[HN Gopher] The Sun Ra Arkestra's Maestro Hits One Hundred
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The Sun Ra Arkestra's Maestro Hits One Hundred
Author : tintinnabula
Score : 137 points
Date : 2024-06-24 21:17 UTC (1 days ago)
(HTM) web link (www.newyorker.com)
(TXT) w3m dump (www.newyorker.com)
| TexanFeller wrote:
| I don't know what this is doing on HN, but Sun Ra makes great
| music.
| yellowapple wrote:
| The sort of intellectual curiosity and enrichment the Arkestra
| and Sun Ra's compositions foster and inspire is, I would argue,
| exactly the sort of thing that belongs on HN in droves.
| ggm wrote:
| Sun Ra was an early adopter of synthesisers, electronic
| instruments amongst other innovations.
| gopher_space wrote:
| Anything that appeared in an issue of Mondo 2000 would be
| grandfathered in.
| intellectronica wrote:
| Sun Ra and the Arkestra are the hackers of jazz.
| sonofhans wrote:
| The Arkestra is still touring, and if you can catch them you
| should. Without question the best live act I've ever seen.
| DaoVeles wrote:
| They don't merely tour, they fly a space ship to spread their
| vibe!
| wyclif wrote:
| Here's my fun personal story about the Sun Ra Arkestra:
|
| I grew up as a music-mad kid in the Philly metro region, and
| a friend of mine and a fellow music fan somehow got the phone
| number for the Arkestra group home where Sun Ra and a bunch
| of the band members lived. It was in my wallet for a few
| months and I told myself the next time I hit the city, I'd
| call the number and ask to speak to Sun Ra while it was a
| local call.
|
| So one night I call the number and this gruff voice says
| "Hello?" and I say, "Hello, I'd like to speak to Sun Ra" and
| this voice that I immediately recognized as that of John
| Gilmore, the sax player, yells at me "Go to bed, white boy!"
| and hangs up on me. Me and my friend, who was on an
| extension, burst out laughing...
| mtalantikite wrote:
| One of my favorite shows was them doing a live score to "Space
| is the Place" during a Winter Jazz Fest. It was a lot of fun,
| looks like someone took some video of the beginning of it [1].
| They used to play somewhat regularly in summers at a dive
| bar/venue near me in Brooklyn, which always felt ridiculous
| that such an important group was playing where countless crappy
| bands also played, but was sort of perfect.
|
| [1] https://www.youtube.com/watch?app=desktop&v=rl40d9Bz2Ps
| fallinditch wrote:
| Well worth checking out the series of shows on NTS radio - 110
| Years of Sun Ra https://www.nts.live/shows/110-years-of-sun-ra
| dmix wrote:
| Madlib called Sun Ra and Arkestra is one of his biggest
| inspiration artistically and he seems to bring him up every
| chance he gets in interviews. Which makes sense as he too is all
| about being music history/future obsessed multi instrumentalist
| with a tangent for the weird.
|
| Sun Ra still lives on through music just like Prince and other
| strange experimentalists of that mark.
| PhunkyPhil wrote:
| He put me on to Sun Ra and Azymuth, it's high praise coming
| from Madlib. Other highly individual/stylized artists also
| share the love for Ra; Earl sweatshirt and members of sLums New
| York group.
| brianzelip wrote:
| Ras G! RIP
| buildsjets wrote:
| It's excellent to see this on HN. Sun Ra and the Arkestra's
| genres transcend space and time, and their discography is
| massive, so it can be hard to tell people where to start
| listening, but "Jazz in Silhouette" (1959) is fine introduction
| to their more traditional style that won't startle you if you
| don't listen to much free jazz. In fact I just threw it on the ol
| turntable. If that tickles you, try "Space is the Place" (1973)
| on for something more experimental. In between, you cannot go
| wrong with the "Heliocentric Worlds of Sun Ra" albums (1965)
| dmix wrote:
| I want some Sun Ra records but they are usually pretty rare and
| expensive last time I checked
| fortyfivan wrote:
| Indeed they are. Anything on Saturn goes for big bucks,
| especially ones with handmade covers. Impulse did a solid run
| of re-releases in the mid 70s that are much more accessible.
|
| This is a good read on Saturn: https://londonjazzcollector.wo
| rdpress.com/2021/07/09/beginne...
| Metalnem wrote:
| You can find over a hundred of his records on Bandcamp:
| https://sunramusic.bandcamp.com.
| dmix wrote:
| Sweet, thank you! Much better prices than local record
| stores
| buildsjets wrote:
| I mean the original pressings for sure, if you are a
| completionist you will go mad.
|
| He had a lot of early recordings that had no distribution and
| were only sold at live shows, and he was known for recording
| everything he ever did even if some are pretty lofi.
|
| But all the popular recordings are available as repressings,
| and you can find plenty affordably new online or used at
| discogs.
|
| I've never found any Sun Ra in the $2 Goodwill bins but I've
| found plenty of other great jazz records there.
| fortyfivan wrote:
| Wild to think that Jazz in Silhouette was 1959, but to your
| point about transcending space and time...
|
| My favorites are a bit later - Lanquidity (1978) and Sleeping
| Beauty (1979).
|
| A good start might be the lone release on Savoy, The Futuristic
| Sounds of Sun Ra (1962) - China Gates is such a hypnotic jam.
| the_other wrote:
| > My favorites are a bit later - Lanquidity (1978)
|
| Thanks for the recommendation. I put this on and was floored
| by recognising the opening bars from a sample in an old Mo'
| Wax record[0]. Formative sounds for me.
|
| [0]: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gWJ38bzgVQY&t=88s
| zonotope wrote:
| Interstellar Low Ways is one of my favorite Jazz albums of all
| time. Scratch that. It's one of my favorite _albums_ of all
| time. It's another one that won't scare you away if you're not
| used to listening to free jazz, and it's just epic from start
| to finish.
| tuggi wrote:
| http://archive.today/hc5xg
| intellectronica wrote:
| Space is the place!
| vr46 wrote:
| For all the words portraying Sun Ra's visionary attitude, that
| might be something others have projected onto him, for his real
| views and self-importance were the opposite of some of the
| suggestions written here.
|
| For example, he objected to the late, great, Carla Bley, being in
| the Guild because she was a woman!
|
| "In one meeting, Sun Ra said aloud to all the members of the
| group that I would sink the ship because that's what women do. I
| was furious. I got up and said, 'You son of a...' I really yelled
| at him."
| tslocum wrote:
| This quote is taken from the following interview:
|
| https://thequietus.com/interviews/carla-bley-interview/
|
| Another quote: "Sun Ra and I did get along from that point on."
| vr46 wrote:
| Yes, after she apologized for yelling at him.
|
| I mean, he evoked sailor superstition to claim women were bad
| luck on a ship. Talk about old-fashioned.
|
| As far out as the music was, everything about him was
| fabricated, but music and mystique aside, it's still
| disappointing to again see an African-American man
| contributing to the marginalization of women, a long
| tradition that ought to be understood just as well as the
| contribution to culture.
| tmountain wrote:
| If you like Sun Ra, check out Phil Cohran, his trumpet player.
| Truly next level awesome stuff.
|
| https://youtu.be/Mraf9s264EA?si=R0-hOJBw7fCpccFw
| oggy wrote:
| A funny anecdote from a concert a few years ago: Allen was
| playing a solo, holding a note and blowing as hard as he could on
| his little soprano sax. Next thing you his teeth fly out, and
| there's a general commotion on as the rest of the band goes
| searching for the denture on the stage.
|
| Amazing to be alive at that age, to be touring and rocking it,
| that's another level.
| consumer451 wrote:
| A friend once saw Run Ra in a small venue, sometime in the late
| 1980s. After the show, my friend saw that the man himself was
| arguing with the owner about getting paid.
|
| My friend credits that as being the last straw for him pursuing
| his own professional music career. "If Sun Ra still has to argue
| about getting paid, at his level of fame, then this business
| ain't it."
| itunpredictable wrote:
| finally jazz on the front page!!!
| eludwig wrote:
| I saw Sun Ra back once back in the mid-70s in NYC. Easily the
| most memorable jazz concert I've ever seen. My recollection is
| not 100%, but what I do remember is the Arkestra lined up in a
| row of chairs facing the audience. There were 2 dancers female
| dressed in filmy clothes that were essentially circling the
| players and dancing around the stage. Sun Ra was basically
| directing the entire performance. I don't believe he was playing
| anything? (I could be mistaken there though. it was a long time
| ago) Maybe he played keys at one point?
|
| The most amazing part were the solos. Sun Ra would point to each
| player in turn and each would stand and deliver the most
| blistering solo for about 5 minutes each, barely taking a breath.
| Then Sun Ra would motion to the next and this would continue
| until everyone had a turn.
|
| The music was incredibly spacey and so good. "Space is the
| place"!
| jjulius wrote:
| Not to get off on a tangent, but this reminds me of my middle
| school jazz band. There'd definitely be structured rehearsals,
| but the days that our director threw that all out the window
| and emphasized improvisation were the best.
|
| We'd get to class, he'd tell us what song to pull out, and he'd
| just start us off like normal. Plod along, get to the usual
| solo section and the person slated to perform the solo does
| their own thing, but the director doesn't allow us out of those
| looped bars. Nope, without telling us, he points to the next
| person and has them solo. Then the next. Then the next.
|
| Suddenly, we've reached the end of class and he finally lets us
| move on and finish the song after tons of people got a chance
| to work on their improv.
|
| Yeah, we were in middle school and weren't top notch musicians
| or anything, but those still remain some of my favorite musical
| experiences.
| thesausageking wrote:
| Here's a video w/ Marshall Allen from last year. Amazing what 99
| can look like:
|
| https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mw-zE7zGEkM
| coreypreston wrote:
| Not a huge fan, but their the source of my favorite song about
| nuclear war, if that were even a genre -
|
| https://open.spotify.com/track/6Ys8eavDzCLC4CjwN8pAUP?si=1d5...
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