WHEN ANGELS SPEAK OF LOVE is one of Sun Ra's most evocative titles and the music is equally poetic and intriguing. Like Cosmic Tones for Mental Therapy, the album seems an experiment in a new classical music that incorporates jazz references rather than a jazz album per se. The only review I have come across that seems to appropriately describe this album is Rodger Coleman's review in his NuVoid blog's Sun Ra Sunday feature.
Check out the reviews below. Without fail, they refer to 'free' as the basis of the pieces though to my ear the parts seem interconnected and often complimentary. References to Cecil Taylor, Ornette Coleman, and John Coltrane's music are understandable but I doubt that Ra was influenced by them (in fact, I suppose the opposite). Perhaps that is a result of nearly 50 years difference in time. I can only imagine what this music sounded like to the the jazz listener of 1963 and can forgive their confusion but I'm surprised that the compositions are described by modern critics as 'free' and that 21st Century reviewers seem so confounded by the music.
The Arkestra's Tone Scientists develop hypotheses of discipline here and vibrations of beauty are what they create.
Sun Ra's music is often described as being so far outside the jazz mainstream as to be less a challenge to it than a largely irrelevant curiosity. But When Angels Speak of Love, an album recorded with his Myth Science Arkestra during rehearsals at the Choreographers Workshop in New York in 1963 and released on Ra's own Saturn label in 1966, is very much within then-current trends in jazz as performed by such innovators as John Coltrane and Ornette Coleman. John Corbett, annotator of the 2000 CD reissue on Evidence, points out Ra's disdain for the term "free jazz," but this is music that fits into that style and even harks back to bebop on occasion. Walter Miller's trumpet playing on "The Idea of It All," for example, clearly indicates that he's been listening to Miles Davis, even as John Gilmore's squealing tenor suggests Coltrane, and, on "Ecstasy of Being," what Corbett calls Danny Davis' "excruciated alto" suggests Coleman. Ra himself frequently plays busy, seemingly formless passages that are reminiscent of Cecil Taylor. An even closer approximation of a traditional approach can be found on the relatively brief title track, a ballad that, while not exactly sweet, is surprisingly sober and expressive. Of course, that's followed by the band chanting "Next Stop Mars" and going off in all directions on the 18-minute final track. The album's rarity on vinyl may be not only because few copies were pressed initially, but also because this is a Sun Ra album that is more conventionally unconventional than most, with tracks you could program next to those of his 1960s contemporaries and have them fit right in.
AMG Review by by William Ruhlmann
This recording catches Sun Ra in 1963, when he and the key personnel of his Arkestra were well settled in New York and in their most creative period. It's unusual in illustrating just how elements of the city's free jazz were entering the Arkestra's music, just as they were influencing it. Sun Ra's piano is far more animated than usual, at times resembling the dense percussive playing of early Cecil Taylor, while "The Ecstasy of Being" suggests the direct influence of Ornette Coleman and his drummer Ed Blackwell on Danny Davis and Clifford Jarvis. Several short tracks feature a single reed player along with trumpeter Walter Miller and the rhythm section. Marshall Allen's oboe is suitably exotic on "Celestial Fantasy," while Pat Patrick's baritone brings a rugged beauty to the ballad "When Angels Speak of Love." "The Idea of It All" is an intense, twisting line that inspires a coiling, kinetic solo from tenor saxophonist John Gilmore. The whole reed section is present in all its brilliance on "Next Stop Mars," chanting "We'll take a trip to space/The next stop Mars" before Sun Ra's piano leads them into a diverse, extended journey where saxophone multiphonics and mechanical reverb are just part of the scenery. Originally released on Sun Ra's Saturn label in 1966, this has been one of the rarest of his LPs.
--Stuart Broomer - Amazon review
When Angels Speak of Love, they speak of higher minded beingness. Ecstatic sound vibrations interwoven by the mastery of SUN RA and his Arkestra into a cosmic tapestry of warmth, beauty and illumination. Sound that calms the nervous system so that you can REALLY listen. Color that "blues your aura" so that you are in harmonious attunation with yourself. An otherness of existence. A beingness of complete unity where one really becomes a living, pulsating part of the Cosmos.
For When Angels Speak of Love they speak of the freedom gained from Cosmic Discipline.
They speak of the freshness of not being possessed, as in the condition of earth-love.
When Angels Speak of Love they speak of the accomplishment of evolving to a higher plane and reveling there with other Cospatriots -- the strength and beauty of an association with biped beings who have an attunation of mind and spirit that is so all encompassing as to render all earthly pursuits as dull and meaningless.
When Angels Speak of Love they speak of a dimension that is beyond the scope of ordinary earthmen. They speak of Tomorrow's World. And who should know better than Sun Ra, an angel who has come back to show us!
Natel Juni (from the original notes)
107. [93] Sun Ra and his Myth Science Arkestra
When Angels Speak of Love
When Angels Speak of Love
Sun Ra (gong -1; p -2; Selmer Clavioline -3); Walter Miller (tp); Marshall Allen (ob -1, perc); Danny Davis (as -3); John Gilmore (ts -2, perc); poss. Pat Patrick (perc); Ronnie Boykins (b); Clifford Jarvis (d); Tommy Hunter (reverb -1,3).
Choreographers Workshop, NYC, 1963
The Idea of It All (Ra) -2
Ecstasy of Being (Ra) -3
Choreographers Workshop, NYC, 1963
Next Stop Mars (Ra) [ens voc] -1
Saturn LP 1966, When Angels Speak of Love, was released (in mono) in 1966. All known copies have a red portrait of Sun Ra pulled sideways in a copier to create streaks. The first edition had this portrait on a gold cover, and a black liner with notes by Natel Juni and a personnel list (thanks to Gilbert Hsiao and Len Bukowski for information on this edition). The second edition used the same portrait on a white cover but left the back blank. A cover with a black ameboid figure was advertised in the 1967 Saturn catalog, but no copies with this jacket have yet turned up. All copies of the album have the red Saturn label, which supports the 1966 release date. In 1967 the album was given the catalog number 405. It is not known how many Saturn LPs were pressed, but two lots of 75, for a total of 150, is a good guess. In 1971 the master tape for at least one side of this album was sold to Black Lion, but it was never issued by that label (according to Julian Vein). At least side B was originally recorded in stereo.
The two tracks from the second session were reissued (in stereo) on Blast First BFFP 42 [CD] and Restless 71427 [CD] in 1989. The last 4:40 of "Next Stop Mars" has been edited out on these reissues; Blast First BFFP 42 [LP] and Torso 33132 include only "When Angels Speak of Love."
From The Earthly Recordings of Sun Ra 2nd ed.
From The Earthly Recordings of Sun Ra 2nd ed.
When Angels Speak of Love (1966)
Celestial Fantasy 5:55
The Idea Of It All 7:32
Ecstasy Of Being 9:53
The Idea Of It All 7:32
Ecstasy Of Being 9:53
When Angels Speak Of Love 4:34
Next Stop Mars 17:56
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