. Adventure-Equation .: 2nd Chance: Sun Ra

Monday, February 27, 2012

2nd Chance: Sun Ra - Horizon (1972)

In 1971, in Denmark, at the end of a tour, Sun Ra suddenly decided to take his whole band to Egypt. They had no concerts and no contacts there but Ra sold some recording rights to Black Lion to pay for the tickets and they flew out. They were stopped at customs and their instruments were temporarily impounded but they were let through as tourists. Then they booked into a hotel facing the pyramid at Giza. Word got to Hartmut Geerken, then working at the Goethe institute, and he quickly threw a concert together at his house in Heliopolis, for which Brigadier Salah Ragab borrowed army instruments for the Arkestra to play (he was later disciplined for it). Ra’s Moog had made it through customs and a Tiger Organ was hired. One of the audience (of 25) booked the band in for a Cairo TV session the following day. Then Ragab persuaded the Ministry of Culture to book a concert at the Balloon Theatre (for another tiny audience: only the first 4 rows were occupied). Two more concerts followed – at the American University (for the cab fare) and the Versailles Club. They stayed for more than a fortnight, making a film while they were there and finally, by band-members selling various personal items, raised the money to fly home.

Horizon (also known as Starwatchers and Sun Ra in Egypt Vol. 2) contains a big chunk of the now legendary Balloon Theatre concert (it burned down soon after their visit, as did the hotel in which the Arkestra stayed while they were in Cairo). The Balloon extract is an uncut block (tracks 1- 4 on the CD, side 1 of the LP) and features a lot of Sun Ra’s all-hell-let-loose Moog soloing, as well as a great version of Discipline 2. The rest of Horizon is from the Heliopolis concert, kicking off with an instrumental version of Enlightment and Love in Outer Space (neither are on the original LP) segueing slowly into Space is the Place - followed by drum orchestra, more Ra soloing on Moog, Tiger Organ and detuned piano (bloops, hoovering, whistles, concords taking off) leading to a first lurching, then wild, Discipline 8. Two bonus tracks, for the first time restored from the original concert, follow: We’ll Wait for You (with June Tyson) and The Satellites are Spinning – which ends in full-on percussion. A classic recording of a classic band in great form.

from Jazzloft

The Closet of Curiosities blog recently posted an LP rip and included this wonderful LP cover pic.

Sun Ra & His Intergalactic Myth Science Solar Arkestra:
Horizon (Art Yard CD)

With the money obtained from Black Lion, the Arkestra was able to board the waiting plane and travel to Cairo, arriving in the evening of December 7, 1971. But they did not know anyone in Egypt and neither did they know where they were going to stay nor how they were going to pay for it. Szwed describes the scene:

When they landed they were held up at Egyptian customs because of the unlikelihood of an entire orchestra arriving as tourists and because of the name on Sun Ra’s passport. To be named after the sun god twice was really a bit too much. On the latter objection Sun Ra resourcefully suggested the guard call the curator of the National Museum of Antiquities with whom he was ready to discuss Egyptology. They let him in, but customs kept most of their instruments just in case. The band took cabs to the Mena House Hotel outside of Cairo, and they woke up the next day to see the morning fog slowly lifting to reveal the pyramid of Giza. A day later Tommy Hunter began taking motion pictures of members of the Arkestra as they faced the pyramids, while the wind made their costumes billow so it appeared they were flying. These were the films that Sun Ra would later project behind the band at Slug’s and at concerts (p.292).

Here is the film:

Thanks to Sun Ra fan, Hartmut Geerken, a German writer and free musician who was teaching at the Goethe Institute in Cairo, a series of performances were arranged, including an invitation-only concert at Geerken’s home in Heliopolis on December 12. While most of the Arkestra’s instruments were still being held by customs, they were aided by a most unlikely personage named Salah Ragab:

[He was] a brigadier general and the head of military music in the Egyptian army and himself a jazz drummer. Though he was later disciplined for the contact, he continued to meet with the band under various disguises, including once when he came with the son of [Egyptian President] Gamal Abdel Nasser, also a jazz musician. Musicians and dancers were jammed into the house with several dozen guests, but they still managed a light show and dancing, and a march throughout the house and into the garden (while the Egyptian secret police kept watch from outside) (pp.292-293).

The Arkestra also performed at the famed Ballon Theatre in Cairo on December 17 courtesy of the Egyptian Ministry of Culture, who had cancelled ballet previously scheduled for that date (p.293). The concert was recorded from the stage (in mono) by Tommy Hunter and released on various impossible-to-find Saturn LPs over the years (see Campbell & Trent, pp.180-183). Most of this material was finally compiled onto a CD entitled, Horizon, and released by Art Yard in 2008. It is a truly special performance: after the cold, grueling tour of Europe, the Arkestra sounds well-rested and inspired by the ancient, mystical-- and warm -- environment. Ra sets the stage with some ominous electronics before a brief “Theme of the Stargazers” and a howling a cappella solo from Danny Davis on alto sax. The band then launches into “Discipline 2,” a moody and mysterious piece that begins with throbbing, densely harmonized horns which give way to a twittering flute choir before returning with a somber coda. Sonny then signals “The Shadow World” and we’re off to the races. This is a spectacular, seventeen minute rendition, with Ra driving the band hard and the ensemble responding with near-perfect execution of the extraordinarily complicated melody lines. Ra takes the lead with a skittering organ solo before an energetic group improvisation section that yields to Gilmore’s furiously wailing tenor sax. Yes, it’s another incredible Gilmore solo! Kwami Hadi also takes a turn on trumpet and acquits himself well, ranging around from high-wire acrobatics to smeared, low-register noodling before Ra signals the reprise. After a brief pause, Ra lightens the mood by moving into “Enlightenment,” which is joyfully taken up by June Tyson and her male choir. “Love In Outer Space” predictably follows and while this version lacks the menacing darkness heard in Paris, there’s plenty of exciting organ work and another tasty solo from Hadi.

Continue reading at NuVoid's Sun Ra Sundays

190. [166] Sun Ra and his Astro Intergalactic Infinity Arkestra
Horizon /
Nidhamu

(personnel list adapted from 187. [163])
Sun Ra (Tiger org); Kwame Hadi (tp, cga); Marshall Allen (as, fl, perc); Danny Davis (as, fl); Larry Northington (as, cga); John Gilmore (ts, perc, d); Pat Patrick (bars, eb); Danny Thompson (bars, fl); Eloe Omoe (bck, fl); Hakim Rahim (as, fl); Clifford Jarvis (d, perc); Tommy Hunter (d, as, announcement); Lex Humphries (d); June Tyson (voc, dance); prob. Cheryl Banks (dance, voc); prob. Wisteria el Moondew [Judith Holton] (dance, voc); Richard Wilkinson (light show).

Balloon Theater, Cairo,
December 17, 1971

Saturn 1217718 was issued in the mid-1970s on the Philadelphia label as Horizon. It also appeared on the Chicago label as Saturn LP 849. Some copies are titled Starwatchers; others had Live in Egypt Vol. III printed on the jacket by Danny Ray Thompson. The band was identified on this release as "Sun Ra and his Arkestra." A final LP release of Horizon took place in 1989; the serial number was Saturn 121771, there were red-and-green labels by the Hinds Brothers, and the press run was 300 copies (Geerken and Hefele).

The concert was taped by Tommy Hunter. All titles from this album are also included on a 60-minute audience tape; Mark Webber points out that "The Shadow World" was edited on the LP. A tape of "Starwatchers," "The Shadow World" (edited), and "Enlightenment" was played on WKCR-FM during the 1995 Sun Ra memorial broadcast.

The Ballon (sometimes called Balloon) was a huge inflatable tent, according to Geerken; Hunter confirms this. Shortly after this concert, the theater burned to the ground.
from The Earthly Recordings 2nd ed. Campbell/Trent