Sun Ra - Unity (1978)

Welcome to the final installment of the Adventure-Equation visit to Italy.  Unity was released on the small Italian independent Horo label but unlike the other Horo releases New Steps and Other Voices, Other Blues, Sun Ra Quartet offerings which were performed and recorded in Italy, Unity was recorded in NYC & Paris and features the full Arkestra absolutely burning through a set of standards sprinkled with a few Ra originals.  The recording is great and the performances are outstanding.  Play this one LOUD every chance you get!

A live recording of a joyously swinging concert, this record finds Ra entering the final phase of his career, where he mixed his outer space/ancient Egypt inspired free jazz with the big band swing of his youth. It's a tribute to both Ra and the band that they were able to reconcile these two diametrically opposed types of music and make them work so well. Some of Ra's most steadfast sidemen are in attendance here like the saxophonists Marshall Allen and John Gilmore, along with some new additions like Michael Ray on trumpet and Craig Harris on trombone. Quite a bit of the material presented here would make for stumping "blindfold test" material, particularly when the band almost raises the roof on righteously swinging versions of Fletcher Henderson's "Yeah Man!" or the Jelly Roll Morton classic "King Porter Stomp." The group pretty much runs through the history of jazz moving from swing to bop on Tadd Dameron's "Lady Bird" and post-bop, checking in with Miles Davis's "Half Nelson" and a very Coltrane-ian run through of "My Favorite Things." [not so Coltrane-ian in my opinion - This Ra-Gilmore take really swings - yotte]. It's only at the end of the concert that they leave Earth orbit with fine versions of legendary Sun Ra tunes "The Satellites are Spinning" and "Enlightenment." This one might be a bit of a bear to track down, and I'm not sure if it's still in print or not, but it is well worth the effort. This edition of the Arkestra was rock solid, and like fellow polymaths Jaki Byard and Rahsaan Roland Kirk, they had the entirety of jazz at their fingertips.

from Music and More

Live at the Storyville, NYC. The Arkestra's best live album. Loaded with standards. Incredible musicianship.

AMG review by Michael G. Nastos 

Horo HDP 19-20, a 2-LP set titled Unity, was released in 1978.  All tracks also appeared on Japanese RCA RVI 9003/9004 in 1979.  All information (except for the provenance of two tracks recorded in August 1976 at Châteauvallon--session 235) is taken from the record jacket.  Some titles were unduly abbreviated there (corrections are provided in brackets).  Tommy Hunter recorded these live sessions.

257. [210] Sun Ra Arkestra

Unity

Sun Ra (org, Rocksichord); Michael Ray (tp); Ahmed Abdullah (tp); Akh Tal Ebah (tp, voc); Craig Harris (tb); Charles Stephens (tb); Vincent Chancey (Fr hn); Emmett McDonald (bass horn); Marshall Allen (as, ob, fl, perc); Danny Davis (as, fl, perc); John Gilmore (ts, cl, timb, voc); Danny Ray Thompson (bars, fl, perc); Eloe Omoe (bcl, fl, perc); James Jacson (fl, bsn, Inf-d); Richard "Radu" Williams (b); Thomas Hunter (d); Luqman Ali (d); Atakatune (cga, perc); Eddie Thomas (perc, voc); June Tyson (voc).

Storyville, NYC,
October 24 and 29, 1977

235. [202] Sun Ra Arkestra

Sun Ra (p, solar org, Mini-Moog syn, Rocksichord); Ahmed Abdullah [Leroy Bland] (tp); Chris Capers (tp); Al Evans (flg); Craig Harris (tb); Vincent Chancey (Fr hn); Reggie Hudgins (ss); Marshall Allen (as, fl, ob, kora, perc); Danny Davis (as, fl, perc); John Gilmore (ts, cl, timb); Pat Patrick (bars, fl, perc); Danny Ray Thompson (bars, fl, perc); Eloe Omoe (bcl, fl, perc); James Jacson (bsn, fl, Inf-d); Tony [R. Anthony] Bunn (eb); Hayes Burnett (b); Clifford Jarvis (d); Larry Bright (d); Stanley Morgan [Atakatune] (cga); June Tyson (voc); Judith Holton (dance); Cheryl Banks (dance); poss. Rhonda Patrick (dance).

Châteauvallon, France, August 24, 1976

"Rose Room" and "The Satellites are Spinning" (title abbreviated to "The Satellites") were released in 1978 on Horo HDP 19-20, Unity....

from The Earthly Recordings

Sun Ra Arkestra
Unity
1. Yesterdays   5:50
2. Lightnin'   2:53
3. How Am I To Know?   9:32
4. Lights [On A Satellite]   5:50
5. Yeah Man   3:21
6. King Porter Stomp   3:49
7. Images   10:29
8. Penthouse Serenade   4:22
9. Lady Bird-Half Nelson   8:38
10. Halloween [In Harlem]   6:12
11. My Favorite Things   5:24
12. The Satellites [Are Spinning]   7:17
13. Rose Room   9:19
14. Enlight[en]ment   2:26

I collected this album from the web a few years ago and unfortunately have no recollection of where I found it.  Many thanks to the original uploader.

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