Updated Links - Sun Ra - It Is Forbidden (1974) released 2001 - Now Divided into Separate Tracks

Adventure-Equation's supreme Saturn benefactor, Paul W, prefers his music divided into song-length tracks.  Lucky for us he has graciously shared his hard work with us.  I must admit that I sometimes grow weary of 60-minute tracks so the track divisions he has created are a useful service in my opinion.  If you feel the same, please feel free to sample the first set of links below.  Scans, as always, are included for your literary and visual gratification.  

In 1974, the Ann Arbor Blues & Jazz Festival lost permission to hold the festival in Ann Arbor but was granted access to to the outdoor amphitheater at St. Clair College in Windsor, Ontario Canada.  Because of the shift in location, the festival was dubbed The Ann Arbor Blues & Jazz Festival In Exile.

 

The ranks of the Arkestra included Ra's greatest reed section ever, with Marshall Allen, John Gilmore, Elo Omoe, Danny Davis, James Jacson and Danny "Pekoe" Thompson, plus Kwame Hadi and Akh Tal Ebah on trumpets, Dale Williams on electric guitar, Detroit's own Reginald "Shoo-Be-Doo" Fields on bass, Clifford Jarvis at the drums and Stanley "Atakatune" Morgan on congas.  June Tyson and the Space Ethnic Voices, Judith Holton and Cheryl Banks, strutted and crooned out in front of the band, framing the mind-boggling keyboard improvisations and fierce chanted philosophy of their undisputed leader, the great Sun Ra. 

The multi-track master tapes of the Arkestra's performance were quite reasonably withheld by recordist Chuck Buchanan when it became clear that he could not be paid for his work, and they've never been seen again.  What remains is the cassette tape recorded from the board mix during the performance, now transferred into the digital realm and available right here on CD at last.

--John Sinclair
Amsterdam, December 6, 2000 / New Orleans, February 9, 2001

Sun Ra (p, org, syn, voc); Kwame Hadi (tp); Akh Tal Ebah (tp, mell, voc); unidentified (tp); Marshall allen (as, fl, perc); Danny Davis (as, fl, perc); John Gilmore (ts, perc); Danny Ray Thompson (bars, fl, libf, perc); James Jacson (bsn, Inf-d, voc); Elo Omoe (bcl); Dale Williams (eg); Reginald "Shoo-Be-Doo" Fields (b); Clifford Jarvis (d); Atakatune [Stanley Morgan] (cga); June Tyson (voc); Space Ethnic Voices: Judith Holton, Cheryl Banks (voc). 

September 6, 1974

St Clair College Amphitheatre, Windsor, Ontario, Canada

-from the CD liner notes-

Sun Ra & His Intergalactic Arkestra 

at the Ann Arbor Blues & Jazz Festival in Exile 1974

It Is Forbidden 
1. Untitled Improvisations   13:15
2. Discipline 27   9:18
3. Love in Outer Space   4:41
4. The Shadow World   6:04
5. Space is the Place   7:18
6. Second Stop is Jupiter   1:40
7. What Planet is This   2:34
8. Images   8:20
9. It is Forbidden   2:33
10. Watusi   5:48
11. Sun Ra and his Band from Outer Space
+ applause   2:46



Sun Ra Sunday Review

 


Other Ann Arbor Blues & Jazz Festival Recordings

Life is Splendid (1972)

Outer Space Employment Agency (1973)