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

Wednesday, October 3, 2012

2nd Chance: Sun Ra - Cosmic Tones / Art Forms

Of all the outlandish and evocative titles in Sun Ra’s discography, Cosmic Tones For Mental Therapy stands out in its audacious, baldly prescriptive claim. But, to be sure, the title is no idle put-on. In fact, Ra had presciently been involved in what would nowadays be known as "music therapy” back in the late-1950s:

[Manager] Alton Abraham arranged through his medical contacts for Sonny to play for a group of patients at a Chicago mental hospital…The group of patients assembled for this early experiment in musical therapy included catatonics and severe schizophrenics, but Sonny approached the job like any other, making no concessions in his music. While he was playing, a woman who it was said had not moved or spoken for years got up from the floor, walked directly to his piano, and cried out, ‘Do you call that music?’ Sonny was delighted with her response and told the story for years afterwards as evidence of the healing powers of music (Szwed, p.92-93).

While the term “music therapy” may conjure up some kind of dulcet, inoffensive, New-Age-y pabulum, the Cosmic Tones marshaled here are anything but easy-listening. Ra practices a kind of electro-shock treatment to the soul, seeking to, as with the catatonic mental patient, “touch the unknown part of the person, awaken the part of them that we’re not able to talk to, the spirit” (Szwed, p. 257). Ra did not consider the Arkestra to be musicians so much as “tone scientists” (Szwed, p. 112) whose investigations and manipulations of musical phenomena could help mankind in its earthly struggles. “People are disturbed and need your help 24 hours a day,” he would lecture the band (quoted in Szwed, p. 374).

People are just like receivers, they’re like speakers, too, like amplifiers. They’re also like instruments because they got a heart that beats and that’s a drum. They’ve got eardrums too, and they some strings in there, so they actually got harps on each side of their head. If you play certain harmonies, these strings will vibrate in people’s ears and touch different nerves in the body. When the proper things are played in each person, these strings will automatically tune themselves properly and then the person will be in tune. There will be no discord, they will be tuned up perfectly, just like each automobile have to be tuned according to what kind of automobile it is. My music does have a vibration somewhere within it that can reach every person in the audience through feeling (quoted in Szwed, p. 345).

Electro-shock treatment is also an appropriate metaphor in that electronic technology was always an important tool in Ra’s medic bag. On Cosmic Tones For Mental Therapy, Ra eschews the piano altogether for the mewling whine of the Clavioline (an early keyboard synthesizer) and the swirly Hammond organ. Further, electronic echo is slathered onto the proceedings by recordist/percussionist Tommy “Bugs” Hunter, who had accidentally discovered the effect while fooling around with the Ampex 602 tape recorder he had purchased at a pawn shop in 1962. By plugging in a cable from the output jack into the input on the machine, massive reverberant echo was produced.

(Continue reading at NuVoid's amazing Sun Ra Sundays blog)

Adventure-Equation

109. [95] Sun Ra and his Myth Science Arkestra
Cosmic Tones for Mental Therapy
Sun Ra (Clavioline, cosmic side drums -1); Bernard Pettaway (btb -1); Marshall Allen (ob); John Gilmore (bcl -1, sky tone drums -2); Robert Cummings (bcl); Pat Patrick (bars -1, fl -2); Danny Davis (fl); James Jacson (fl, log drums); Ronnie Boykins (b -2); Tommy Hunter (perc, reverb); Clifford Jarvis (perc).

Choreographers Workshop, NYC, late 1963

And Otherness (Ra) -1
Thither and Yon (Ra) -2

110. [96] Sun Ra (astro space [Hammond B-3] org); Marshall Allen (astro space drums -1); Danny Davis (as -3); John Gilmore (bcd, sky drums -1; sky tone drums -3); Ronnie Boykins (b); James Jacson (log drums -1, 3); Clifford Jarvis (drums -2, 3); Tommy Hunter (reverb -1, 3).

Tip Top Club, Brooklyn, NY, late 1963

Adventure-Equation (Ra) -1
Moon Dance (Ra) -2
Voice of Space (Ra) -3
unidentified titles (unissued)

Art Forms of Dimensions Tomorrow tacks on two leftover tracks from 1961’s Bad & Beautiful recording session but mostly consists of a 1962 rehearsal recorded in the basement of the Choreographer’s Workshop where there was a good piano and better acoustics. The sound quality is notably improved even if the source tape for this CD is significantly degraded. More importantly, Ra’s music is clearly moving in a new, exciting direction. Drummer/recordist Tommy Hunter had been recording rehearsals on his Apex reel-to-reel and accidentally discovered the feedback/echo effect that appears here for the first time. So while Bad & Beautiful was a somewhat traditional jazz combo album full of show tunes and semi-conventional Ra originals, Art Forms of Dimensions Tomorrow lives up to its title, moving forward into the kind of experimental avant garde music that would cement Ra’s reputation in the 1960s and 70s while also retaining a connection to the living tradition that would continue to center the Arkestra’s aesthetic throughout its career. To paraphrase Michael Shore’s comment in the liner notes to this Evidence CD, if Cosmic Tones for Mental Therapy is a Rosetta Stone, then Art Forms of Dimensions Tomorrow is Ra beginning to carve it in earnest.

“Cluster of Galaxies” is a brief but portentous opening with its spacey “thunder drums,” “sun harp,” and “spiral percussion gong” all drenched in thick cosmic echo and reverb. Afro-psychedelia starts right here – in 1962! P-Funk mastermind George Clinton once remarked, “[Sun Ra] was definitely out to lunch – the same place I eat at!” (quoted in Szwed, p. 264). Shifting gears, the next track is another remake of “Ankh” which originally appeared in a more florid arrangement in 1956 on the Delmark LP, Sound of Joy and more recently on Bad & Beautiful. This composition was obviously important to Ra and the various renditions are fascinatingly diverse. Here, baritone saxophonist Pat Patrick shares solo space with a rare appearance by Ali Hassan on trombone. The mood is brighter, less ominous than usual with some funky gospel handclaps supporting the lumbering riffs. “Solar Drums” is another brief space-out featuring echoing drums, small percussion, bells and faintly tinkling piano. The hissing feed back ebbs and flows across the sonic landscape, sometimes threatening to overwhelm everything until Tommy Hunter suddenly turns a knob, bringing things back into focus.

(Continue reading at NuVoid's amazing Sun Ra Sundays blog)

77. [66] Mr. Sun Ra and his Arkestra
Art Forms of Dimensions Tomorrow
Sun Ra (p.); John Gilmore (ts -3); Pat Patrick (bars -5); Ronnie Boykins (b); John Ore (b -7); Tommy Hunter (d).

Choreographers Workshop, NYC, November-December 1961

Lights on a Satellite (Ra) 3,5,7
Kosmos in Blue (Ra) 3,7

78. [67] Sun Ra and his Solar Arkestra
Sun Ra (sun harp, spiral percussion gong); Pat Patrick (thunder drums); Tommy Hunter (thunder drums, reverb).