Let’s Start With The Album, Shall We?
One of the most annoying things about the many re-releases of this record is that the sleeve often doesn’t include the poetry. Sun Ra’s poetry, often obsessed with word-play and double meanings, was as individual as he was, and deserves serious attention
…and so here’s a clip of Sun Ra reading over Exotic Forest.
If you’ve ever wanted an article about Sun Ra written from the point of view of his sartorial style, ( which certainly influenced artists like Earth, Wind and Fire and Parliment/Funkadelic) , we’ve got you covered, right HERE
HERE is a link to ESP-Disk, the company that organised and recorded the tour of Colleges in the New York area.
Incidentally, the other act on the tour was a kind of Jazz/folk supergroup made up of other ESP-Disk artists put together around the singer Patty Waters. Nobody ever talks about this, for some reason, so if anybody was curious..
For the equally curious, here is the first ESP-Disk issue.
John Gilmore
The track that really tickled Gav on this album was John Gilmore’s rambunctious, thundering war God of a tenor solo on Dancing Shadows…
…so it’s all the more surprising to find Mr Gilmore as a sideman in Art Blakey’s Jazz Messengers..
It’s interesting to compare the Gilmore Dancing Shadows solo with Trane bemusing a Parisian audience in 1960….
Trane and Gilmore were certainly on the same page, though, as this account of Gilmore encountering an uncooperative rhythm section during a jam session at Birdland shows.
Film and other media.
I don’t see why that’s age restricted; never mind, get over to Youtube and check out Space is the Place!
This is a cool documentary …
…as is this…
…and HERE is a link to the movie “Fire Music”, a film about Free Jazz that devotes some time to Sun Ra
For the German speakers amongst our audience, ( and they do exist), HERE and HERE are a couple of podcasts in German about Sun Ra
Want to know more? HERE is a guide through all the Sun Ra Albums on Bandcamp
Finally, what does it sound like when a 17 year old Bassoon player discovers Sun Ra and tells his mates about him?
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Sun Ra Arkestra - Nothing Is... (1966/70)