The sort of revolutionary Duke-meets-Denny schtick that was commonplace in the Arkestra.
Right from the get-go, "Tiny Pyramids" comes in and introduces itself with a kind, percussion-y, "Hello and nice to meet you and by the way, I'm something completely out of place in 1956!" The percussive, rhythm-heavy nature of this music might make you think that, "Oh, it's Latin jazz" but then you'd really be an idiot because there isn't one thing here --save for the obvious horn charts, which owe a small debt to Mr. Ellington-- that sounds like something that came before it. Sides one and two differ a bit. Side one is that exotic bop sort of thing while side two tends to be a lot more conventional be-bopish and is a real showcase for tenor man John Gilmore. Sonny plays some sort of electric piano on "Music from the World Tomorrow" and an electric bass is used on side two of the album and again, this was 1956. So, yeah. Blahbidity blah. It's freakin' unbelievable based on that alone. The music is also fantastic. Imagine that.
~Austin
Much more commonplace for '56, but still pretty danged unique.
When you hear the first notes of "Brainville" you'd probably say that this was pretty standard fare for a 1956 big band date. And you'd be right. It's all pretty swingin' and the compositions are top notch. "A Call for Demons" (credited here as "A Call for All Demons") shows up again and receives a bit more of a funkdafied (though not all out, shake-yer-butt funky; it's still 1956, remember) run-through that is slightly superior to the previously mentioned version. Also, a few ballads pop up and Sonny shows a real talent for writing and playing a fine slow song (namely, "Posession"). Things get spiced up on "Sun Song" which is a nice slice of pre-post-bop that finds Sonny playing a Hammond B-3 and pointing the way towards the Arkestra's dissonant future. This one floats in and out of circulation on CD, but vinyl reissues seem to be plentiful so it shouldn't be a hard find.
~Austin
Playing both sides of the table again.
On a lot of these early Saturn albums, sides one and two are split between two different recording dates and the music reflects that. So, on albums like this, where side one was recorded in 1958 and the Arkestra is playing that Afro-exotic, side two finds them in strictly bop mode. Nothin' wrong with that. Just sayin', y'know, for accuracy and such. Well, anywho, this album's another winner and has a couple real important (first?) performances of "Reflections in Blue" and the house-rockin' theme "Saturn." The rest of the album is standard for the Arkestra at this point and it's a pretty fancy one at that. One of my personal favorites from this period.
~Austin
Is it really "super-sonic"? I'd say yes. But that's just me.
First off, "India" is an absolutely incredible and gorgeous song. Is that a Fender farking Rhodes he's playing? It can't be. It's gotta be some sort of early electric piano. In any case, whatever it is, it's got one of the coolest sounds Sonny ever coaxed out of his various keyboards. After that enormous revelation of an opening track, things settle down and get back into the sort of Arkestra circa-'56 we've come to expect by this point. The obscure titles are really starting to pour in now: "Advice to Medics" (great intro), "Kingdom of Not" and "El is A Sound of Joy." Despite impenetrable titles, the music is pretty much along that Arkestra standard of excellence and Sonny plays that cooler-than-Canada-in-March sounding electric piano on a few tracks. "Blues at Midnight" gets a good rendition here but would really pick up in the next few years.
~Austin
A great synopsis of the heavily swingin' big band Arkestra. And an absolute classic, too.
One day, this album will be held in the same regard as its contemporaries like Blue Train, Somethin' Else and Kind of Blue as one of the defining moments in the early post-bop movement. Everything on it sounds right at home in convention on the surface, but when really investigated, it reveals itself to be an almost twisted record full of maniacal moments of composition and improvisation. "Enlightenment" sums the whole thing up pretty well. It opens with a gong crash and leaps into an almost eastern theme before swinging right away into a mid-tempo number that changes melodic masks no less than three times. It just has to be heard to be believed; the song was obviously signifigant as it remained in the live setlist for good. From there, the band jumps into every number as if it were the last reading. "Saturn" is phenomenal, hands down. The tune would be recorded a few other times, but this is the definitive version. The afro-exotic sounds the band had been exploring are present and perfectly realized on "Ancient Aiethopia." The entire record swings hard and it's all capped off by the immense blowing session on "Blues at Midnight" where John Gilmore and Pat Patrick are practically blowing flames out of their horns. Absolutely fantastic music and one of the finest jazz records of all time. Also one of the few recorded accounts of James Spaulding's tenure in the Arkestra.
~Austin
And things begin to evolve.
Ok, so, percussion was a pretty important thing before this album, right? Well, sure it was. But, man, on this album right here... whoo. Things get almost ridiculously percussive and poly-rhythmic at some points. "Nubia" in particular is mostly perscussion. And the melodies here start to go a little bit atonal at times. Sometimes you have to wait for the next chord for the current one to make any sense. Couple those few things with the two opening shots; "Plutonian Nights" and "The Lady With the Golden Stockings" (which is every bit as sexy as the title implies!), which are almost complete 180's from anything the Arkestra had done previous; and the album seems like more of a departure than it actually is. Side two turns pretty percussive, but this is mostly just another great record along the same lines. Oh, and the infamous Arkestra chanting appears for the first time on record on "Africa" for those folks at home keeping score.
~Austin
And now we would like to introduce space. No, not the place, the idea.
"Space Mates" is revolutionary in Sun Ra's musical evolution because 1) it's far from dissonant, but not nearly as melodic as previous compositions and 2) the thing is sparse. I mean, more than once, everyone (well, Sonny and drummer Jon Hardy) just stop playing and let the silence resonate. It's got that real floating, searching melody that is just spacious and is the sort of thing he wouldn't truly master until the 70's, but this is a fine early example. Elsewhere, the album is just like the last one, pushing slowly ahead into newer territory and, oh yeah, the intro to the title track sounds like In A Silent Way, idea-wise and thematically. Tell me Miles wasn't a Sun Ra fan after that (well, technically, he wasn't, but it looks good in my review, doesn't it?).
~Austin
Hey, we're from space.
This album contains some of Sonny's best compositions. From the goofy sci-fi of "Interplanetary Music" (which is the sort of nondissonant, yet still amelodic stuff he would really start getting into in the mid-60's) and "Rocket Number Nine Take Off For Planet Venus" to the absolutely gorgeous title track, the thing contains nothing but completely unique and imaginative compositions. "Interplanetary Music" in particular is interesting because its rhythm is what makes it catchy. By the time the irressistable Arkestra chant comes in, you've gotta be hooked. Most of the songs are minor, but not dissonant. They're that kind of beautifully bitter and fantastically lyrical minor and the album does have somewhat of a melancholy hanging over it. By this point, the whole stage show was starting to make its presence felt on records too, as every song title on this album either contains the word 'space' or an allusion to space travel, along with the Arkestra chants on a few songs. Some folks might get turned off by the theatrics, but if you just go by the music, things are moving and improving at a pretty quick and undeniably impressive pace. One of the better records from this early period.
~Austin
Standards and really early stuff. More of an odds and ends compilation than an actual album.
The origins of most of the material on this album date from much before 1960, so a lot of it sounds kind of out of order. There's a few vocal tracks on here, mostly originals. Interesting to hear Sonny's take on "Round Midnight" but not really as much of a revelation as one might've hoped for. "Enlightenment" pops up again, although I'm pretty sure it's the exact same recording as the one that appears on Jazz in Silhouette. Still absolutely fantastic. The interesting thing associated with this album is that the CD version includes six of Sonny's very first recordings as a leader, dating from around 1954. They're all pretty great, in that early Sun Song-ish way. The presence of violin legend Stuff Smith on "Deep Purple" is essential listening for jazz historians. However, because of the uneven nature of the album, it will probably only be of interest to Sun Ra completists and those who can't get enough of his earliest days.
~Austin
Slower, more reflective stuff. But more bluesy than before.
The sparseness of Interstellar Low Ways isn't quite as prominent on this album, but things are moving away from the bop tempos and conventions more and more. The title track here is another revelation in composition and sound. "Ankh" is a pretty spiffy blues. In fact, most of the material here reflects a pretty prominent swingin' blues sound. Not ballads, but certainly not uptempo cookers either. "Exotic Two" is the exception. Quite an adventerous piece, with tons of clanging percussion and Sonny clattering about in a high register. At this point, far from unique in Sun Ra's catalogue, but still pretty innovative next to its peers.
~Austin
In case you missed it, here's some pretty groundbreaking stuff again...
This album continues right along in same vein as The Nubians of Plutonia and Interstellar Low Ways. At this point, the Arkestra had become so streamlined and well versed in Sonny's catalogue, they could bang out exceptional renditions of anything upon request and this album, because it contains a lot of songs found elsewhere, feels kind of like an exercise. However, the band is far from becoming redundant. In fact, with the title track's sparse, blues-induced melody and the Arkestra's trademark chants, it feels like they are practicing for something big. Kind of like perfecting everything they know so they can move on to something new. There's some pretty great stuff to be found here: a sly, very Ellington-esque take on "Space Loneliness", the electric bass driven "New Horizons" and a longer-ish take on "Velvet." Again, pretty standard considering the Sun Ra albums that surround it, but completely unique otherwise.
~Austin
Revolutionary.
When the album starts out with the vocals and percussion only track "Circe", you know something's up. It sounds like Yma Sumac dropped acid. Immediately following is "The Nile", one of Sonny's most absolutely beautiful compositions. Starting off with a flurry of percussion and then one of Marshall Allen's finest moments with a stunning flute solo, it works into an all percussion solo before twinkling out in the final moment. A fantastic performance all around and a very representative piece for the first half of the album. The percussion on most tracks is not a standard drum set. Mostly exotic African percussion is used in correlation with catchy, repetitive basslines to create these minimalist, highly rhythmic foundations. And then, it happens. On what initially seems to be a standard rendition of "We Travel the Spaceways" the Arkestra chants away the theme and then John Gilmore steps in to blow a fantastic solo that is quickly thrown awry by Sonny's completely out of key comping that, in turn, pushes Gilmore into an area not heard an any Sun Ra recording yet. He squeals and screeches away into completely free territory before the Arkestra returns to the main theme like nothing out of the ordinary happened. It's not until the next track that things get totally strange. After a pretty standard Arkestra intro, "Calling Planet Earth" quickly moves into entire freedom and on his showcase, Gilmore blows and squeaks his way through an incredible solo that begs the question, "Who else was playing like this in 1960?" Settling into a fantastic, post-bop, Ornette Coleman-esque groove, "Dancing Shadows" is arguably the album's centerpiece, but the entire record is so good, it seems foolish to pick highlights. Things set back into a more familiar standard Arkestra mood by the second half of the album, but the preceedings are such a revelation that it doesn't matter. By the time the title track comes noisily swinging in, you'd probably be better off to refrain from trying to place this into any sort of genre or context and let the music exist on its own plane. Because it will do that anyway. Spectacular.
~Austin
Swingin' again.
This album focuses more on the swing than the previously discussed one. The use of studio treatments are beginning to get more prominent on songs like "Cluster of Galaxies" and "Solar Drums." But the chord progression focused compositions are present as well with "Ankh" and the excellent closer "Kosmos in Blue." While nothing here goes as all out as "Calling Planet Earth", something like "The Outer Heavens" could be described as dissonant ambience, nearly recalling modern classical music. Overall though, this is one of the Arkestra's most jumbled and manic releases, jumping back and forth between swingin' horn dominated compositions to more percussive, atonal experiments in sound and space. Uneven, but still interesting nonetheless.
~Austin
Not swingin' anymore.
"The Outer Heavens" was just a preview apparently, because this whole record sounds like that. There are no themes or choruses in the melodies and often there isn't much of a melody to speak of. The echo heavy percussion dominates "Adventure Equation" and that tune is probably the album's most tame moment. Mostly, the songs are very open, tunewise, and they have got a heck of lot of space in them. Besides the spooky, organ-driven rhythmic stomp of "Moon Dance" all of the songs here are again almost classical in a modern, experimental sort of way. Besides all that, more than ever before, the Arkestra is sounding like a brewing pot of creative chemistry. Another important, and endlessly groundbreaking, album.
~Austin
A fantastic recap of the past few years.
It seems like every few years, Sonny would record an exercise album that had the band eseentially recapping all of the previous few years' work. This album was recorded in 1961 for the Savoy label and it finds the Arkestra paraphrasing everything from Jazz in Silhouette forward to that point. Because of this, it may feel a bit redundant upon first impressions, but patient repeat listens will be rewarding. The performances for the most part are concise and streamlined, but never feel stagnant. Highlights include the oft-neglected "Bassism" (this should've been in the live reperetoire for at least a few years!), the goofy psuedo-eastern "China Gates" and the super swingin' "Jet Flight." There aren't any real revelations here and it feels a bit like Sonny instructed the Arkestra to shy away from its recent adventerousness for the label and for these reasons I can't really give this 'highest recommendation' status, but I could easily see how someone might justify it because it does do a fine job of summing up the band right before the 60's counter-culture mentality really kicked in and started affecting their music. Recommended for folks just wanting a taste of what the Arkestra had to offer during this period. Great cover art, too.
~Austin
LONEHILL JAZZ EDITION WITH BONUS TRACKS...
In 2005, the otherwise cool beyond belief Spanish label Lonehill Jazz issued this album with seven bonus tracks. Although the album is remastered and sounding great, they failed to mention that, with exception of the otherwise unheard Ricky Murray vocal version of "Early Autumn", the six other bonus tracks can all be found on the preceeding Saturn albums Fate in a Pleasant Mood, Interstellar Low Ways and When Sun Comes Out. Imagine my disappointment. Save your money and go for the domestic issue that's remastered equally as well.
Phenomenal leap forward. "Is that jazz?" © Gil Scott-Heron
This is the album that you should play for anyone who disregards Sun Ra's music as a novelty. It isn't littered with nonsensical space chants and it isn't straight free jazz noise. He hinted at it very briefly on previous albums but this entire record goes the furthest to establish Sonny as somewhat of a modern classical composer. The title track takes up one entire side of the record and is the Sun Ra equivelant (or interpretation, rather) of a symphony. It's a monstrous composition that lasts over twenty minutes and takes enough strange twists and turns to keep you on the edge of your seat for the duration. Every member of the Arkestra gets at least one highlight and the thing is even more sparse than anything Sonny attempted before it. It requires several listens to even distinguish between the seperate "movements" within the composition and the piece by itself would have been worthy of its own LP. But there's also a side two. It doesn't really up the ante as much as it shows that such a huge composition can be compacted into smaller compositions and achieve the same (much less forceful) impact. The song that most closely resembles any previous Arkestra sound is "Spiral Galaxy" which is noisy without being confrontational (which is an overall good synopsis for the entire album, actually). Overall, it's very impenetrable, challenging music. But it's a stunning account of the progress and diversity the Arkestra, and Sun Ra as a composer, was capable of. One of Sun Ra's absolute best.
~Austin
