Sun Ra Arkestra
Santa Cruz Civic Auditorium
Santa Cruz, CA
December 11, 1974

Master audience cassette>?>CD>EAC>FLAC

Complete concert, 120 min. Mono recording on a cassette machine but quite good sound notwithstanding. Level jumps in spots. [Fukuda]

Disc One (5)
1 Introduction (collective improvisation featuring Hadi-tp solo; Hadi and Ebah-tp duet; Ebah and Hadi, duet; Sly, eg) >
Astro Black (Ra) (June Tyson, voc; ens. voc; Allen, ob; Sly-eg)
2 Discipline 27 (Ra) (Ra, grand entrance and conducting; Ebah-tp)
3 Enlightenment (Dotson-Ra) (Ra-rg; Gilmore and Tyson-nison voc)
4 Love in Outer Space (Ra) (Ra-org)
5 Shadow World (Ra) (Ra-org; well executed sax ensemble; Gilmore, falsetto ts; Allen, squalling as; Omoe, extravagantly honking bcl; Ra, org; Thompson, Rlunatic fagottS; Hadi, tp; Sly, eg; Danny Davis, as psycho-whimpering; distinctive closing ensemble with Allen, lead as)

Disc Two (15)
1 Theme of the Stargazers (Ra) (ens. voc; Ra, Mini-Moog syn, the spaceship takes off)
2 Calling Planet Earth (Ra) (ens. voc; Ra, syn: dentist drills and fire sirens)
3 Space Is the Place (Ra) (excellent multilayered polyrhythmic version: Tyson, voc; SEV, voc; Allen, as; Eddie Thomas, scat voc; Ra, syn)
4 Images (Ra) (Ra, org; Hadi, tp; Ra, org; Gilmore, ts; Ra, org; sound system has trouble with flute-heavy ensemble)
5 Discipline 27-II / Out Beyond the Kingdom Of (Ra) (Ra, org; Ra, voc; Tyson, voc; Thomas, voc)
6 Destination Unknown (Ra) (Ra, SEV, Tyson, Ebah, voc; freakout ens.)
7 An Astro Nation of the United Worlds of Outer Space (Ra) (Ra, Eddie Thomas, and SEV, voc; Danny Davis, as)
8 untitled improvisation (Hadi, tp; "sea of sounds" from the horns plus Ra, syn; Arkestra marches through audience)
9 We Travel the Spaceways (includes Pluto Too / Neptune / 2nd Stop Is Jupiter / Next Stop Mars / Journey to Saturn / Rocket Number 9) (Ra) (Ra, org; ens voc; Tyson, voc; Ra, voc)
10 Planet Earth (Ra) (one chorus with lyrics! Ra, org; ens. voc.)
11 Watusa (Ra) (perc. as usual; dance)
12 Friendly Galaxy No. 2 / I Pharaoh (Ra) (beautiful slow ens.; Ra, declamation; SEV, voc)
13 I Could've Enjoyed Myself on This Planet (Ra) (ens voc; Ebah and Jacson, voc; Hadi, tp; Tyson and SEV, hysterics)
14 Friendly Galaxy No. 2 / I Pharoah ; reprise (Ra) (Ra, declamation; vib in the accompaniment)
15 Face the Music (Ra) (Ra, org; ens voc; Jacson, bsn!; marching through audience, singalong)


Sun Ra and his Intergalactic Arkestra: Kwame Hadi-tp; Akh Tal Ebah-tp, mellophone, poss. reed trumpet, voc; Marshall Allen-as, ob, fl, picc; Danny Davis-as, fl ; John Gilmore-ts, timbales, voc; Eloe Omoe-bcl, fl; Danny Thompson-bs, poss. modified bsn, fl; James Jacson-bsn, perc, voc; Ra-org, Mini- Moog syn, sermonizing; Sly-eg; prob. Clifford Jarvis-d; unidentified-d; poss. Atakatune-cga; unidentified-vib, perc; June Tyson-voc; Space Ethnic Voices (2 female vocalists plus Eddie Thomas [Thomas Thaddeus]) and dancers. [titles Fukuda; personnel rlc with help from Fukuda; thanks to Curtis Fukuda for this unique tape]

According to Fukuda, this concert was a classic multimedia event with slides and 16 mm films being projected behind the Arkestra. The electric guitar player (same as on The Antique Blacks) was "a medium height Afro-American of lean build." John Gilmore remembers him as Sly. The "tall thin vibraphone player" was barely audible in concert (he can be heard in two spots on the tape). According to Henry Kuntz in Bells 9, a new music newsletter in the Bay Area, the same band played a similar repertoire in San Francisco (Keystone Korner, Off Plaza) and Berkeley (One World Family Center) from October 30 through the end of November. On these other gigs, it was the Intergalactic Myth Science Arkestra.

The noisemaker solo could be Ebah on reed trumpet instead of Danny Thompson on "lunatic fagott" (modified bassoon) [rlc]