Sun Ra - The Antique Blacks (1974)

On August 9, 1974, Richard M. Nixon resigned as President of the United States. I imagine this extraordinary event was on Sun Ra’s mind when, a week later, he assembled a small Arkestra for a live radio broadcast at Temple University in Philadelphia on August 17. While not making any direct references to Nixon, Ra took the opportunity to sermonize at length and he felt strongly enough about the performance to edit the recording for an LP entitled, The Antique Blacks, released on his own Saturn label later in the year (Saturn 81774). Ra clearly felt he had to get his message out. In actuality, this record was pressed in vanishingly small editions, sometimes re-titled, Interplanetary Concepts or There Is A Change In The Air and with various covers, including a generic “Acropolis” sleeve (see Campbell & Trent, pp.212-213). Like the mystical texts in his personal library, The Antique Blacks was probably made available to only initiates or persons Ra felt could decode his deeper, spiritual meanings. The ever-resourceful Art Yard label has reissued the album on CD [and LP! -yotte] with a bonus track recorded at the same session—but beware: Ra’s philosophizing is as inscrutable as ever, making this a strange and difficult listen for the casual fan. Keep in mind: it was a different era.

The record starts out easy enough with “Song No.1,” a gently rollicking space groove propelled by burbling percussion (including Clifford Jarvis on trap drums and Atakatune on congas) and Sonny’s reedy Rocksichord comping. This is one of my favorite “genres” of Sun Ra’s music (think “Love In Outer Space”) and this is particularly fine example. John Gilmore is up first with a terse but beautifully melodic tenor sax solo: starting with burnished low-register figures and then flying into the highest registers, he gracefully returns to earth with a variation on the theme he’d extemporaneously established. Yes, it’s another brilliant Gilmore solo! Ra is up next and then—what’s this?—who’s playing the screaming electric guitar? That’s a good question. The liner notes to the Art Yard CD say it’s the mysterious “Sly” while Campbell & Trent insist it’s a 15-year-old Dale Williams (p.313). Whoever it is plays with a rocked-out, psychedelicized abandon which works well enough in this setting, despite a severe intonation problem. Then Akh Tal Ebah enters with one of his smeared, expressionistic trumpet solos. Kwame Hadi is absent at this session, giving Ebah a rare opportunity to stretch out. While Ebah doesn’t hit every note with refined precision (like Hadi), his melodic ideas are unique and interesting. Gilmore enters with a tasteful counter-melody and, after some more buzzy comping from Ra, the “Song No.1” comes to an end. Very nice.

Much of the rest of the album appears to be taken from a long, continuous piece, but chopped up and re-arranged for release. Ra outlines a simple ascending bassline in waltz-time then pauses to make his declamations, the Arkestra periodically entering with pulsating space chords, ensemble freakouts or out-jazz solos. Gilmore is joined by Marshall Allen and Davis for a full-blown saxophone battle on “There Is a Change in the Air” and Williams/Sly sounds a little like Sonny Sharrock with his gonzo, metallic attack. On “The Ridiculous ‘I’ and the Cosmos Me,” Gilmore delivers one of his trademarked a cappella blowouts and James Jacson takes a positively ripping solo on the otherwise unwieldy bassoon. For the most part, Ra sticks to Rocksichording incongruous harmonies and skittering runs, except at the end where we get some spaceship synthesizer. But, most of the time, Sonny is preaching it, hot and heavy. 

(continue reading at NuVoid's Sun Ra Sundays)

218. [190]  Sun Ra

Sun Ra (Rocksichord, Mini-Moog syn, declamation); Akh Tal Ebah (tp, voc); Marshall Allen (as); Danny Davis (as); John Gilmore (ts, voc, perc); prob. James Jacson (bsn, Inf-d); Dale Williams (eg); Clifford Jarvis (d); poss. Atakatune (cga).

Radio Broadcast, Philadelphia,
August 17, 1974

Saturn LP 81774, The Antique Blacks, was issued in 1974 on the Philadelphia label.  It has also been titled Interplanetary Concepts and There is Change in the Air.  Thanks to Mark Webber for the track listing for this rare album.  Personnel identified by rlc.  John Gilmore said that an electric guitarist whose name he remembered as Sly was in the Arkestra around this time, and the guitarist was so identified in the first edition.  However, Dale Williams says that he made this record -- when he was 15 years old!  Williams gives a Philadelphia radio station (probably the Temple University station) as the location.

The Antique Blacks has been sold in various covers, including a generic "Acropolis" sleeve (Peter Roberts).

from The Earthly Recordings 2nd ed.  Campbell/Trent

Click to Enlarge

The Antique Blacks (1974)
Art Yard 180g LP rip (2010)

1. Song No. 1   8:47
2. There is Change in the Air   10:50
3. The Antique Blacks   3:38
4. This Song is Dedicated to Nature's God   3:52
5. The Ridiculous "I" and the Cosmos Me   4:38
6. Would I For All That Were   2:51
7. Space is the Place   8:06

FLAC

or

320

New links in Comments

8. You Thought You Could Build A World Without Us   9:11

(Bonus track from CD Reissue)

(download Bonus Track)

Space Is The Place