Sun Ra - Sun Song (1957)

This essential title [Jazz by Sun Ra] is also available under the moniker of Sun Song (1956). Regardless of name, this long-player contains some of Sun Ra's most complex, yet accessible efforts. Ra had been an active performer since the late 1940s, recording with his various combos or "Arkestra(s)" as Ra dubbed them. Since this was the first widely distributed platter that the artist cut, it is often erroneously referred to as his debut. The tracks were documented by then-unknown Tom Wilson. If the name rings a bell, it may be because Wilson would go on to produce such rock luminaries as Frank Zappa, Simon and Garfunkel, Bob Dylan, and the Velvet Underground, among others. Ra's highly arithmetical approach to bop was initially discounted by noted jazz critic Nat Hentoff as "repetitious," with phrases "built merely on riffs with little development." In retrospect, however, it is obvious there is much more going on here. Among the musical innovations woven into the up-tempo "Brainville" and "Transition," are advanced time signatures coupled with harmonic scales based on Ra's mathematical equations. Not to be missed is the lush elegance within the delicate, if not intricate arrangements heard on "Possession," as well as the equally involved "Sun Song" -- both of which take on an air of sophistication in their deceptive simplicity. Ra's original LP jacket comments can be found within the liner notes of the Sun Song compact disc. This is noteworthy as one of the rare occasions that Sun Ra sought to explain not only his influences, but his methods of composition and modes of execution as well. As referred to above, Jazz by Sun Ra is arguably the most accessible work in the Sun Ra catalog, as well as one of the most thoroughly and repeatedly listenable.
AMG Review by Lindsay Planer

36. [22]  Sun Ra and his Arkestra

Jazz by Sun Ra

Sun Ra (Hammond B-3 org -2, p); Art Hoyle (tp, bells from India); Dave Young (tp, bells); Julian Priester (tb, cathedral chimes, arr); James Scales (as); John Gilmore (ts, woodblocks); Pat Patrick (bars, bells from India); Richard Evans (b); Wilburn Green (eb, tambourine); Robert Barry (d, bells); Jim Herndon (tymp, timb, bells); Prince Shell (arr -1).

Universal Recording, Chicago,
July 12, 1956 

Transition TRLP J-10, Jazz by Sun Ra, was issued in 1957.  Personnel details and session date from the booklet included with this LP (and reprinted in the Delmark CD issue).  The Transition LP, with original title, was reissued in the early 1970s in Japan as Transition PA 7006.  Under the title Sun Song, all tracks from TRLP J-10 appeared on Delmark DL-411 and DS-411 (1967), Sonet SLP23 (Sweden), and Delmark DD-411 [CD, 1991].  David Martinelli and Marco Melaragni point out that there was a bootleg LP, derived from Delmark, titled Sun Song volume 2 and released around 1971 by the notorious BYG subsidiary Goody (GY 30002).  On that bogus release, the band was anachronistically identified as Sun Ra and his Myth Science Arkestra.

"Swing a Little Taste" initially appeared in 1957 on an LP sampler (including tracks by Donald Byrd, Jay Migliori, and others) titled Jazz in Transition.  This was reissued in the late '70s in Japan as Transition GXF3126.  "Swing a Little Taste" was also included as a bonus track on Delmark DD-411 (though there it is incorrectly credited to Sun Ra).  "Street Named Hell" take 2 was also reissued on Smithsonian RD108, Big Band Renaissance, as part of a 5-CD various-artists collection.

"Sun Song" was originally titled "Spur of the Moment," and "Brainville" was originally "Brainville, Uranus," according to Sun Ra's copyright filings in July and August 1956.

Three new compositions, plus some false starts, take announcements, and conversations with the band come from a 12" Transition test pressing that was discovered by Pete Gianakopoulos in January 1997.  They have never been issued in any form.  Side A consists of nine tracks from this session, some fragmentary, interspersed with Ra's announcements (total time is 17 minutes).  Side B is outtakes from two sessions for the label by other artists.  Thanks to Gianakopoulos for information on this unique document, and an opportunity to hear a dub.  James Wolf has identified one of the  unfamiliar compositions as "Delight," which was submitted for copyright as the third section of the Transition suite (the first two parts were "The Action," i.e., "Transition" proper, and "The Street," better known as "Street Named Hell").  (After digital noise reduction by ct, Sun Ra and band members could be heard announcing "Delight" on the test pressing.)  The other two new pieces on the test pressing were never copyrighted by Sun Ra, and we still do not know their titles.

According to Allan Chase, Eutrice U. "Prince" Shell arranged "Possession" for the Arkestra; Ra's only change was to add an alto saxophone part for James Scales to play on this session.  Shell did two other arrangements for the Arkestra:  one of Tadd Dameron's "Lady Bird" (not recorded, at least not in its original form), and a composition of his own dedicated to Gene Ammons called "Memoirs of a Jug."

from Campbell / Trent's The Earthly Recordings 2nd ed.

Sun Ra
Sun Song

1.  Brainville (Ra)   4:14
2.  A Call For All Demons (Ra)   5:16
3.  Transition (Ra)   3:42
4.  Possession (Revel) -1   4:58
5.  Street Named Hell (Ra)   3:39
6.  Lullaby For Realville (Evans)   4:43
7.  Future (Ra)   2:55
8.  Swing A Little Taste (Priester)   4:25
9.  New Horizons (Ra)   3:06
10. Fall Off The Log (Ra)   4:00
11. Sun Song (Ra) -2   3:37

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Thanks to I-) for more Web Finds!
I love the Transition labels.  I hadn't seen those before.