Sun Ra & Arkestra

Petrillo Music Shell
Chicago Jazz Festival
Chicago, Illinois
United States of America

3 September 1988
Labor Day weekend 1988

Broadcast over National Public Radio (Russ and rlc)

Sun Ra and his Planet Saturn Love Adventure Arkestra: Ra-p, syn, keyb, voc; Michael Ray-tp, voc; Ahmed Abdullah-tp; Tyrone Hill-tb; Marshall Allen-as, fl; Noel Scott-as; John Gilmore-ts, perc; Eloe Omoe-as, bcl, contra-alto cl; Danny Ray Thompson-bs; James Jacson-bsn, Ancient Egyptian Infinity Drum; Billy Bang-vln; Bruce Edwards-eg; Carl LeBlanc-eg; Philip Watkins-b; Buster Smith-d; Luqman Ali-d; Eric Walker-d; Kwasi Asare-African perc; Jorge Silva-Brazilian perc; Elson Nascimento-Brazilian perc; Lorimil Machado-berimbau, dance; Gato-perc, dance; June Tyson-voc, vln. (rlc; help on tunes from Ron Russ; much help on personnel from Abdullah)

01. untitled improvisation (freakout ens; Gilmore, ts; d; Ray, tp; Bang, vln; freakout ens; LeBlanc and Edwards, eg; Abdullah, tp) 12:56
02. Blue Lou (Sampson) (Scott, as; Abdullah, tp; Hill, tb; Ray, tp; Gilmore, ts) 4:54
03. Back Alley Blues (Ra) (Ra, p; eg on right; eg on left; Bang, vln; Ore, b; Ra, p; Scott, as; Ra, p) 10:50
04. I Dream Too Much (Kern) (Ra, p; Ra, voc) 3:58
05. <> Frisco Fog (Carr-Roberts) (Ra, p; Gilmore, ts) 4:00
06. Prelude to a Kiss (Ellington) (Ra, p; Allen, as) 4:59
07. Queer Notions (Hawkins) (Ra, p; Gilmore, ts; Abdullah, tp) 2:58
08-09. Sophisticated Lady (Carney-Ellington) (Ra, p; Hill, tb, incl. his favorite lick from Big T; Ra, p; Gilmore, ts; Ra, p) 1:08 & 6:55
10. Egyptian Fantasy / I'll Wait for You / Angel Race / Outer Spaceways Inc. / We Travel the Spaceways / Next Stop Mars (Ra) (Gilmore, ts; Hill, tb; Ra, Tyson, ensemble voc.) > (concert concludes with short interview with Sun Ra by Neil Tesser) 28:16

Total Time: 80:59

FM>?>CD>EAC>FLAC>Vuze>Dimeadozen
Quality: A

Thanks to the original taper and uploader.

Setlist adapted from Sun Ra Tape-ography (http://homepage.uab.edu/moudry/tape_d.htm).

The Chicago and Montreux/Detroit Festivals featured a "notably large ensemble" with extra percussionists. Elson Nascimento and Jorge Silva were working with Ra for the first time, as were the two Brazilian capoeira dancers, Lorimil Machado and Gato. Asare made these two performances only. "This was truly spectacular." (Abdullah)

"Pat Patrick was present in Chicago but did not play. We stayed over in Chicago after the Festival and with a smaller band opened at a club called George's, a supper club. Music was really great." (Abdullah)

Well, was anyone recording at George's?

Well, at least John Litweiler was reviewing at George's for the Chicago Tribune (http://articles.chicagotribune.com/1988-09-09/features/8801290107_1_arkestra-sun-ra-jazz-band):

Mood Swings Fire Sun Ra`s Jazz Orbit
September 09, 1988|By John Litweiler.

One thing is certain about a Sun Ra performance: You never know what to expect. Last week at the Chicago Jazz Festival, he presented a huge troupe of musicians, dancers and acrobats in a veritable circus of improvisation. This week at George`s, it`s just him and his big band squeezed onto the small stage, playing swing-era songs in the inimitably outrageous, sometimes preposterous, sometimes excellent Arkestra style.

It may come as a surprise that among today`s jazz musicians, Ra has enjoyed one of the longest continually active careers. He came to Earth from the planet Saturn around 74 years ago and played in Southern bands for years before landing in Chicago in the 1940s.

Here he wrote music for floor shows at the Club DeLisa, then formed his own Arkestra to play his original brand of neo-bop. A period of percussion-oriented music followed, and then in the `60s, the Arkestra moved to New York and the free ensemble improvisations that made it famous.

There were none of the Arkestra`s famed outer-space pieces on opening night.

Instead, the band offered a program of swing-era pop songs and jazz-band standards, played mostly in a two-beat rhythm that clunked instead of swung:

What else, with two basses and an excess of percussionists?

Simple piano solos by the leader introduced each song, in a real stew of styles: Here some vivid Ellingtonish tones, there some Errol Garnerish block chords and in ``I Want To Be Happy,`` stride piano lines stolen from Fats Waller.

Much of the music was a reminder that Ra apprenticed as a composer under Fletcher Henderson, who along with Duke Ellington virtually invented the big swing band. Stride piano by Ra led into a Henderson band classic, Coleman Hawkins` ``Queer Notions,`` with tenor saxman John Gilmore playing Hawk`s 1934 tenor solos-and the song still sounds modern in 1988. There were several vocals by Ra, all charmingly out of tune. There was ``Deep Purple,`` taken at an unusually fast tempo, and ``East of the Sun,`` with a John Gilmore vocal.

Indeed, Gilmore offered several distinctive solos, including one on clarinet. Most remarkable of his tenor sax works was a gracefully flowing bop improvisation, in a Ra original about ``beautiful love,`` in which his phrases moved and joined so naturally that the listener hardly noticed their complexity or the subtle mastery of his structure.

Altoist Marshall Allen has become the Arkestra`s romantic ballad alto saxman, but with a difference.

Ecstatic, almost hysterical high tones capped his creamy solo in Ellington`s ``Prelude to a Kiss,`` then in a ``jazzing the classics`` version of a Chopin ditty, he shattered the romantic mood with brilliant bent notes and squeals.

Ra`s most remarkable piano solo was in ``Over the Rainbow.`` Lush phrases faithful to the tune`s Hollywood sentiment were undermined, then devastated by low rumbles; a ripple of stride piano mocked the melody, and clashing chords concluded.

It was a remarkable piece of self-revelation, for the song`s hope is certainly seductive-and the cruel, angry phrases were an admission that those sentiments are clearly impossibilities.

SUN RA AND HIS SOLAR ARKESTRA

Ra, piano, synthesizer; Ahmed Abdullah, Mike Pay, trumpets; Tyrone Hill, trombone; Marshall Allen, Noel Scott, Elo Omoe, John Gilmore, Danny Thompson, saxophones, woodwinds; James Jackson, bassoon; June Tyson, vocals, violin; John Ore, Phillip Wadkins, basses; Buster Smith, Luqman Ali, drums; Kwasi Asare, percussion; at George`s, 230 W. Kinzie. Friday through Sunday at 8 and 10:30 p.m., $10-15 show-only cover charge. Phone 644-2290.