.' So that was it. We had bass fiddle, drums, and about four guys in one vehicle, very tight. Ronnie Boykins' father's car broke down on the bridge on the way into Manhattan. We had an audition at The Five Spot when we first hit New York, another place called the African Room. We stayed at the Hotel Scott, a floor above Chubby Checker's room. Kinda rough when we hit New York, boy! Mean days. We were doing those songs, 'I Struck a Match' and 'Dreamsville,' also 'China Gate' and a few others that Sunny had. We had an audition also at the Village Gate I think. Marshall Allen especially liked playing 'I Struck a Match on the Moon' because he got a chance to light up a cigarette while we were singing."
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4 BOOKS
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CVSD SUNRA
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Limited reprint. Corbett vs. Dempsey announce the release of four books of poetry by Sun Ra. Two of these were pamphlets that accompanied early Sun Ra albums issued in the late 1950s; the other two were published more than a decade later by Infinity Inc./Saturn Research. CvsD's reprints are fastidiously designed facsimiles of the original publications, marking the first time they have been available in their Ra-ordained form since they were published. An architect of Afrofuturism and one of the great musical thinkers of the 20th century, Ra's work extended far beyond jazz and even music to the realms of pageantry, performance, theater, philosophy, visual art, and literature. In the mid-1950s, he handed out leaflets and gave street corner lectures -- revisionist interpretations of the Bible and bold meditations on the status of African Americans in American society. A few years later, Ra began disseminating his poems in -- and sometimes on -- his albums. His debut, Jazz By Sun Ra, was issued in 1957 by the Boston-based Transition label, a short-lived company that sold records by subscription; this record contained a beautiful booklet, now as prized as the LP itself, with rare photographs and a selection of poems and proclamations, as well as the personnel and recording credits. Ra's Jazz In Silhouette was released two years hence on Saturn Records, the label he started with Alton Abraham, and it came with a mimeographed liner booklet -- now exceedingly rare -- that was folded, unstapled, as an ultra-economical accompaniment to the vinyl. The CvsD version folds this slim pamphlet of poetry into a slipcover with a classic photo portrait of Ra by Thomas "Bugs" Hunter on the back. Perhaps Ra's best-known book of poetry, reprinted in many alternative versions with different contents over the years, is The Immeasurable Equation; this incarnation restores the original Infinity Inc./Saturn Research version, published in Chicago in 1972 and distributed widely by the Arkestra, often from the bandstand. It features more than 60 of Ra's poems. Finally, perhaps the rarest of Ra's poetry books is Extensions Out: Immeasurable Equation Vol. II, which was also published by Infinity Inc./Saturn Research. This 8 1/2 x 11 inch book is a massive compendium of more than 130 poems, very much in step with the mimeo poetry publications of its era -- simple staple binding, one-sided pages -- featuring three photographs of artwork by Ayé Aton, a close ally of Ra's in this, the period of the Arkestra classic Space Is The Place, on which Aton plays percussion. Great care was taken to reproduce the special textured cover of this highly sought-after book. These four books are exclusively sold as a set. The first edition is limited to 1000 copies. Corbett vs. Dempsey is proud to represent the non-musical side of the Sun Ra Estate. The label gratefully acknowledges Irwin Chusid and Sun Ra LLC for the permission to release this historically rich chronicle of Ra's poetry, presented as he originally conceived it.
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7"
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ARTYARD 45003EP
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Side B: Sun Ra Quartet featuring John Gilmore's "The Sky Is A Sea Of Darkness When There Is No Sun To Light The Way" is cut at 45rpm (recorded in 1978). The Other Side B: "Somewhere In Space" is cut at 33rpm, alien vocal version (recorded in 1957). Pressed as a heavy weight single 70gram with a picture sleeve.
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