In September 2009, the Pathways To Unknown Worlds: Sun Ra, El Saturn and Chicago's Afro-Futurist Underground 1954-1968 exhibition traveled to Duke University in Durham, North Carolina. The exhibition opened Friday August 21 and ran through Sunday October 18th. Attendees were treated to a 'public conversation' meeting with Art Jenkins and Marshall Allen followed by a 'panel discussion' with the exhibition's curators, John Corbett, Terri Kapsalis, and Anthony Elms. Fortunately for us, the sessions were filmed and are available for viewing/download at iTunes U. For those unwilling or unable to access them at iTunes, I have them available below.
The public conversation was followed by a panel discussion featuring the exhibitions curators.
During the sessions, several references to recent publications were made so I took the liberty of scanning some of the pages mentioned as well as a few that I find interesting or exemplary of Ra's genius word play and meaning-mutations.
Claude Dangerfield cover design, never used 1960
The Magic Lie, book design and layout, never produced
Saturn statement of business purpose
Public Conversation
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i listened to part of the first part last night. so now we know - art jenkins is singing into a ram's horn (with holes) on 'solar differentials'!
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the 2nd part is really interesting too - enlightment, saturn records...
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Hi I-)
ReplyDeleteYes! I really liked Terri Kapsalis' paper.
Forgive me, it's been a couple of months since I've watched the videos, but what I remember striking me most was Corbett's comment that Ra was purposefully manipulating perceptions of Time in his albums - the whole 'Time has officially ended' part. I loved that!
I also enjoyed them talking of the 'supernatural' occurrences that friends and 'enemies' would mention. GREAT stuff!
more from duke... maestro marshall allen and vocalist ext-roar'd-in-air art jenkins were interviewed on the local radio station:
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in case you don't want to read all the way to the end of that page, here is the download link:
http://wunc.org/tsot/archive/sot0925b09.mp3
I-)
first off, i have to give props to yotte for finding this! i never would have thought to look there! :-)
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timeline for the MA and AJ video.
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John Hope Franklin
Humaities Institute
September 25, 2009
Talking about Sun Ra
Marshall Allen - Sun Ra Arkestra
Art Jenkins - Sun Ra Arkestra
Fred Moten - English Department, Duke University
Introduction - Aaron Greenwald, Duke Performances
length = 100:26 (1:40:26) - Sun Ra Arkestra Conversation
note: 00:00 to 66:33 is very noisy. after 66:33, audio is normal
00:00 - introductions
04:51 - start
05:46 - Marshall Allen
23:47 - Art Jenkins (first time singing with Sun Ra was into a ram's horn with holes on "Secrets of the Sun" on "Solar Differentials")
39:42 - how to translate spirit into music - Marshall Allen
43:38 - MA and AJ - about spirit
45:00 - AJ and MA - A Song for the Sun
47:20 - "Strange Strings" and recording session
57:52 - doing the impossible - AJ learning to talk
59:29 - being successful as a failure
61:56 - who did the cooking and cleaning - MA
64:13 - collective living - MA (sound goes bad at end)
68:22 - "Hours After" from "Jazz in Silhouette"
72:23 - Coltrane and Gilmore - MA
74:31 - failures and how to recognize it - MA
77:51 - listening to sounds of aquatic mammals - AJ
79:38 - astrology in the house - MA and AJ
80:29 - vibrations of the day drive the performance - MA and AJ
84:13 - skill levels in musicians - MA
86:15 - MA directs the audience, w/ AJ
90:29 - let the spirit lead you - AJ
92:34 - tunes that MA wrote (Kingdom of Thunder, Fate in a Pleasant Mood, Angels and Demons at Play have lyrics, Tiny Pyramids) and tunes with Ronnie Boykins
95:30 - stacks of music, parts against parts - MA
100:00 - end of talk
100:26 - end
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timeline for the curators video.
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Duke University Center
for International Studies (DUCIS)
September 25, 2009
Talking about Sun Ra
John Corbett - School of the Art Institute of Chicago
Anthony Elms - arist / writer
Terry Kapsalis - School of the Art Institute of Chicago
Introduction - Rob Sikorski
length = 116:32 (1:56:32) - panel discussion with exhibit curators
00:00 - intros
04:25 - Terry Kapsalis
06:40 - enlightment
09:32 - TK - enlightment / enlightenment
23:35 - JC - about Saturn records
48:27 - AE - about Sun Ra and his words
66:59 - questions
67:12 - space tourism and Sun Ra and music as a fuel for space vehicles, the broadsheets are biblically oriented and talk about race relations, space material became more prominent in nyc time period, AE reads the incorporation papers
73:54 - sun ra and black nationalism, an impossible nation, searching for land, imparting cosmic abilities, Sun Ra in Providence, 1978 playing low notes, harassed while street corner preaching and storm, comparison to lhamas and yogis
82:07 - thelonius monk story, JC and monk story, Ornette Coleman and Monk, belief versus meaning it
84:49 - sincerity is different than belief, it is about meaning it, Sun Ra as an alternate to the dream, research methods of new artists, myth scientist (scientist = research, myth = creative - forge your own myths out of your research), 'moon stew'
88:59 - differences between live and LPs, the good doctor and esp, how did they decide what to put on albums, first european tour and playing for six hours on the radio in stockholm, 'atlantis' and 'magic city' first to have side long tracks, records are not chronological, playing d. ellington and f. henderson in the middle of space improvs, everything was recorded (squeaky door, phone book, sun ra on acoustic guitar), tapes from different periods spliced together, had first tape recorder in 1938
99:06 - making musical instruments, long rehearsals, band living together, phil cohran and kalimba, violin ukelele on 'Interplanetary Music', phil cohran still performing at ethiopian diamond on broadway in chicago every friday night, 102:10 - other artists that hung out with sun ra in nyc and were influenced by and were admirers of sun ra, phil niblock, writers
107:47 - centenial in 2014, publishing the broadsheets, musical discourse, making it through 2012
110:49 - musical and instrumental technology and not adopting the latest studio recording techniques and multitrack recordings, being in places with people and making music together, selling original tapes to Bates in london, using multitrack recordings (On Jupiter, Lanquidity), 'Advice to Medics' (on 'Super Sonic Jazz', 'Super Sonic Sounds', and 'The Complete Nothing Is') recorded on tape deck at home playing a proto-minimalist line
116:10 - ...running out of time...
116:14 - credits
116:32 - end
These timelines are really helpful. Thanks so much, I-). Your notes remind me of how many interesting topics are discussed: Art Jenkins' childhood, 'vibrations of the day,' interpreting 'Enlightment.' Great stuff.
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