2nd Chance: Sun Ra - Hiroshima (1985)

Performed almost solo by Sun Ra (save the occasional selected percussion effects and bird calls) on an Atlanta theatre pipe organ, the haunting title track is every bit as dark, reflective and epic a lament as its title suggests. While Hiroshima very much feels like a standalone piece, Stars That Shine Darkly is equally fascinating, but for very different reasons. Recorded live in Montreux in November 1983 and featuring the Sun Ra All Stars who, besides Arkestra mainstays John Gilmore and Marshall Allen, also include the interstellar talents of Archie Shepp, Don Cherry and Lester Bowie, Stars That Shine Darkly catches the ensemble in heavyweight improvisatory mood.

Part revelatory listening experience, part hair-raising journey to the outer limits of the known jazz universe, the album feels much longer than its 29- minute playing time, thanks to the sheer diversity and scope of the ideas so dazzlingly compressed into its two wildly contrasting tracks.
reviewed by Grahame Bent

Hiroshima (Sun Ra)

400. [297] Sun Ra All Stars

Stars that Shine Darkly /
Stars that Shine Darkly Volume 2

Sun Ra (p, syn, voc); Don Cherry (pocket tp); Eloe Omoe (cacl); Lester Bowie (tp); Marshall Allen (as, fl, ob, EVI); John Gilmore (ts, voc); Archie Shepp (ss); Richard Davis (b); Clifford Jarvis (d); Philly Joe Jones (d); Famoudou Don Moye (d, Sun Percussion).

Montreux, Switzerland,
between November 2 and 5, 1983

"Stars that Shine Darkly part 1" was first released in 1985 on Side A of the Saturn LP 10-11-85, Stars That Shine Darkly Volume 1.  This album has also been titled Hiroshima.  "Stars that Shine Darkly part 2" was first released in 1985 on Side B of the Saturn Gemini LP 9-1213-85, Stars that Shine Darkly Volume 2, also titled Outer Reach Intensity-Energy.  Mark Webber points out that there is also a hybrid Stars That Shine Darkly album with part 1 on Side A and part 2 on Side B.  Date and location from Ted Panken on a WKCR-FM broadcast.  Presence of Omoe noted by ct; Danny Ray Thompson confirms that Ra "augmented" the All-Stars on a couple of occasions.

Stars that Shine Darkly (Sun Ra All-Stars)

416. [298]  Sun Ra

Stars That Shine Darkly

Sum Ra (pipe org).

Atlanta, GA, 1984 or 1985

Hiroshima (Ra)
unidentified titles (unissued)

Saturn 10-11-85, Stars That Shine Darkly, was released in 1985.  It is sometimes titled Hiroshima.  "Hiroshima" appeared on Side B.  In the first edition of this discography [Earthly Recordings vol. 1], this piece was said to have been recorded on the same European tour as the All Stars material.  However, in a conversation with Peter Hinds on Feb. 14, 1986, Sun Ra alluded to the existence of additional material from this performance, as well as an unissued video by Danny Ray Thompson.  Peter Hinds refers to "the thing in Atlanta, Ga, with the organ."  According to John and Peter Hinds, the organ was located in a large theater in Atlanta.  The exact date is not known, but the Arkestra was in Atlanta on October 26, 1984 and again on January 1, 1985.

From The Earthly Recordings of Sun Ra 2nd ed.

 

 

Hiroshima
Art Yard Stereo LP 2007

1. Hiroshima   14:33
2. Stars that Shine Darkly   14:15

Files include a rip I received through the Sun Ra Trading Group
of Saturn 10-11-85 (1985)

-FLAC-

RS

HF

or

-320-

RS

HF

 

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