Sun Ra Arkestra
Stache's, Columbus, OH, January 5, 1985

Sun Ra (p, syn, voc); unidentified (tp); Al Evans (flg); Tyrone Hill (tb,
voc); Marshall Allen (as, fl, EVI, perc); John Gilmore (ts, cl, timb, voc);
Eloe Omoe (as, bcl, contra-alto cl, perc); Danny Ray Thompson (bs, as, fl,
bgo); James Jacson (bsn, fl, Ancient Egyptian Infinity Drum, voc); Rollo
Radford (eb); Avreeayl Ra Amen (d); unidentified (cga); June Tyson (voc,
dance); unidentified female (dance, voc).

1st set:
01. untitled improvisation /
Door of the Cosmos [tp, eb; perc; eg; ob, eb; eb, perc;tb; EVI; tb; EVI; eb; as, bcl, bs coda] 14:46
02. A Lost Horizon (Ra) [JT, ens voc]
untitled improvisation [d solo; eb, d duet only] 6:37
03. untitled improvisation [ens riffs]
Tapestry from an Asteroid (Ra) [JT, ens voc]
(The World Is Waiting) For the Sunrise (Ra) [JT, ens voc] 4:39
04. Discipline 27-II (Ra) /
Calling Planet Earth (Ra) /
Sea of Immortality (Ra) /
This World Is Not My Home (Ra) /
Sometimes I Feel like a Motherless Child (trad.) /
I'll Wait for You (Ra) [SR, ens voc] 6:61
05. Nuclear War (Ra) [SR, ens voc] 5:29
06. unidentified blues [p; riffs; eb; p; riffs; (fade out) 6:48
07. Prelude to a Kiss (Ellington) 5:00
08. unidentified swing piece (Ra) 8:00
09. Say It Isn't So (Berlin) [JG voc] 5:48
10. Drop Me off in Harlem (Ellington) 6:21
11. The Place of Five Points (Ra) 6:30
12. Mack the Knife (Brecht-Weill-Blitzstein) [JJ voc; SR, JJ voc] 8:04
13. Space Is the Place (Ra) [JT, ens voc] /
We Travel the Spaceways (Ra) [SR, ens voc] (fade out) 4:20

2nd set:
14.(fade in) Never Never Land (Ra) [JT, ens voc] /
untitled improvisation [Allen, EVI; Infinity Drum] 6:11
15. When There Is No Sun (Ra) [JT, JG, ens voc]
untitled improvisation [cond ens; Allen, as; Omoe, contra-alto cl joins in; Thompson, bs joins]
untitled improvisation [eb; cond ens; Gilmore, ts] 11:23
16. I Want to Be Happy (Caesar-Youmans) [JG, TH, JJ voc; JJ, TH, JT voc; JJ voc; JT, SR voc] 9:33
17. I'm Gonna Unmask the Batman (Gibson-Abraham) [SR, ens voc] 7:55
18. East of the Sun (Bowman) [JG voc] 4:17
19. Sophisticated Lady (Ellington) 5:21 (fades out and in at 4:11 due to tape flip)
20. Cocktails for Two (Coslow-Johnston) [p, Allen, as, eb, d only] 4:15
21. Over the Rainbow (Arlen-Harburg) [p only] 4:55
22. Christopher Columbus (Razaf-Berry) 8:59
23. Smile (Chaplin) [JT voc] 6:46
24. Limehouse Blues (Braham-Furber) 3:09
25. Sunset on the Nile (Ra) [SR voc] 14:48 (fade out)

First gen cassette<CD Wave Editor<Creative Wave Studio (for fades)<Wave Joiner (for Sophisticated Lady)<Flac

This if from the original tape, sort of recorded in stereo, with one channel off the soundboard and the other from a mic over the stage.
There's occasionally a little microphone distortion, but on the main, the fidelity is excellent, much better than most Saturn releases.
This was Sun Ra's first Columbus appearance. This recording is from the second day of sold out shows.
I had one of the best times of my life, not having had the chance to see the Arkestra for about five years.

A lot of people don't care so much for this era, but I think the music selection here is the greatest, a combination of Space Chants, Space Chords, out there, swing, and pop tunes.
They sing the semi-inane 30's song, "I Want to be Happy", over and over again, for almost ten minutes, and it's extremely invigorating. This would be a good introduction for the uninitiated to the whole magic world of Sun Ra.

The music totals about three hours, so if you're burning this to CD, it'll take three. Split 'em where you will

About five years ago I sent copies of the tapes to Ra expert Chris Trent, who then sent them to Ra discographer Robert Campbell.
They were able to discern the personnel and name the songs.

They also sent me these comments, which may be of interest to some of you:

There is wavery distortion on the piano, which seems to have been badly
overmiked, but the sound quality is better than on the January 4 tapes.

Points of interest include some of June Tyson's best singing from the 80s.
She is in great form on "A Lost Horizon" and "Tapestry from an
Asteroid"--we may have her best recorded performance of "Tapestry" here.

The piece before "Say It Isn't So" remains an enigma. It isn't "East of
Uz" and it isn't Ellington's "Ko-Ko." Whatever it is, John plays 3
excellent choruses on it. "Say It Isn't So" is a tune that Sunny rarely
called; here it has first-rate piano, a vocal from John, and a nice flugel
solo by Al Evans. John is on for "Drop Me off in Harlem" (4 choruses).
"The Place of Five Points" has some striding from Sunny and a subtone coda
by Marshall on alto.

In the second set, John plays his butt off on "Sophisticated Lady"
(unfortunately, the end of his solo is lost in the tape turnover). There
is a really strong purely instrumental version of "Christopher Columbus"
that runs 8 minutes and features an OK solo by Al Evans and another blazer
from John. This is the last known occasion that Sunny called "Smile" on
the bandstand, probably because June lost the ability to sing it. On this
occasion, she doesn't get hoarse on "What's the USE of crying," as she did
on the Sept. 1982 studio recording. John has a beautiful chorus.

Keep traveling the Spaceways,

Robert L. Campbell

Avreeayl Ra Amen, drummer of the Arkestra, made a longer tape (up to 225 minutes) on the
bandstand during this gig.

I've just finished listening to Avreeayl's tapes for this session. The
only alterations which I have to suggest are as follows:

1. At the end of Avreeayl's Tape 1, side A, there is an incomplete Queer
Notions which is undoubtedly integral to the set, coming between the
blues and Prelude To A Kiss (which is fragmentary on Avreeayl's tape).

2. The tape side changes do not quite match (of course!): on Avreeayl's
tape 2, he switches between sides A and B during Ra's piano introduction
to Sophisticated Lady, so that the bulk of the piece is preserved intact
on side B.

3. Avreeayl changed tapes again after Limehouse blues. There is about 30
minutes of music on a third tape (terrible quality, but good enough for
documentary purposes) which contains the final section of the second
set:

Sunset On The Nile
Theme Of The Stargazers
Door Of The Cosmos

(The preceding two tapes are excellent quality: it's just this one which
is muffled and only recorded on one channel.)

4. After the end of the concert, the venue's announcer relays a message
from Sun Ra to the effect that he will be playing in Birmingham, AL on
January 17, 1985.

Chris Trent