Sun Ra - Some Blues but Not the Kind That's Blue (1978)

 

Fantastic. Another rare Saturn release makes its way into the digital realm. This time, it's Some Blues But Not the Kind That's Blue, a nice 1977 date that's heavy on standards. Aside from the two Sun Ra tunes (one of which had been unreleased prior to this), this is a pretty inside date with some major statements from Ra on piano and John Gilmore on tenor. Everyone gets a bit of solo room, and the flutes and bass clarinet add some really nice colors, especially on "My Favorite Things," a song so closely identified with the John Coltrane Quartet that this version is almost startling in its contrast to Coltrane's myriad versions. Aside from the title track and the two earlier bonus takes of "I'll Get By," there is no bass player present, the low end falling mostly to Ra's piano. 

 

Luqman Ali's drumming, as always, is remarkable in its tasty understatement. The bonus tracks are a wonderful addition. "Untitled" was recorded at the same 1977 sessions but didn't make the album cut. The other tracks are rehearsals, presumably from the Ra house on Morton St. in Philadelphia. They're two takes on "I'll Get By" with Ra on organ and the great Ronnie Boykins on a particularly well-recorded bass with Akh Tal Ebah on trumpet on one take and John Gilmore on tenor on the other. It's interesting to hear these rehearsals in relation to the same song's arrangement from a few years later. Although recorded about a decade apart, Some Blues But Not the Kind That's Blue is of a piece with Blue Delight: mostly standards albums that really put the spotlight on Sun Ra's piano playing and the tenor artistry of John Gilmore. Although the Arkestra is notorious for its outside playing and cacophonous tendencies, this album shows they could play it straight as well as anyone in the game. Wonderful stuff.

AMG Review by Sean Westergaard

 256. [209] Sun Ra and his Arkestra

Some Blues but Not the Kind That's Blue

Sun Ra (p.); Akh Tal Ebah (tp); Marshall Allen (as, fl); Danny Davis (as, fl); John Gilmore (ts); James Jacson (fl, bsn); Eloe Omoe (bcl); Richard "Radu" Williams (b -1); Luqman Ali [Edward Skinner] (d); Atakatune (cga).

Variety Recording Studio, NYC, October 14, 1977

Some Blues but Not the Kind That's Blue (Ra) -1
I'll Get By (Turk-Ahlert)
My Favorite Things (Rodgers-Hammerstein)
Nature Boy (Ahbez)
Tenderly (Morrison-Lawrence-Gross)
Black Magic (Mercer-Arlen)

Saturn LP 101477, Some Blues but Not the Kind That's Blue, was released on the Chicago El Saturn label in 1978.  It has also carried the serial numbers 1014077 and 747,  Alternative titles are My Favorite Things and Nature Boy.  ct suggests that all of the titles (with the possible exception of "Some Blues") were recorded during a single studio session.  Personnel from Geerken's discography, corrected by Abdullah, who verifies the presence of Ebah on trumpet.  Michael Ray's first performance with Sun Ra was an outdoor concert in a park in Germantown, Philadelphia, early in the fall of 1977.
From The Earthly Recordings of Sun Ra 2nd ed.

Sun Ra & His Arkestra: Some Blues But Not the Kind That’s Blue (Atavistic UMS 265)

Recorded 10/14/77
Reissue of Saturn LP 101477 (1978)

Atavistic deserves our unending gratitude for continuing to make available to us poor, stranded Earthlings more delightful batches of rare Sun Ra obscurities via John Corbett’s “Unheard Music Series.” Hot on the heels of last year’s reissue of Strange Strings and Night of the Purple Moon (both of which are essential), comes Some Blues But Not the Kind That’s Blue. Ostensibly a set of “standards” (with a couple of Ra originals thrown in), these renditions are so abstracted and downright weird that it’s clear only Sun Ra could have conceived of these hoary old chestnuts in quite this way. For example, “My Favorite Things” manages to escape an easy comparison to John Coltrane’s iconic take by relaxing the rhythm, spicing it with Latin-ish percussion, and spacing out the harmonies. “Nature Boy” unfolds as a brooding, rhapsodic vehicle for piano and woodwinds that barely hints at the overly-familiar melody. What’s amazing is that, no matter how “straight-ahead” this music might appear on the surface, it’s always still a little bit “out” – and that’s one of the interesting things about Sun Ra’s music. As weird as it sometimes gets, it’s never too far removed from the blues and jazz syntax.

Another thing that fascinates me about Sun Ra’s Saturn LPs (which were, for the most part, hand-made artifacts) is that, despite - maybe even because of - the poor sound quality, the records are deeply affecting. I find this fascinating because I consider myself, if not an audiophile (because I am not wealthy), at least someone who cares a lot about sound quality. When I encounter poor fidelity, I’m not likely to keep listening unless there is some very compelling reason. Life is too short for bad sound! But with Sun Ra, it’s different; the off-kilter soundstages often result in delightfully fortuitous sonic effects and the overall atmosphere is intensely intimate, surreptitious (almost voyeuristic) and downright magical, like capturing lightning in a bottle. (It also occurs to me that this same phenomenon occurs with Robert Pollard’s lo-fi recordings, which effectively evoke the long-lost era of “classic rock” and Beatles bootlegs, but that is another subject altogether.)

Continue reading at NuVoid's Sun Ra Sundays

Some Blues but Not the Kind That's Blue

                                     Some Blues But Not The Kind That's Blue   8:15
                                            I'll Get By   7:19
                                            My Favorite Things   10:02
                                            Untitled   7:06
                                            Nature Boy   8:53
                                            Tenderly   7:30
                                            Black Magic   8:39
                                            I'll Get By (Bonus Track)   7:24
                                            I'll Get By (Bonus Track 2)   6:43

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