Gaslini Plays Sun Ra (2005)

 

I've really been enjoying these solo piano interpretations of some Sun Ra classics.  Though I am otherwise unaware of Glasini's playing, according to the CD liner notes, he is an Italian pianist whose work includes interpretations of Thelonious Monk and Albert Ayler compositions.  I find the music enjoyable and the notes regarding the arrangements very intriguing.  The notes included in the CD offer some fascinating points connecting  Sun Ra's equational creativity with the musical compositions and historical foundations.  Here is an excerpt:

In Gaslini Plays Sun Ra, Giorgio Gaslini interpolates bits of Bach's The Well-Tempered Clavier into each of the tracks.  As he did with Ayler's music, Gaslini made transcriptions from Ra's band recordings (he has not chosen any pieces that Ra made solo piano recordings of), then arranged them for piano, as he puts it, "preserving the purity of the original themes and seeking to capture the harmonic and polyphonic physiognomy that were so often implicit in the composer's orchestral versions."  Gaslini professes to find "a surprising sort of modern 'classicism'" when Ra's arrangements are thus clarified, a "tendency towards objectivity" that is emphasized even more when set alongside the Bach fragments.  On about two-thirds of the tracks, the Bach quotes are easily heard; on the rest, they are harder to catch.

When, as Gaslini says, "the earthly metaphysics of Sun Ra are set beside the serene metaphysics of Bach," it is worth pondering what those metaphysics are.  Both composers, whether despite or because of their great rationality, also had a strong strain of mysticism.  In Bach, this apparently found some expression in his music through number symbolism; the pioneering research in this aspect of his creativity was done by German scholars Arnold Schering, Martin Jansen, and Friedrich Smend.  While interpretation of his symbolism ranges from the innocuous to the extreme, there seems to be some core truth to it.  …Numbers strongly associated with Christian Faith -- 3 for the Trinity, 10 for the Ten Commandments, 12 for the disciples, Psalm numbers, etc. -- mingle with word conversion through use of gematria application of a number alphabet: A=1, B=2, etc.).  Thinking of this as riddles or secret messages embedded in the music misses the larger point; it's a way of making the structure of the music reflect its overt message, making it a holistic reinforcement rather than a hidden meaning.

(complete notes included in download scans)

Giorgio Gaslini
Gaslini Plays Sun Ra (2005)

                                           1. Out in Space                                  3:34
                                           2. Images                                           5:05
                                           3. A Quiet Place in the Universe        5:53
                                           4. Medicine for a Nightmare               3:53
                                           5. Yucatan                                          4:27
                                           6. Kingdom of Not                              4:42
                                           7. Lanquidity                                      5:36
                                           8. Satellites are Scanning                  4:01
                                           9. Saturn                                            5:01
                                         10. When Angels Speak of Love         3:02
                                         11. Fate in a Pleasant Mood                4:49
                                         12. The Perfect Man                            3:31
                                         13. Tapestry from an Asteroid             4:08
                                         14. Discipline 27                                  3:50
                                         15. The Satellites are Spinning           4:26
                                         16. Interstellar Low Ways                    2:37 

FLAC

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320

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HERE

I should mention - the FLAC rip is mine but the scans included with it were taken from the Uabab file (the scans are quite nice so I didn't see the point of duplicating the effort).