Dr. Thomas Stanley Interviewed - The Execution of Sun Ra

Early this summer, Dr. Thomas Stanley mounted a Kickstarter to fund his current book project: The Execution of Sun Ra - "A personal meditation and scholarly commentary on the late jazz icon's enduring contributions to the beleaguered humans of planet Earth." 

Dr. Stanley's most recent update at Kickstarter included a link to the interview below.  His update also included the exciting news that the book will include pictures by Lee Santa and perhaps by one-time official Arkestra photographer, Leon Collins.

Guest scholar Thomas Stanley assistant professor of Sound Art and Consciousness in the School of Art at George Mason University discusses his new project, The Execution of Sun Ra.

Biography (Kickstarter)

Thomas Stanley is an assistant professor of sound art and consciousness in the School of Art at George Mason University in Fairfax, Virginia. He conducted his doctoral research on Butch Morris and his art of Conduction. He is co-author of George Clinton and P-Funk: An Oral History and has written and lectured extensively on emerging musical cultures. As an artist, performer, and curator, Stanley has been an integral part of a burgeoning experimental music scene along the Baltimore-Washington corridor. His work attempts to exploit the capacity of sound and music for anchoring, framing, and energizing our subjective experience of macrotemporal texture (history). Currently, within the trio Mind Over Matter Music Over Mind, he constructs and deploys sampled and electronically generated music.

Thomas Stanley is a founding member of Transparent Productions, a not-for-profit volunteer collective that has produced over 200 improvised jazz and experimental music concerts throughout the DC metro area since 1997. He has contributed to Point of Departure and Signal to Noise magazines and is included in the books Live Movies, Erotique Noire, and Beyond the Frontier: African-American Poetry for the Twenty-First Century. Stanley throws it up at musicovermind.org. He is also featured as a source in Stranger, a documentary film about seminal P-Funk and Talking Heads keyboardist Bernie Worrell.

2nd Chance: Sun Ra - St. Louis Blues (Solo Piano vol. 2) (1978)

In 1977 Sun Ra recorded two LPs of solo piano for the enterprising Improvising Artists label.  Of the two, I prefer Solo Piano Volume 2, St Louis Blues IAI373858, reissued on CD.  It is a live recording - a videotape release of the performance has also been available from IAI.  There is real purpose to the music here, from 'Ohosnisixaeht' (the recording venue spelt backwards!), to the closing 'Thoughts On Thoth'.
from Chris Trent's 'Another Shade of Blue'

 On July 3, 1977, Sun Ra shared a bill with Paul Bley at Axis-In-Soho as part of the Newport in New York Festival, which was recorded by Bley’s Improvising Artists label. A portion of Sun Ra’s set was released on LP in 1978 as St. Louis Blues: Solo Piano, Volume 2 (IAI 37.38.58) and reissued on CD in 1993 (IAI 123858) (Campbell & Trent pp.236-237). If Solo Piano, Volume 1 was an introspective studio album, Sun Ra is in an expansive, playful mood in front of a live audience. As Szwed points out in his biography, “Bley was surprised to see that once he was alone on stage, ‘Sonny was a ham who liked to clown and surprise the audience’” (Szwed p.343) and there is a bit of that to be found here.

Ra’s passagework is startlingly virtuosic, displaying an astonishing independence of fingers and hands and extreme sensitivity of touch, although it sometimes comes across a bit empty and showy. “Ohosnisixaeht” is a rhapsodic blues with impressively fleet soloing, but the music wanders rather than gets anywhere. W.C. Handy’s “St. Louis Blues” is better, updated with a complex, polytonal arrangement. The simple “Three Little Words,” a 1930s showtune by Harry Ruby and Bert Kalmar is given an over-the-top reinterpretation that borders on corny, full of melodramatic glissandos and skittering block chords but always returning to that sweet, sweet swing. Side one closes with a short, romantic rendition of “Honeysuckle Rose” that alternates between rubato schmaltz and breezy ragtime.

B1  Sky and Sun

Side two is more interesting, containing three originals that show off Sun Ra’s compositional skills as well as his brilliant keyboard work. “Sky and Sun” is onomatopoeic: drifting chords represent the sky and twinkling figures in the uppermost register represent the sun. This track is really quite evocative and it sounds he could do this sort of stuff all day long. Ra summons up an entire Arkestra on “I Am We Are,” from rumbling bass notes, scraping “strange strings” and  exquisitely voiced harmonies to outrageous, free-jazz scree, with moments of two-fisted aggression a la Cecil Taylor—a tour de force and probably the best thing on the album. “Thoughts On Thoth” ends the album with a slow space groove, articulated with remarkably fluid right-hand flourishes. It’s a brilliant display, but feels a little perfunctory to me.  
Continue Reading at Sun Ra Sundays

Just as his reputation on he synthesizer was growing, Sun Ra began to play more piano again, and in a style that reached back further in jazz tradition than most would have suspected.  But those who had known him for years understood that his origins were in the blues, and assumed that side of his playing: "Sun Ra could play the blues for twenty four hours without repeating a phrase," they claimed.  Though many recognized him as capable of playing bombastically, and of using the piano for color, few thought of him as a major player.  But Paul Bley, one of the two or three leading pianists of free jazz, believed that Sonny was a great piano player, so great that he didn't need a band.  If anything, he felt, the band was a cover for his insecurity.  Early in 1977 Bley convinced Sonny to do a series of piano duo performances with him in New York and Europe and to record for Bley's new audio and video company, Improvising Artists.  In Europe Bley was surprised to see that once he was alone on stage, "Sonny was a ham who liked to clown and surprise the audience -- as at Lake Como, where he shocked them by playing a cake walk!"  On May 20 Sun Ra went into the studio to record Solo Piano, and played a mixture of his own compositions and some unusually conceived standards, such as a very freely played "Sometimes I Feel Like A Motherless Child," or "Yesterdays" done in a brisk stride.  On July 3 he was recorded solo (St. Louis Blues) while playing at Axis-in-Soho as part of the Newport Jazz Festival, and again there were surprises: his "St. Louis Blues" aluded to Earl Hines's famous boogie-woogie version and a cheerful little love song like "Three Little Words" got turned into a melodrama.  But there were modest experiments in keyboard resources as well, such as "Sky and Sun," which stayed almost entirely within a small range at the top of the keyboard.

from Szwed - Space Is The Place p. 342-343

248. [204] Sun Ra

Sun Ra (p.).

The Axis-in-SoHo, NYC, July 3, 1977

Ohosinisixaeht (Ra)
Sometimes I Feel Like a Motherless Child
(trad.)
St. Louis Blues (Handy)
Three Little Words (Kalmar-Ruby)
Honeysuckle Rose (Waller-Razaf)
Sky and Sun (Ra)
I Am We Are I (Ra)
Thoughts on Thoth (Ra)

First Released in 1978 on Improvising Artists Inc. 37.38.58, St. Louis Blues: Solo Piano. All tracks reissued in 1993 on Improvising Artists Inc. 123858 [CD].

IAI V003 is a 40-minute video issued by Improvising Artists, which differs from the LP/CD (replacing "Ohosnisixaeht" with "Sometimes I Feel Like A Motherless Child") and has other minor editing differences from the LP and CD, but is basically a document of the same concert.  "Sometimes I Feel Like A Motherless Child" is a different performance from the one that was made at the previous session.  IAI V003 was available in the late 1970s through early 1980s and was restored to circulation in the 1990s (thanks to Michael Denton for information about the two IAI videos).  The video has also been available from Mastersession (MSN 5017).

This concert was part of the Newport in New York Festival; according to Allan Chase, Sun Ra appeared on a bill with Paul Bley.  According to Fred Conrad, the concert ended with "When There Is No Sun," on which Ra was joined by June Tyson (voc) and John Gilmore (voc).  It is not known whether this piece was recorded.

from Campbell/Trent The Earthly Recordings 2nd ed.

Sun Ra
St. Louis Blues - Solo Piano (1978)
Improvising Artists Records
IAI 37.38.58 (1978)

1. A1 Ohosnisixaeht   6:06
2. A2 St. Louis Blues   5:17
3. A3 Three Little Words   5:49
4. A4 Honeysuckle Rose   3:30
5. B1 Sky and Sun   6:18
6. B2 I Am We Are I   6:25
7. B3 Thoughts on Thoth   6:41

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St. Louis Blues (Solo Piano vol. 2) CD
IAI 123858-2 (1993)

Ohosnisixaeht     6:09

St. Louis Blues     5:19

Three Little Words    5:56

Honeysuckle Rose    3:44

Sky And Sun    6:20

I Am We Are I    6:27
Thoughts On Thoth    6:41

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Sun Ra: Live At The Squat Theatre [NYC August 14, 1979]

This rare boutique release of only 99 copies (+8 in an alternate cover) is a joy to hear.  The highlight for me is the solo piano rendition of Love in Outer Space.

Credits (according to Discogs)

    Alto Saxophone, Bass Clarinet – Elo Omoe
    Alto Saxophone, Electric Bass – Pat Patrick
    Alto Saxophone, Flute, Percussion – Marshall Allen
    Bass – Hayes Burnett
    Flute – Danny Thompson
    Percussion [Infinity Drum] – James Jackson
    Tenor Saxophone, Clarinet – John Gilmore
    Trumpet – Michael Ray
    Vocals – June Tyson

Discogs does not list a drummer.  It sounds like Samarai Celestial to me.
Discogs also lists the recording date as August 24, 1979 but it seems very likely that this is incorrect and the date is actually August 14, 1979 and is taken from the show listed below.

Sun Ra and His Jet Set Omniverse Arkestra
1979-08-14
Squat Theater; New York, NY.
                                        
Soundcheck/Rehearsal:Sun Ra speaks and is looking for a screwdriver
Love In Outer Space (Sun Ra solo piano)
Unidentified Title (Sun Ra solo piano)
Set 1:
Unidentified Title (Sun Ra solo piano)
Unidentified Title (Sun Ra, Gilmore, and traps)
There Will Never Be Another You (excellent rare version, only other version is 12/31/80)
Unidentified Title
Unidentified Title (cut)
Unidentified Blues (beginning cut)
El Is A Sound of Joy (alternate arrangement)
Unidentified Swing (big johns special)
Unidentified Swing
Space Is The Place > (drop out where Sun Ra says "not free")
We Travel The Spaceways >
Outer Spaceways Inc.
Set 2:
Lightning Drum >
When The Sun Comes Out (vocal by June, no other known version!)
When There Is No Sun

Keep Your Sunny Side Up >
Shadow World
                      
(Sounds as though  it was recorded on top of or next to Sun Ra's keyboards.)

Sun Ra and His Jet Set Omniverse Arkestra

Live At The Squat Theatre [NYC August 14, 1979]

1. Love in Outer Space    4:49 

2. Ain't Misbehavin'    8:59 

3. Rhapsody in Blue    9:03 

4. Keep Your Sunny Side Up > The Shadow World 10:58

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In Space: Trudy Morse

from the Saturn List

Dear Friends of Trudy,

It is with much sadness that I write to tell you that my mother passed this morning after a short illness.  I'm sorry about the impersonal way to inform you,  but some of you I only know from emails.  As you know, my mother was a force of nature; she embraced life and lived for every moment.  She was never shy, always willing to try new things and really the most optimistic and positive person I have ever known.  Her net of influence, as you well know, was huge.  Almost everywhere I go - in the States and the rest of the world, I run into people who know her.  

Even in her last days with her mind fading from dementia, she was a bright light.  At Arden Courts, she was known as the activity director and and was happy and content.

(edit)

May her memory be as a blessing,

with much love and sadness,

Sarah .

--
Sarah Morse

About Trudy, I just want to say that the Waitawhile compilation and publication of Sun Ra's poetry  would never have happened without her.



I met Trudy at a long-gone little bar in Washington, DC in the mid-90s, where somebody was putting on a free jazz show. Trudy saw me reading a book by Jacob Boehme and based on that, asked me if I would drive her up to NYC for a Sun Ra tribute show at the Knitting Factory. I did, bringing along some friends, and ended up doing lights (ineptly, I'm sure) for Trudy's part of the show. Throughout that weekend, she had more energy than all of us 20-somethings put together, leading us from bar to bar through lower Manhattan, discussing art, music, Israeli poiltics and everything else. When I brought her back home, she gave me a copy of The Immeasurable Equation, Vol. II. That gift inspired me to collect together all the Sun Ra poetry I could find. And because of this list-serv that project turned into the Waitawhile publication.



I'm sure I'm only one of many, many people whom Trudy had a powerful influence on. Spirits like hers are rare and beautiful beyond measure.


James 

James L. Wolf 

Trudy Morse reads Sun Ra's poetry

collected from the international waitawhile sun ra conventions

Trudy Morse
Poet, Musician, Humanitarian, Diarist, Grandmother

Poet, world traveler and performance artist, Trudy Morse, creates other-world performances in the spirit of the legendary Sun Ra. Expect a cosmic, ritual happening. - Earshot, Seattle WA

Trudy Morse has lived in Chevy Chase, MD for some forty years. Her late husband, Malcolm S. Morse, a prominent scientist with the National Bureau of Standards, worked on dynamic thermo-physical measurements in space, before his death in 1986.

Most of her life she was a political activist working on national and international policies, at the same time active in her home and community, while raising six children. Retired from her professional career as a land consultant she spent from four to six months each year travelling the world.

Her interest in her husband’s research on anomalous phenomena has taken her to all five continents. She recalls with particular interest her travels in Africa, Australia, Europe, India, China and New Zealand.

She has traveled extensively in the USA on frequent camping trips, cross-country, in National Parks from the East to the West coasts, as well as in Hawaii and Alaska.

Since the death of Malcolm Morse, Trudy has been travelling with jazz pianist Cecil Taylor, in Europe, Japan, and the USA. While on the road, Trudy wrote poetry, which was later published by Hermes Press.

Aside from regular travel on the road with Cecil Taylor, for the past few years, Trudy has been concentrating on the poetry of the legendary Sun Ra and his Arkestra. Working closely with John Szwed, Chairman of Music and Anthropology at Yale, Trudy has been collecting Sun Ra poetry. She performed with Sun Ra right up until his death, being with him when he left the planet at Birmingham, Alabama. 

Since his death, she has been planning and presenting Tributes to Sun Ra. She appears regularly on radio programs, reading Sun Ra poetry over the old Saturn records or new releases by Evidence.
Among many artists, she has most notably collaborated and performed with Kidd Jordan, Eddy Gale, George Russell, Anthony Braxton, Joe Maneri, Pozzi Escot, Pauline Oliveros, Stuart Dempster, George Lewis, Marshall Allen, India Cooke, Michael Monhart, Muhal Richard Abrams, Dave Burrell, Illuminati Big Band, Don Wherry Ensemble, Cosmic Krewe, Tone Scientists and Boris Raskin Trio.

The ubiquitous septuagenarian has 6 children, 20 grandchildren and 6 greats.

-from Deeplistening.org

*

videos collected from katzjustice.com

My Near Death Experiences by Trudy Morse

Trudy Morse
Hermes at the Crossroads
Hermes Press - 1996 Written September 9, 2000.

A NDE, as it is called today,
is a rather frightening ex-
perience, but since I have
been privileged to have
had three in my lifetime,
actually I feel blessed.

The first NDE was almost
50 years ago, while giving
birth to my son, Michael,
I found myself being twirled
through a dark tunnel, with
a bright light at the end.  I
woke up hysterical, I thought
the baby had died.
I was rather surprised when
the phenomenon was analyzed
many years later, it was I who
was near death, and not the
baby.

As a result of this startling
experience, "Training for Child-
birth" was pioneered in the
Washington, D.C. area with Sue
Patch, sister of Gloria Steinman,
President.  Trudy Morse, Treasurer.
My son, Dr. Melvin Morse,
pediatrician, who writes about
NDE's in children, was the
first baby born, under this new
program, over 40 years ago.

Our program was to train parents
in natural childbirth.  Dr. Dick Reid,
of the UK, was the leader of the
movement in those days.  We were the
first to bring fathers into the delivery
room, exercises for mothers, and
coaching lessons for fathers, to give
support for the mothers.

The second time I had a NDE,
I saw the pattern of
my whole life before me, and
repented, that before the NDE,
I hadn't been a really good cook.
Saying farewell, I asked Malcolm
to forgive me, before passing out
during an asthma attack.

And from that experience I learned
that it's very good to be ready to
meet your maker and a quick review
of your life is a strong probability!

I am still not a very good cook, but
don't feel guilty, since Malcolm
assured me that was not why he
married me.  The medics had revived
me at home, and I felt at peace that
Malcolm had forgiven me during my last
moments.

From that experience, I learned
that life is so fragile, I would try
to enjoy every moment of life with
an extraordinary husband, Malcolm
Morse, who was my partner for
some 40 years.

At the age of 55, when he was diag-
nosed as having cancer, I insisted
that he retire so that we may have
the last years of his life, roaming
the planet, so that he might have
a last look at every location he was
curious about, had read about in science,
literature, the Bible, politics and
even science fiction.  He remained
alive another 13 years.

A practicing Yoga, he died a Yoga's
death, in peace, in lotus position, and
I stayed over 3 hours, singing and
chanting, for an easy departure of the
soul.  I was at peace that I had helped
fulfill his mission of life.  He examined
anomalous phenomena for some six
months each year, all over the globe.

This last NDE at the senior age of 81
was an extraordinary revelation.  An
asthma victim almost all of my life,
I was unable to pull out of an asthma
attack at the home of one of my dearest
members of my extended family, GILA.

I had overdosed on medication, which
brought me deeper in the helpless
stage.  911 was called, the ambulance
appeared immediately, the medics
correctly diagnosed the incident as
pulmonary arrest, and were able to
revive me within the six minutes
before brain damage.  It was a quick,
efficient action that made for the
success of the treatment, every one
cool and collected to do what needed
to be done.

Now, what did I learn in the experience
during my twilight years?

The most touching was the miracle
of the assembly of the family.  They
arrived at the hospital shortly after
the ambulance, and were there with
complete support for me.

As important as modern life-supporting
machinery and professional help is, I
needed my dearest and most beloved
family.  Sarah never left my side and I
deeply felt her presence, as well as
Mary's, who never left Sarah.

Later, Dr. Serena Fox appeared.  She
works at the Trauma Center at Columbia
Hospital for Women, spent time with
the doctor on call, Dr. Remy.  He had
heard of her, by reputation, and with
continual telephone calls to my own
family doctor, Dr. Douglas Shumaker,
they were an extraordinary medical team
put together in this extreme emergency.

Needless to say the nurses are God's
gift of angels to care for us.  They told
me later, the incident took them by
complete shock.  The possibility of
brain damage loomed very large in
their minds.

Now what happened to the NDEer:
First, there was a black cage I was trying
to frantically trying to escape, banging
each corner post.  In despair, I finally
gave up:  "Well, if this is Hell, Heaven is
probably boring."  (This is what my son,
Alan, says I reported late Thursday night
of the discharge."

Although that vision appears to have come
first, what I remember vividly, is a white
casket with heavily clad manacled boots
thumping each corner tightly closed.

Perched on the ceiling, was the Raphael
angel, with lovely face cupped into hands,
watching the event, with much wonder,
watching the casket-thumping, admiring
its beautiful painting of stars, crescents,
and other beautiful colorful patterns,
covering the casket, gleaming, glowing
white, like a Rauschenberg painting.

The thumping of each corner finished,
the casket securely closed, the Raphael
angel perched on the ceiling watching
carefully, wondered:

"Well, which would have been better,
Heaven or Hell?"  And with a wry smile:
"Who knows?"

I had finally been restrained from
fighting the staff who were trying to
insert the indo-trachial tube directly into
the mouth, to hook up the lungs with
the support machine, necessary to get the
lungs working again.  Michael, who had
been helping the staff in their struggle, was
severely scratched, which was an agonizing.
moment for him. Everybody involved later
told me they went into complete shock after
this experience .

I was so determined to keep off the
machines!I had always said I would
rather die than be hooked up on a
machine, and I really meant it!

Now that it is all over, I feel truly
blessed again. With such a remarkable
family who by some miracle arrived,
without anybody knowing where to call
them! With such extraordinary extended
family giving further support.  And the
remark of the social worker really
moved me. When I asked her why
she was visiting me, she told me most
of the elderly patients have no one at
home to go to, and she provides volun-
teers and visiting nurses, meals on wheels.

What a wonderful feeling, to have Sarah
there every moment, demanding that I be
taken home at once, rather than the two
week period they suggested and David,
her husband, taking over all the chores of
the four children left at home during Sarah's
24 hour vigilance.

Sarah decided three days in the hospital
was enough. She demanded my release
at once, and armed with the X-rays, she
drove me to her home. Maurie was there
with a broad smile. Michael had already
left work, and was waiting to pick
me up.

Erica had decorated the front doorway:
"Welcome home". Lauren, who had
grown at least 12 inches during the
summer, had to lean over to embrace me.

And Mary was there with a dinner, eaten
outdoors, overlooking her glorious garden
and little pool with the waterfall creating
the sound of running water which I love.

Michael took me shopping for my bagels,
picked up my medicine. And Guy and Sheri
took over from there.  They explained the
medication, assuring me it was very mild
and only a short course. Dr. Shumaker
assured them it would not interfere with
the effective plendil I take for high blood
pressure.

Dr. Shumaker insisted I call him at home
to strongly advise against my trip to Syria
scheduled for the next day. I felt so much
had done for me, I better not let them
down and create new problems, so I can-
celled the trip. My beautiful extended
family member Paula, of Signature Travel,
got to work at once to assure that I get
money back for airfare.

I came away with the realization that
although I say I am ready to die, there's a
whole crew of people, medical and family,
who seemed to think it important that I
live a little longer.  Like the birth of a baby,
the rebirth of an adult requires instant
loving, nurturing for the health of the
new model.

My son, Dr. Melvin Morse, pediatrician,
who has pioneered in NDE with children,
presents, during his lectures, pictures that
children draw about their experience.
Some are pictures of Jesus, pets, teachers,
or parents, whom they have just seen.
They are usually told to return, depending
upon their belief system.

For me there was no such picture. No
persons, no Jesus, no favorite aunt, mother,
or spouse, only at first, a crude black cage
from which I was frantically pounding,
trying to escape.  In some disgust, I just
gave up, thinking: "Oh  well, Heaven would
probably be boring anyway!"

Then appeared a white casket, with
heavy manacled boots pounding each
corner tightly shut.  Beautiful and gleaming
white. Stars, crescents and colored figures
were painted on the lid, in Rauschenberg
style.  Above it all a Raphael angel watched
from the ceiling, finally wondering if
Heaven or Hell would be better!

Who knows?

WHAT DO I MAKE OF ALL OF THIS?

Our holiest prayer in Judaism is the Shma Yisroel,
Adonoi Elehanu, Adonoi Echod. Hear oh Israel,
The Lord our God, The Lord is one.

The Adonoi is a Hebrew Tetragrammaton,
having four Hebrew Letters, usually transliterated
YHWH or JHVH, that forms a biblical proper
name of God.  Reb Shneyer has told us that
Adonoi means past, present, and future.

I feel a deep sadness that my departed partner,
Malcolm was not witness to this. An internationally
recognized engineer, he was also a Polymath.
Equally as versed in Philosophy, Poetry, Plato,
Plotinus, Literature, Eastern and Western Religions.

In raising our six children, he constantly reminded
me that when the child is born, images of his past,
present, and future are embodied on the brain.

Since I saw no persons, heard no voices, I personally
conclude that it was the high tech machinery, and
the total high level family and medical support
that brought about the return. Maybe, this return
was guided by either the images of the brain
already imprinted at birth:  maybe, God whom Jung
defines as SELF, maybe, just plain GILA.

Death is not Real
But Birth to a
New Life
We go on and on
To higher planes
For eons and aeons
Of Time

The Universe is
Our Home
We explore the
Farthest Recesses
We dwell in the
Finite Mind
Of The All

I die gladly
So I may Know
The Whole Truth
Of Being
At One with
The ALL

from ChicagoIANDS.org

Sun Ra - Egyptian Fantasy from Beets: A Collection of Jazz Songs (1992)

"Egyptian Fantasy (Carefree)" has long been one of my Sun Ra concert favorites.  The hypnotic repetition of the theme makes for a great foundation over which the Arkestra's tone scientists can experiment freely and passionately (as you will hear).  Thanks to Mattia for requesting and to dmatlb for originally sharing with us.

(give it a moment - the track starts quietly)

Sun Ra - Egyptian Fantasy (rec. 1990)

671. [443]  Sun Ra and the Arkestra

Beets: A Collection of Jazz Songs

Sun Ra (p, syn); Michael Ray (tp); Ahmed Abdullah (tp); Tyrone Hill (tb); Marshall Allen (as, fl); Noël Scott (as); John Gilmore (ts, timb); James Jacson (bsn, Inf-d); John Ore (b); Buster Smith (d); Ron McBee (cga, perc); Elson Nascimento (surdo grande, perc); Jorge Silva (repinique, perc).

prob. Skeppsholmen, Stockholm,
June or July 1990

Egyptian Fantasy [Carefree] (Ra)

The complete version of this track (clocking in at 13:06) was released in 1992 on the various-artists compilation Elemental/t.e.c. 90902 [CD], Beets: A Collection of Jazz Songs.  An edited version of less than 4 minutes was released in 1990 on Elemental/t.e.c. 90901 [LP].  Tom Timony of Elemental/t.e.c. told Malcolm Humes that the track was recorded live in Europe, "maybe Sweden or Switzerland."  The "Egyptian Fantasy" from Zurich (July 17, 1990) is very similar in approach to this one, and only about one minute longer.  However, Bengt Berg recalls a performance by the Arkestra at the jazz festival at Skeppsholmen, Stockholm, around this same time, at which Scott and McBee were present.  Personnel identified by rlc.  According to Callins, the Arkestra remained in Europe for the entire month of July.

According to Malcolm Humes, this collection was also sold as a cassette encased in what appeared to be a can of… beets.  The other artists were Fred Frith, Club Foot Orchestra, Peter Fair, ROVA, Machete Ensemble of San Francisco, Tom Cora, Anthony Braxton/Gino Robair, Eric Drew Feldman, Snakefinger, B. Singer, Sonny Simmons, Winston Tong, and Big Butter.

If this only whets your appetite, check out the Lugano video (June 27, 1990)  recently offered at Solar Flares.  Thanks again, Ruby!!

Lugano Switzerland (June 27, 1990)

"Egyptian Fantasy (Carefree)" from Beets: A Collection of Jazz Songs

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Sun Ra at Chicago's Experimental Sound Studio

A few years ago, John Corbett and his wife, Terri Kapsalis, donated a treasure trove - a historical cornucopia of sounds, articles, ephemera, and images that had been tossed into boxes, made ready for disposal, and subsequently rescued from Alton Abraham's estate - to the University of Chicago and Chicago's Experimental Sound Studio (ESS).  Corbett and Kapsalis mention the event during the Duke University Sun Ra Symposium in 2009.

Since,  ESS has allowed limited access to the archives and I am aware of three artists' works spread over four releases.  I believe that these pieces are available for purchase online and due to the fact that most have only been recently released, I am hoping to draw attention to their efforts by offering streaming audio of the works but will not be offering downloads.  Please support them with the power of your purchase.

First out of the gate was Audio/Video artist Brian Harnetty.  Brian Harnetty is a musician and artist from Ohio, and his work involves overlooked elements of sound.  Many of his pieces transform found material––including field recordings, transcriptions, and historic recordings––into personal sound worlds.  For the past several years, this has led to a focus on projects with specific archives, including the Berea College Appalachian Sound Archives in Kentucky, and the Sun Ra/El Saturn Creative Audio Archive in Chicago.  His music and installations have been performed and shown in America and Europe.  Recordings are available on Atavistic Records, Ruminance (Europe), and Scioto Records.

brianharnetty(dot)com

When Brian Harnetty was commissioned to work with the Sun Ra/El Saturn archives in Chicago, his goal was to develop a series of conversations with Sun Ra through the many recordings in the collection. On one level, the resulting pieces combine these diverse materials to create a sonic collage. On another level, Harnetty uses these elements to reveal multi-layered stories, drawing out the many connections and complexities of the Sun Ra archives.

For this 7" single, entitled "The Sociophonic Key," Harnetty has created a stand-alone work drawn from "The Star Faced One," a 2010 sound installation at the Experimental Sound Studio in Chicago. Despite the variety of samples used many subtle relationships are heard––both literal and fantastic––from Sun Ra rehearsing a group of children fading into an answering machine, to the intensity of a gospel preacher alongside the Arkestra’s invitation to join them in outer space.

"It is a huge, rambling collection of recordings that are only loosely held together by the presence of Sun Ra," explains Harnetty. "There are rehearsals, live concerts, lectures, TV shows, and so on. I spent most of my time listening closely, as a fan and out of curiosity, searching for correlations, links, and routes of connection." In the end, these recordings create networks of reference and dialogue that both point to the past and imagine new futures.

Visit Bandcamp to purchase.

Late last year, on Cuneiform Records, Living by Lanterns released the CD Old Myth/New Science.

"While New Myth/Old Science deliberately avoids any obvious Ra intergalactic tones, it’s joyful enough to make a visitor from Saturn smile." – DownBeat

Co-led by Mike Reed and Jason Adasiewicz, two of the fastest-rising young stars of Chicago's insanely vibrant jazz scene, Living by Lanterns was formed specifically to bring together four of Chicago's and four of New York's leading players for a special and unique project concept.

Commissioned by Experimental Sound Studio (ESS), the music was created in response to material contained in ESS’s vast Sun Ra Audio Archive. Rather than a Sun Ra tribute, Reed and Adasiewicz have crafted a melodically rich, harmonically expansive body of themes orchestrated from fragments extracted from a rehearsal tape marked "NY 1961", featuring Ra on electric piano, John Gilmore on tenor sax and flute, and Ronnie Boykins on bass.

The tunes on Old Myth/New Science were written by the co-leaders based on the 1961 tape. That tape contains no compositions per-se, but there are a lot of stream-of-consciousness ideas and some of these ideas were teased out, hugely expanded upon and turned into the pieces heard here.

"The tape is clearly these ideas they’re hashing out,” Adasiewicz says. “Some of this stuff sounds kind of squirrelly. Some is insanely beautiful....it became our personal arrangements."

"After figuring out the band, the first step in the process was to completely dismiss the idea of commenting or honoring Sun Ra," Reed says. "The more interesting idea was of creating new music using someone's unfinished, unwanted and abandoned material."

Reed and Adasiewicz fully considered the possibilities of taking this very unrefined material and teasing out raw ideas, bits and undeveloped fragments from it, and developing and composing them into full compositions that the band perform and make their own. The music is rich and exciting; full and sparse; mysterious and inviting; challenging and tuneful! And what a band!

Greg Ward – alto saxophone

Taylor Ho Bynum – cornet

Ingrid Laubrock – tenor saxophone

Tomeka Reid – cello

Mary Halvorson – guitar

Jason Adasiewicz – vibraphone

Joshua Abrams – bass

Tomas Fujiwara – drums

Mike Reed – drums, electronics

For Mike Reed, there’s something inherently amusing about assembling such a talent-laden crew to explore music that was discarded by Sun Ra. "We are bringing all these people together to make their mark," Reed says. "That was the premise. With so many leaders in the group and rising stars and collaborators, everybody is trying to make their way through this life. We’re working in the shadows and you have to put a light on."

D/L and hard copy available for purchase at CuneiformRecords.

 Filmmaker Cauleen Smith wraps up her 2-year Chicago residency and research on Sun Ra with her exhibition The Journeyman - an installation, recording studio, and library about artistic process, research and the relationship between an artist and the subjects they revere. The exhibition will be accompanied by the release of a limited edition vinyl record mixed by Smith that includes recordings she made over the course of her project in Chicago and materials found in the Sun Ra archive at Experimental Sound Studio.

Experimental filmmaker Smith has been a “long-term” resident of threewalls’, first joining us in 2010 as part of the Studio Chicago program in conjunction with the Sullivan Galleries at The School of the Art Institute of Chicago. Initially Smith intended to extend her on-going film work on jazz, radical black creativity, and the American urban matrix to a work on Chicago and the legend and impact of phenom Sun Ra. Her research led her down a winding path to residencies at the University of Chicago, Center for Race and Culture, and Experimental Sound Studio’s Sun Ra archives.

Between time spent in Chicago and teaching in San Diego, Smith produced The Solar Flare Arkestral Marching Band, a series of marching band flash mob street performances inspired by Sun Ra’s Arkestra where Chicago Southside high-school marching bands would play a single Sun Ra song arranged for them by local musicians and composers. This series was recorded as part of a number of short films that Smith made while in the city, culminating in two exhibitions: A Seed is a Star, on exhibition at the Museum of Contemporary Art Chicago (May 12-September 16th, 2012) and The Journeyman at threewalls. Both exhibitions cultivate a specific, immersive experience or manipulation of space, with her exhibition at threewalls’ generating the character of research, with study, listening and recording spaces butted up against each other in a meditation on the process of research, creation and the making of myth– both in homage to Sun Ra’s own intensive auto-didact methods and Smith’s experience studying his extensive archives.

Cauleen Smith (born 1967) is a filmmaker whose work reflects upon the everyday possibilities of the black imagination. Smith’s films have been featured in group exhibitions at the Houston Contemporary Art Museum; the Blanton Museum of Art, Austin; and the New Museum, New York. Beginning in 1994, she wrote, directed, and produced her first narrative feature film, Drylongso (1998), which was selected for the American Spectrum of Sundance Film Festival, and won best feature film at both the Urbanworld Film Festival and the Los Angeles Pan-African Film Festival Smith earned an MFA from the University of California, Los Angeles.
Please visit Three Walls for more info.

Most recently, Atavistic has released Brian Harnetty's CD, The Star-Faced One, arranged from pieces culled from his audio visual installation.  From Brian's Website:

(It is) an album-length version of a 2010 sound installation based on the Sun Ra/El Saturn Audio Archive, which was commissioned with the generous support of the Experimental Sound Studio, Chicago. The title is borrowed from a poem by Konstantine Balmont (via Igor Stravinsky), which is appropriate for the illusive and enigmatic Sun Ra:

“His eyes were like stars, like flames which furrow space.  His visage was like the sun when it shines at its zenith.  The luminous colors of the heavens, purple, azure, and gold, dappled the gorgeous robe he wore to be reborn among us....”

On one level, this piece is a way to access a vast collection and explore the many facets, dichotomies, contradictions, and beauty contained within.  The collection in itself is already a kind of large-scale composition, a finite world that points to the universe.  My contribution is but one of many pieces that can come from it.

I am not a jazz musician.  I cannot lay claim to Sun Ra’s history, nor can I ever fully understand him or his music.  But I can listen, intently, and enter a dialogue, bringing my own knowledge and thought and experience.  How to enter a dialogue with Sun Ra?  Start playing along, always listening with imagination and empathy....soon, your own voice emerges, runs along side, converses with, connects, while all along staying independent; they are “co-habitating” together.

In this conversation, there is also the gift economy: finding a way to bring the archives out of the defined world and into the daylight, to hold them, and pass them on.  Their energy lies in the exchange, and is how they can stay alive and in motion.

This recent release is available at Amazon and elsewhere.

“Brian Harnetty’s The Star-Faced One travels the peculiarities and particularities of a collection of interplanetary fragment-gems: the Sun Ra/El Saturn Collection in the Creative Audio Archive at ESS. His excursion into this unsystematic cache of rehearsal tapes, recitations, studio recordings, concert documents, and unlabeled appropriations, accidentally handed down to us through an unforgiving yet generous history, stakes no claim to Sun Ra’s legacy––something which speaks for itself over and over again––but instead takes a joyful listener’s ‘cosmic pathway’ into its own unique imagistic swirl. Brian and his musical collaborators proceed in a spirit of serious play, respectful intrusion, and insistent openness, releasing hi-, lo-, and mid-fi sounds from the past into a new future of revelatory listening.”

Lou Mallozzi
Director, Experimental Sound Studio, Chicago

Sun Ra - Second Star to the Right (Tribute to Walt Disney)

Sun Ra and his Intergalaxtic Arkestra's Second Star to the Right: Salute to Walt Disney goes way beyond novelty. Novelties are hardly this entertaining or enduring. Ra got into a Disney phase around 1989 when asked to interpret "Pink Elephants on Parade" from Dumbo for a pop tribute album to Disney called Stay Awake. Ra was so taken with Disney's music and images that he started to play shows dedicated exclusively to the man. When performing this material, the Arkestra went so far as to wear the patented Mouseketeer ears and had a dancer dressed in a Dumbo costume! The chosen compositions run the gamut from the more obscure to themes every kid of all ages could sing along with: "I'm Wishing," "Second Star to the Right," the eerie "The Forest of no Return," and "Someday My Prince Will Come." The titles sound as if Ra could have written them himself. The arrangements are in the same swing manner as his Fletcher Henderson tributes. June Tyson's vocals bring a romantic appeal, while bassoonist and percussionist James Jacson does his best Louis Armstrong impression, leading the sing along on "Zip a Dee Doo Dah." This may not be an essential disc for the Sun Ra novice, but if you wonder what it would have been like hanging out at Sun Ra's commune in Philadelphia watching Dumbo with the rest of the Arkestra (a favorite Ra practice in his later years!), get this immediately. As a footnote, this joyous Leo release is from an audience tape, and while the fidelity is good, audiophiles should be advised that it does have muddy moments.

AMG Review by Al Campbell

614. [407]  Sun Ra and his Intergalaxtic Arkestra

Other Thoughts /
Second Star to the Right (Salute to Walt Disney) /
Stardust from Tomorrow

Sun Ra (p, syn, voc); Michael Ray (tp, voc); Tyrone Hill (tb, voc); Julian Priester (tb); Noël Scott (as, fl, acrobatics, voc); Marshall Allen (as, fl, cl, perc); John Gilmore (ts, cl, timb, voc); Eloe Omoe (as, bcl, fl, perc); James Jacson (bsn, fl, Inf-d, voc); Bruce Edwards (eg); Arthur Joonie Booth (eb); Earl "Buster" Smith (d); Elson Nascimento (surdo grande, perc); June Tyson (voc, vln).

Jazzatelier, Ulrichsberg,
Austria, April 29, 1989

1st set:
Mystery Intro (Ra)
Untitled I (Ra)
Blue Lou (Sampson)
Prelude in A Major (Chopin)
Untitled II (Ra)
The Forest of No Return (Bruns-Leven) [ens voc]
Someday My Prince Will Come (Churchill-Morey) [JT, MR voc]
Frisco Fog (Carr-Roberts)
Wishing Well [I'm Wishing] (Morey-Churchill) [Sr, JT, ens voc]
Zip-A-Dee-Doo-Dah (Gilbert-Wrubel) [JJ, TH, MR, NS, SR voc]
Second Star to the Right (Cahn-Fain) [SR, MR voc]
Heigh Ho! Heigh Ho! (Morey-Churchill) [TH, MR, NS voc]

2nd set:
Discipline 27-II (Ra) /
I'll Wait for You (Ra) /
Angel Race (Ra) [SR, ens voc]
Queer Notions (Hawkins)
Back Alley Blues (Ra)
Prelude to a Kiss (Ellington)
Stardust from Tomorrow (Ra) [JT voc]
Yeah Man! (Sissle-Henderson)
We Travel the Spaceways (Ra)
Space Chants Medley:
Outer Spaceways Inc. (Ra) /
Rocket No. 9 Take Off for the Planet Venus (Ra) /
Second Stop is Jupiter (Ra) /
Pluto [Too] (Ra) /
[Planet] Saturn (Ra) /
Saturn Rings (Ra) [SR, ens voc]

encore:
Whistle While You Work (Morey-Churchill) [TH, MR, JJ, SR voc]

BONUS!!  Pink Elephants on Parade from the movie, Dumbo.

ZUW Disc 0001, Other Thoughts, is a bootleg CD of Austrian origin, released in 1993.  It is based on an audience tape made by one Herbert Zaussinger, edited to include only the Walt Disney tunes from this concert.

The same audience tape (with extensively cleaned-up sound) was used for a release in October 1995 on Leo CD LR 230, Second Star to the Right (Salute to Walt Disney). This is a legitimate release in that royalties are being paid to Sun Ra's estate, but the Arkestra was not consulted nor paid for the release.  The rest of the music from the complete concert was released by Leo in March 1997 as LR 235/236 [CD], Stardust from Tomorrow.  Because of poor relations between Leo Records and the Arkestra, the two "Untitleds" were not identified.  Untitled I was an improvisation; Untitled II appears to have been a Ra composition.

Judging from the announcements that follows it, "Heigh Ho! Heigh Ho!" was the end of the first set, and "Whistle While You Work" was an encore after the first set.  The two CDs of Stardust from Tomorrow seem to correspond to the two sets of the show, but the order of the Disney and non-Disney tunes in the first set is unknown.

The date was mistakenly given as April 24 in the first edition of this discography.  Personnel from the ZUW CD leaflet, with corrections by ct and Hartmut Geerken; the corrected personnel list is included on the Leo releases.  the name of the Arkestra (with Sunny's late-1960s spelling "Intergalaxtic") was supplied by Hartmut Geerken.

from Campbell / Trent  The Earthly Recordings 2nd ed.

Sun Ra and his Intergalaxtic Arkestra
Second Star to the Right: Salute to Walt Disney
Leo Records LR 230 [CD] 1995

1. The Forest of No Return   5:39
2. Someday My Prince Will Come   7:53
3. Frisco Fog   3:20
4. I'm Wishing   10:18
5. Zip a Dee Doo Dah   7:28
6. Second Star to the Right   9:58
7. High Ho! High Ho!   9:06
8. Whistle While You Work   10:33

-FLAC-
MEGA
FF

or

-320-
MEGA
FF

NEW LINKS!

Ra breaks it down in 5 minutes

Two short vids I found online recently.
Great GREAT stuff.
Thanks to the original uploaders.

via

via

Sun Ra - The Lost Arke and a 2nd Chance: Mystery Mister Ra

Tremendous lost works from Sun Ra – three previously-unreleased tracks from Art Yard's vaults – all of them great!  Side one features the wonderful spiritual polyrhythmic percussive groover 'Along Came Ra' featuring vocals from June Tyson to start things out – then given a fiery recitation by Ra over ensemble vocals.  Next is "The Sky Is A Sea Of Darkness" – a spare keyboard tune with some great vocals – beautifully, soulfully sung by John Gilmore with a poetic feel that's wonderful! Last up is one of the most soulful versions of "We Travel The Spaceways" we've ever heard – slow, with piano in the background underneath the vocals – which themselves are deeply personal, and some of the most moving we've ever heard on a Ra tune. All three tracks are on the inside, spiritual side of the Arkestra spectrum.

boomkat/dusty groove album review mashup

Sun Ra & his Arkestra
The Lost Arkestra part 1 (2010)
Kindred Spirits / Art YardKSAY-OFF-1
10" 33 1/3 RPM record

1. Along Came Ra    6:54
2. The Sky Is A Sea Of Darkness    2:32 

3. We Travel The Spaceways    6:37

-FLAC-

RS

HF

or

-320-

RS

HF

I don't know when/where all of the above performances were recorded, but I noticed while watching "Mystery Mister Ra" that track 1, "Along Came Ra" was filmed and presented at the beginning of the movie.  Here is some info regarding some performances included in the film:


404. [301] Sun Ra and his Myth Science Arkestra
Mystery, Mr. Ra (film)

Sun Ra (p, org, voc); Ronnie Brown (tp, perc); Haji (tp); Tyrone Hill (tb); Marshall Allen (as, fl, kora, EVI, sticks, whistle); John Gilmore (ts, cl, timb, EVI); Eloe Omoe (as, bcl, cacl, EVI, maracas); Danny Ray Thompson (bars, fl, EVI, bgo); James Jacson (bsn, fl, EVI, Inf-d); James Glass (eg); Rollo Radford (standup eb); Clifford Jarvis (d); Marvin "Boogaloo" Smith (d); poss. Chris Henderson (d); Atakatune (cga); unidentified Cuban (cga, perc); June Tyson (voc, dance); Myriam Broche (dance); Greg Pratt (dance); Don Mumford may replace Clifford Jarvis (d); Chris Henderson (d) may replace Marvin "Boogaloo" Smith; Wilbur Little (b); replaces Rollo Radford (standup eb).

Paris Jazz Festival, Paris, November 1983

untitled improvisation [kora]
untitled improvisation [EVIs]
Along Came Ra (Ra)/
Children of the Sun (Ra) [JT, voc; SR, ens voc]
Blue Lou (Sampson) [inc]
Nuclear War (Ra) [SR, JT, ens voc]
1984 (Ra) [SR, JT, ens voc]
Cocktails for Two (Coslow-Johnston)

405. [302] Same personnel, except Rollo Radford (standup eb) is back in place of Wilbur Little (b).

Le New Morning, Paris, November or December 1983

Love in Outer Space (Ra)
untitled improvisation
[bars, tb, and bcd; p; falsetto ts]
Astro Black (Ra) [JT voc]
Nuclear War (Ra) [SR, ens voc; inc]
untitled improvisation [kora; perc and dance]
Mystery, Mr. Ra (Ra) [SR, JT, ens voc]
Discipline 27 (Ra) [inc]

Mystery, Mr. Ra is a 48-minute documentary, released in 1984, featuring footage from two Paris concerts and interviews with Ra, John Gilmore, and Archie Shepp.  Produced by Hubert Niogret, directed by Frank Cassenti; issued on video in 1993 by Rhapsody Films with sleeve notes by Michael Shore.  Date and tunes rlc.  Personnel rlc with help from Danny Ray Thompson; Mumford and Little are mentioned in the film credits.  This was a distinct performance from the Arkestra's March 1983 appearance at Le New Morning.
from Campbell / Trent  The Earthly Recordings 2nd ed.

Offering below is of higher resolution than stream above.

1.45g m4v

RS1  RS2  RS3  RS4

or

HF1  HF2  HF3  HF4