2nd Chance: Sun Ra - Calling Planet Earth (1971) - Calling Planet Earth Box CD 3

The Paris concert was supposed to be the last of this ill-fated tour -- but at the last minute, Sun Ra decided to go to Egypt. Someone had tipped him off to cheap airfare from Copenhagen to Cairo and a handful of gigs in Denmark were cobbled together to pay for a trip to the Land of the Pharaohs (see Campbell & Trent p.178). Egypt was a place of obvious spiritual importance to Sun Ra, but half of the rapidly shrinking Arkestra bailed out and returned home. Nevertheless, the core musicians dutifully carried on with the shoe-string adventure. As it turned out, the Danish promoters failed to pay, and Sonny financed the trip by selling a batch of tapes to the Black Lion label, the desperate transaction taking place on the tarmac as the Cairo-bound plane awaited its departure (Id. p.179; Szwed p.292). Among those tapes was a recording from Odense on December 3, 1971 but never issued (has anyone heard this?) and the December 5th concert from the Tivoli Theatre in Copenhagen, which was finally released by the DA Music/Freedom label as Calling Planet Earth in 1998.

The homemade stereo recording was made from the stage (probably by Tommy Hunter), and while it sounds fine, there is some distortion during the loudest parts and you can hear the seams of a hasty editing job. Hunter’s voice (likely recorded in the hotel room afterwards) announces the date and venue before cutting into a brief turbulent percussion jam, which serves as an introduction to “Discipline 5.” The through-composed sequence of sweet-n-sour harmonies rises and falls over the busy percussion section, yielding to an unaccompanied alto saxophone solo by Danny Davis, and returning for the reprise. Kwami Hadi remains as the only brass player, but the saxophone section is full and lush: besides Davis, mainstays Marshall Allen, John Gilmore, Pat Patrick, Danny Thompson, and Eloe Omoe and newcomers Larry Northington and Hakim Rahim are all present and help to flesh out the intricate arrangement. “Discipline 10” is more groove-oriented, propelled by Ra’s barbequed organ comping over which the Arkestra riffs on a handful of big-voiced chords. Ra solos interestingly on organ while Patrick grinds out a stumbling bass line until Gilmore enters with a fiercely overblown solo on tenor sax. Unfortunately, he’s way off-mic and hard to hear. Even so, you can tell he’s really blowing his ass off! After a return of the head, Ra steers the band into a nicely sung rendition of “Enlightenment." A severely truncated version of “Love in Outer Space” ends what would have been side one of the LP, fading out just as things start to come to a boil.

(Continue reading at NuVoid's Sun Ra Sundays)


187. [163]  Sun Ra Arkestra

Calling Planet Earth

Sun Ra (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); Tommy Hunter (d, as); Lex Humphries (d); June Tyson (voc, dance); prob. Cheryl Banks (dance, voc); prob. Wisteria el Moondew [Judith Holton] (dance, voc); Richard Wilkinson (light show).

Tivoli Hall, København, Denmark,
December 5, 1971

This live tape was hastily edited after the concert (Tommy Hunter's voice announces the date and location) and sold to Black Lion at the Copenhagen airport….  Black Lion never issued the material, but in April 1998, DA Music issued it on Calling Planet Earth (Freedom 741071).  This was also included as the third CD in the three-CD box titled Calling Planet Earth (Freedom 7612).

from The Earthly Recordings 2nd ed. Campbell/Trent

Calling Planet Earth (1971)

1. Untitled percussion intro   1:45
2. Discipline no. 5   2:50
3. Discipline no. 5 (continued)   2:40
4. Discipline no. 10   8:17
5. Enlightenment   2:50
6. Love in Outer Space   2:42
7. Discipline no. 15/The Satellites Are Spinning   6:50
8. Calling Planet Earth/The Outers   9:59
9. Adventures Outer Planes   7:31

-FLAC-
RS
HF

or

-320-
RS
HF

Box Set Images (incl. NuVoid reviews)


Calling Planet Earth box set CD 1
(Outer Spaceways Incorporated) 1968

Calling Planet Earth box set CD 2
(Spaceways) 1966