Tomorrow a friend is going to lend me...



...Sun Ra - The Singles

Back in the mid-'50s, bandleader Sun Ra decided to get his music to his audience through a more direct process by starting his own label, Saturn Records. Equal parts creative futuristic vision and small-time Southern R&B bandstand hustle, these 45s were pressed in unbelievably small quantities (sometimes in runs of only 50 copies), making them the holy grail of Sun Ra collectibles. The collection of singles runs a neat 30-year time-frame and features everything from Sun Ra with an embryonic form of his Arkestra doing backup duties behind doo-wop groups and R&B slopbucket singers like 'Space Age Vocalist' Yochannon to wild-ass sonic experiements from the late '70s into the early '80s that would have atmospherically fit on any of his avant-garde albums. Pieced together for this release from the contributions of private collectors around the world — and sonically cleaned up far beyond the audio capabilities of the original vinyl they were pressed on — these 49 three-minute opuses will alternately confuse, astound, confound, delight, and illuminate Sun Ra fans of all stratas of involvement. A major piece of puzzle that is the man, now in place.

www.allmusic.com
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Next stop, the cosmos...


tA

Tribal Disorder

http://www.soundclick.com...dID=182431

i love Sun Ra whenever i hear some. I'v enever bought any of his stuff. i saw the Sun Ra Arkestra about three years ago in London and they were cool as hell.

byh the way he was born the same day as me. Go Geminis!

Milty said:

My friend got to play with The Arkestra for a spell while Sonny was alive.
He said it was more of a trip than you could ever imagine.

tA

Tribal Disorder

http://www.soundclick.com...dID=182431

theAudience said:

i bet, all cooky and shit.

Milty said:

There was definitely a kooky component but it was more about getting to play some amazing music.


tA

Tribal Disorder

http://www.soundclick.com...dID=182431

Sun Ra "There Are Other Worlds They Have Not Told You Of"

tA always hoppin' on what I'm listenin' to

CinisterCee said:

I can hear for miles and miles and miles and miles. Oh yeah.

Apologies to The Who.


You better pay attention to June Tyson.


tA

Tribal Disorder

http://www.soundclick.com...dID=182431

thanks for the thread. i haven't played these discs in about 8 years, i'm gonna have to get them back into rotation. Two of the highlights i can remember is Love In Outer Space, every version i've heard of this song is beautiful! and I'm Gonna Unmask Batman was fun too. i'm sure there are some other gems on there i can't bring to mind.

Man, i think i have over 20 Ra discs, after my first abduction i went nuts and picked up a lot of his stuff within a year. i've got a couple of Ra Saturn label wreckards, too. there's this one in particular a friend of mine gave to me which he got from someone who's uncle use to perform with Ra. its on the original Saturn label and the cover is gatefold with a bunch of cool art and hieroglyphics, it's also 45rpm which i've never seen for a complete album. i should have my scanner running in a couple of days i'll upload some pics. There's a haunting version of enlightenment on there also. whenever i get the time i'm gonna burn my Ra vinyl to disc, anyone interested in a copy of some of the stuff hit me with a note and i'll keep you in mind when it's done.

..

Milty said:

cool. i'm wondering who's with the band then? i know it went under the direction of Marshall allen, but so many folks died off before the new millenium, i'm wondering who's left. Man, i would love to see Marshall at least one more time! i he was doing a lot of stuff on the west coast for a while.

sinisterpentatonic said:

I remember reading about a show in NYC (maybe a Central Park concert series) last year that featured The Arkestra and DJ Spooky.

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MC5, DJ Spooky, The Sun-Ra Arkestra at SummerStage
Saturday, July 30, 2005 (3:00 PM)

Central Park (Rumsey Playfield)

East 72nd Street off Fifth Avenue (Yahoo! Maps, Google Maps)
New York City, New York
Saturday, July 30, 2005
Beginning at 3:00 PM
Central Park SummerStage - FREE!

The MC5 were a band like no other. Even in the chaotic late ‘60s, the Detroit group’s pro-dope, Black power and sex-in-the-streets rhetoric was outrageous, as was the band’s frequent calls for revolution. But far more important was the MC5’s music—a twin guitar, all-or-nothing attack that overwhelmed the audience with sound. The MC5 were a direct influence on punk rock and everything that came after. Though the band broke up in the early 70s, members Wayne Kramer (guitar), Dennis Thompson (drums) and Michael Davis (bass) have reunited to continue the MC5’s work.

As wild as the MC5 were, they looked like Young Republicans next to The Sun-Ra Arkestra. A pioneer of avant-garde jazz—of avant-garde everything, really—Sun-Ra claimed he was from Saturn, dressed his “Arkestra” like ancient Egyptians and sometimes featured fire eaters in his act. He also played free jazz, explored world music and experimented with electric instruments years before anyone else. One of the MC5’s early gigs was opening for Sun-Ra, and Wayne Kramer has said that “no other band affected me the way Sun-Ra and his Arkestra has. They opened the door to the New Music.” Led by alto saxophonist Marshall Allen since Sun-Ra’s death in 1993, the Arkestra continues to push the possibilities of sound. Sun Ra Arkesta returns to SummerStage having performed in 1986, 1987 and 1992.

No stranger to sonic experimentation, Paul Miller, a.k.a. DJ Spooky, will start the day off with a master’s class in the art of turntabilism. One of the founding members of New York’s “illbeat” movement, DJ Spooky’s sets are post-modernism in action; adventurous mixings of hip-hop, dance, avant-garde jazz, punk, ska, dub, noise rock, world music and just about anything else ever put on tape or record. His collaborations with Arto Lindsay, Metallica, Sublime, Dr. Octagon, Thurston Moore, the Freight Elevator Quartet, Scanner, progressive jazz artists William Parker and Matthew Shipp, dub outfit Twilight Circus and many others have won him critical praise, and he has done more than anyone to establish the DJ as an artist in his (or her) own right.

http://upcoming.org/event/20614/
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Wish I could have seen that.

tA

Tribal Disorder

http://www.soundclick.com...dID=182431

Regarding the current lineup...

THE SUN RA ARKESTRA - Under the direction of Marshall Allen



MARSHALL ALLEN
alto saxophone - flute - EVI - joined Arkestra in 1958

CHARLES DAVIS
baritone saxophone - joined Arkestra in 1955

ART JENKINS
vocals - percussion - joined Arkestra in 1960

TYRONE HILL
trombone - joined Arkestra in 1968

MICHAEL RAY
trumpet - vocals - joined Arkestra in 1978

JOHN ORE
bass - joined Arkestra in 1961

FRED ADAMS
trumpet - joined Arkestra in 1982

KNOEL SCOTT
alto saxophone - joined Arkestra in 1979

VINCENT CHANCEY
french horn - joined Arkestra in 1976

CECIL BROOKS
trumpet

DANNY THOMPSON
flute, baritone sax, alto sax, bassoon- joined Arkestra in 1959

REY SCOTT
baritone saxophone - joined Arkestra in 1988

DAVE DAVIS
trombone - joined Arkestra in 1999

LUQUMAN ALI
drums - joined Arkestra in 1964

ELSON NASCIMENTO
percussion - joined Arkestra in 1988

D. HOTEP
guitar - joined Arkestra in 2000

YAHYA ABDUL-MAJID
tenor saxophone - joined Arkestra in 1980

BILL DAVIS
bass - joined Arkestra in 1962

JUINI BOOTH
bass - joined Arkestra in 1967

...This is supposedly from the "Official Website" - http://www.elrarecords.com/band.html



tA

Tribal Disorder

http://www.soundclick.com...dID=182431
[Edited 3/5/06 11:03am]

theAudience said:

ya when i saw them, they played the Meltdown Festival in London and DJ Spooky was on the bill. Michael Franti and Sprearhead were the headliners.

I got there late and caught the last half hour of Spearhead. so after the gig, The Arkestra set up out in the lobby and played a wicked set.

theAudience said:

wow. most of them stuck around!

i think the drummer buster williams is missing from that line up and i haven't heard of him passing. i also thought that Danny Thompson had passed too, i see i was wrong. But the deaths of Ra, June and John were huge loses in the Jazz world.

i heard in the early 90's someone put the band up in a mansion. i don't know if they still have that arrangement, but that was way too cool! i'm thinking it was the owner of the Evidence label.