Sun Ra - Live at Montreux (1976)

Nothing has grown more tiresome in our hype-saturated era than claims of people being ahead of their time. Given the recent raising of extra-terrestrial consciousness generated by Star Wars and Close Encounters of the Third Kind, I wouldn’t be surprised to find Sun Ra, whose Arkestra has been “out there” for over 20 years, hailed as a harbinger of R2D2 in some quarters. While the connection is not totally tenuous (compare the theme of “Lights on a Satellite,” written no later than 1959, with the musical greeting in Close Encounters), it is Sun Ra’s numerous compositional and ensemble techniques that make him truly prophetic.

From 1955, when Sun Ra began recording his Arkestra, one hears not only complex, irregular structures and model improvisation but miscellaneous percussion, odd meters and polyrhythms, electronic keyboards and the use of two keyboards at once. By the end of the ‘50s Sun Ra and his band were into the whole area of “noise elements” and collective sonic exploration, while his elaborate stage shows and vocal interludes paved the way for the currently popular Parliament/Funkadelic.

A Sun Ra concert is truly something else – more than music and more than musical theater, it is a self-created and self-contained mythic universe. Two dozen men and women, dressed in outrageous space garb, carry on for hours without pause, spanning all of jazz history from staples of the original Duke Ellington or Fletcher Henderson books to ethereal child-like tunes and the outraged caterwaulings of the entire horn section.

Enjoy all the musical magic and mischief that is Sun Ra on this classic Inner City re-release.

From the original album liner notes in 1976 

The excellent Live at Montreux set from 1976 was released on vinyl by both Saturn and Inner City before disappearing from print for many years. In 2003, the set was reissued by both Universe/Akarma and P-Vine. A full 20-member Arkestra (plus dancers) turns in a typically freewheeling set. From "Take the 'A' Train" (featuring a killer solo from Marshall Allen), to the gospel-influenced "El Is a Sound of Joy," to the almost exotica "Lights on a Satellite," to the free and raucous "Gods of the Thunder Realm," and on to "We Travel the Spaceways," the Arkestra covers as much musical territory in this set as anyone would expect from a live Sun Ra show. This is considered to be another classic in a vast discography. [Completists take note: the Universe edition inexplicably fades out the last four minutes of "On Sound Infinity Spheres," which are present on the P-Vine edition.] 

AMG Review by Sean Westergaard

230. [199]  Sun Ra and his Cosmo Swing Arkestra

Live at Montreux /
From the Sunrise of the Other Tomorrow (boot)

Sun Ra (p, solar org, Mini-Moog syn, voc); 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, 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, dance); Judith Holton (dance); Cheryl Banks (dance); Rhonda Patrick (dance); Richard Wilkinson (light show).
Montreux Jazz Festival, Montreux, Switzerland
July 9, 1976

All of this concert except the last three racks (and the piano prelude to "Take the 'A' Train," which seems to have been edited out) is preserved on a 90-minute audience tape.  According to Armin Büttner, the concert was taped and broadcast by Swiss television in 1976 and shown at the Swiss Jazz Museum in September 1994; the uncut video covers the concert from "Love in Outer Space" through "Take the 'A' Train."

All issued tracks on the 2-LP set Saturn MS 87976, Live at Montreux, released in 1976,  On the Saturn LP, the Arkestra is identified as the Cosmo Swing Arkestra.  On ct.'s copy the labels to Side A and B are blank but carry the matrix numbers MS87976-A and MS87976-B; Sides C and D (MS87976-C and MS87976-D) are reversed compared to the Inner City reissue, and there are handwritten labels without tune titles on Side C.  "Prelude" is titled "Cascade" on some other copies of the Saturn; "Encore 1 and 2" are titled "The People Are."

All tracks from the Saturn album were released on the 2-LP set Inner City IC 1039 in 1978 (there the band is simply Sun Ra and his Arkestra and "Take the 'A' Train" is on Side C instead of Side D).  There is also a cassette bootleg (off the soundboard) titled From the Sunrise of the Other Tomorrow, Release date unknown.  It contains the piano prelude to "Take the 'A' Train," along with a "Big John's Special" and a "Yeah Man!" of unknown origin but presumably from the same tour.  Thanks to David Goren for information about the cassette.

Location and personnel from the Inner City jacket; Julian Vein adds Rhonda Patrick.  Date from Vein.  According to ct, "(The World Is Waiting) For the Sunrise" was edited for release by removing the opening portion before Sun Ra's appearance on stage, and "Gods of the Thunder Realm" actually consists of the percussion solos from "Love in Outer Space."
from The Earthly Recordings 2nd ed.  Campbell/Trent

Live at Montreux (1976)

Disc 1
1.    For The Sunrise   2:03
2.    Of The Other Tomorrow   7:41
3.    From Out Where Others Dwell   4:31
4.    On Sound Infinity Spheres   13:26
5.    The House Of Eternal Being   9:32
6.    God Of The Thunder Realm   6:55
7.    Lights On A Satellite   5:12

Disc 2
1.  Take the "A" Train (interlude)   3:51
2.  Take The "A" Train   7:51
3.  Prelude   3:14
4.  El Is The Sound Of Joy   8:56
5.  Encore 1   1:38
6.  Encore 2   2:35
7.  We Travel The Spaceways   4:19

FLAC
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or

320
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Included with this rip is a set of pics from the original LP via the excellent mp3 blog, Randall Funk.

From Transparency 0172 DVD:  Sun Ra Volume 3

A short video recorded the following day in Pescara, Italy

via

231. [199a]  Sun Ra Arkestra

Same personnel; Pat Patrick also plays clarinet, and Marshall Allen and Danny Davis are heard on home-made noisemakers.
Pescara, Italy, July 10, 1976

According to Francesco Martinelli and ct, 18 minutes from this concert were broadcast in black and white over RAI (Italian television).  The broadcast also included some color segments of an interview with Ra in Venice, November 1977.  Date from Julian Vein (Martinelli says July 9)…. The noisemakers (used on "Love in Outer Space") were short wide-bore tubes like squat didgeridoos, but blown brass-style.  The Arkestra was identified as "Sun Ra Orchestra" in the TV credits.
from The Earthly Recordings 2nd ed.  Campbell/Trent