Sun Ra: At the Showcase: Live in Chicago 1976-1977 (Jazz Detective)
Purchased at The Attic on Record Store Day
Between LPs, CDs, and a box of tapes I've been meaning to digitally dub for years, I have a lot of Sun Ra recordings. A lot. So many that I don't generally feel compelled to buy everything that comes around every year.
And there seems to be at least one new Sun Ra issue or reissue every Record Store Day. This year it was not only this double LP, but Pink Elephants on Parade, a collection of Arkestra performances of Disney-related songs. I passed on that one, so far.
So why buy this one? Maybe it just caught my fancy when I hit The Attic that day; I didn't know of its release before seeing it on the shelves. I'm always specifically interested in hearing Sun Ra compositions I don't otherwise know. I'm not disinterested in the improvised works, but it's not what captures my attention most. That can be frustrating, as seeing a new title doesn't mean it's going to be a new composition to me.
While Sun Ra's most trailblazing work probably dates to the late 1960s, it's the era of 1971-1976 that really interests me the most. It's the period of Space Is the Place (the feature film), of the Discipline composition series, and Live at Montreux. Seeing as this dates to the tail end of that time, I was a little more interested than usual.
Record one is selections from Nov. 4 and 10, 1977. It makes me wonder what might have been left on the cutting room floor, so to speak. The personnel listing is nineteen players, including the bandleader. Hardly the largest Arkestra to have performed, but still a large group. Seeing as the recordings are culled from shows three months apart, perhaps the lineup was the same each time. That in itself is a Herculean task, getting all the people in the same lineup months apart. But then he did run the ensemble like a religious sect. (Some might say cult, but the results are too positive in my opinion.) Recording quality is hardly studio quality but not bad; don't expect to hear much bass though.
"Synthesis Approach" on side one sounds familiar, it surely most have another title. "'Synthesis Approach', a Sun Ra composition, 'Synthesis Approach'" announces one player.
Side two opens with "Rose Room", a pre-swing number originally from 1917 given Sun Ra's full space swing rendition here. His performances from this time on will be more and more like this, a combination of conducted improvisations, original Sun Ra pieces new and old, and relatively straight-forward swing numbers. Also on side two is "Moonship Journey". I don't think I've heard a live version before, only the studio recording on the great album Cosmos. It's a generally relaxed, sung/chanted piece, given a bluesy reading here. As is through much of the album (and Arkestra performances in general) John Gilmore is prominently featured.
The second LP starts on relatively familiar ground: the shut out "Calling Planet Earth" leading into a brief cluster mass, and a sound-action solo from Mr. Ra. That works itself into one of the signature "The Shadow World", which itself is a springboard for wild improvising. No question about the sound of Marshall Allen turning up here (who turns 100 later this month).
More familiar territory on side four: "Theme of the Stargazers" followed by "Space Is the Place". Of course anything can lead anywhere. More strangely, "Ebah Speaks in Cosmic Tongue" is chanting followed by Ek Tal Ebah (uncredited on the cover) speaking in tongues. Everything ends with another chant I don't think I've heard before, "Greetings From the 21st Century".
How many otherwise unreleased Sun Ra pieces are lurking on people's home tapes? What remains to be discovered?
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