Sun Ra : Mr Mystery

SUN RA : MR MYSTERY : TREASURES FROM THE FILES OF SATURN

AN Overview By Michael F. Hopkins (1992), PHOTOGRAPHY Bill SMITH

JAZZMASTER INCARNATE, THEATRICAL PRESENCE EXTRAORDINAIRE,

Sun Ra has enriched and enlivened the creative scene throughout the world for more than forty years. The most innovative Jazz orchestrator since Duke Ellington and Big Band Father Fletcher Henderson, Ra’s pioneering ways have helped pave the way for a wealth of breakthroughs. From the emancipating modalities of Miles Davis and John Coltrane, to the chromatic challenges posed by pianist Andrew Hill, and the panidiomatic dramatics employed by the Art Ensemble Of Chicago, Sun Ra’s influence is everywhere.

Few know, for instance, that Ra helped establish the concept of the artist owned company with his Saturn Record label, decades before the idea came into vogue. His use of stage costumery and otherworldly scenario, dismissed for years, is but intensified African American minstrelry: a traditional expression which the Myth Realist and his Arkestra has freed from cork-toned degradation. Stripped of the pre-Rap mammyface imposed by Al Jolson and others, what’s left is a master storyteller’s song and dance, a wondrous show. Rich in its ties to the Jazz film shorts which pioneered the first half of this century, Ra’s thespian musicality continuously sets precedents which the likes of MTV have both misappropriated and ignored.

Yet, if Sun Ra has been accepted, it has been only on the most grudging terms. Like Lena Horne and Eubie Blake, Ra became another African American elder whose career seems to have been applauded chiefly for surviving youth, and enduring critical apathy. The point of exactly what has prevailed, has been obscured by the media and industry alike. Time and again, each has distorted Ra’s showman-ship into the hokum-ridden image of flim-flamming lunacy. The same industry which currently promotes wholesale plagiarism in the name of ethnic pride, and genocidal buffoonery in the name of cultural genius, has always shown its readiness to uplift nonsense to the grace of Imperial new clothes, while denouncing the efforts of authentic Music scientists (especially those rooted in Jazz) as charlatanism.

The fact that even the tersest of Ra’s efforts will reveal a deep mastery of a Music (a grip that one must have to be effectively avant garde) has gone largely unrecognized by the public-at-large. A 1970s reissuing of vintage Saturn recordings by ABC-Impulse went ill-promoted, and poorly distributed. Recent CDs on A&M and Black Saint are erroneously surmised to be his “traditional Jazz reformation” from his “out past”. With the exception of the two albums from the Delmark label (one of which, Ra’s very first, is now on CD), there exists no well-marked documentation of Ra’s early years, and no verification of what only the most longtime concertgoers have always known.

Until now. From the efforts of a newfound label, Evidence Music, come five Saturn recordings released for the first time on compact disc. The remastering is superb, and the CD booklets contain each album’s original cover art, along with astute annotations from some of the foremost jazz critics around. With solid distribution, and a fidelity which far surpasses their original releases on LP, the music of Sun Ra and His Arkestra can be enjoyed as most have never enjoyed it before; deep from the pocket, straight on out. Ranging from his very first recordings taped at home in the early 1950s, to the mysteries of solo piano in the late 1960s, this series showcases a mastery of Jazz, its bold history, and dutiful transitions which is unlike anything anyone has done before. Or since.

Start with 1956's Supersonic Jazz (ECD 22015), recorded not long after the inaugural Jazz By Sun Ra (now the Delmark CD Sun Song). There, you hear the twilight-sculpted use of early electric piano on modal precursors like the entrancing India (Ra’s Third World prance, not the Coltrane classic from 1961), or the stunning solo performance of Advice To Medics. That this is a Big Band that can take even the Bop runs of Gillespie and Tadd Dameron elsewhere is evident upon hearing the surging Super Blonde, or Soft Talk by trombonist Julian Priester (one of many jazz notables started on their way by the jocular Mr. Mystery).

The gospel-based EI Is A Sound Of Joy was first recorded here, and we see that the Ra use of a tonal colour is already well in place. Fresh from time with Earl ‘Fatha’ Hines and Sonny Stitt, tenor giant John Gilmore shows the classic tonality and daring balladry that marks his work with Ra throughout this series, and throughout the decades. Here, one can enjoy other longtime Arkestra perennials like baritonist Pat Patrick, forgotten Raophiles like trumpeter Art Hoyle, and more familiar players like Priester and baritonist Charles Davis.

1958's Jazz In Silhouette (ECD 22012) is a hallmark of tasty swing, regality, and depth, ranking alongside the 1940-41 Ellington as some of the most essential Music ever recorded. Try the magical summons of Enlightenment, or the spell and chant of Ancient Aiethopia, and feel the musical bond between continents spoken of frequently by South African born master Abdullah Ibrahim. Ra standards like the fast-galloping Saturn, and the finger popping cool of Images, make classic appearances here. A particular treat is Blues At Midnight, a streamlined blowing session which includes the enigmatic maestro on piano and celeste. The selection is presented in its entirety on the CD, and will please those only familiar with the truncated version on this album's Impulse release. Among those invaluable to the timeless quality of Jazz In Silhouette, one must note the haunting trumpet of Hobart Dotson, the sturdy, supple wizardry of bassist Ronnie Boykins, and the alto saxophonics and flutistry of the renowned James Spaulding and Arkestra shootist Marshall Allen. An epic.

Between 1958 and 1960 marks the period for the original recordings that bore the title for the CD Sound Sun Pleasure (ECD 22014); the standout of which is a bewitchingly beautiful rendition of Monk's ‘Round Midnight that will bring tears to many an eye. A sumptuous orchestral reading of the epic ballad, it features the beguiling voice of singer Hatty Randolf. The Chicago-based chanteuse renders ‘Round Midnight in a plaintively vibrant manner akin to the vocality of Ellington great Ivie Anderson, or Ra’s own sorceress, June Tyson. Randolf also shimmers on Back In Your Own Backyard, with Ra’s celeste sprinkled in for good measure. The rest of the session features the soft melancholy some find in the Hour Of Parting, and a comely reprisal of Enlightenment. You Never Told Me That You Care plays a wistful smile upon the lips, and J Could Have Danced All Night bids you to do just that, gladly.

The rest of the CD, however, is of special interest for a different reason. Consisting of music taped mostly at home between 1953 and 1955, they represent Sun Ra’s earliest recorded efforts. While the sound quality here is not the equal of the rest of the CD (or the rest of the series), the sound is a vast improvement over the Saturn LP release in 1973, and the music is vital. Of special historic note is Deep Purple, which finds Ra softly note-spinning on an organ-like keyboard alongside the legendary violinist Stuff Smith. Note, too, singer Clyde Williams amiably delivering some of Ra’s most cheerful lyrics on Dreams Come True. The CD ends with singer Randolf belting out a lively version of Lover Come Back To Me. A true touch of joy.

By 1966, Ra’s abilities as an exploratory leader would be showcased on a trio of classic avant garde LPs released on the ESP label (now available on imported CD through Magic Music). In the midst of these creative tempests, the Myth Realist found the time to record Monorails AndFueled by the reactionary nature of this adulation, the media (and many older Jazz artists) made sure that the likes of Cecil Taylor, Gunter Hampel, Walt Dickerson, and Jeanne Lee paid the price. To this day, the term “avant garde Jazz” is mistakenly thought to mean “anti-white”, “anti-Swing”, and “anti-Jazz” because of media irresponsibility, and the community's own failure to take care of business.

Easily the most visible of the New Wave in Jazz, Sun Ra was one of the precious few from within the aesthetic (along with the likes of Omni-Americans author Albert Murray) to denounce the pseudo-nationalism of the late 1960s as a betrayal of not only these judicious musical uprisings,but the very principals of Black Aware-ness that it supposedly upheld. Liner notes for albums like Black Lion’s Pictures Of Infinity feature Ra's scathing pronouncements on the hypocrisy found amongst Blacks by this time; many of whom, he felt, were dangerously close-minded to anything but what was deemed “Black enuf”. Here, the science fiction showmanship takes on its most speculative ingenuity, as Ra’s calibre of Blackness assumes the quality of the proverbial stranger in a strange land, incisively noting what we precariously take for granted.

It is this precious gift of insight which empowers the series’ fifth CD, Holiday For Soul Dance (ECD 22011). While the late 1960s and early 1970s feature some of Ra’s most creative abstractions (like the freewheeling tango of the anthem Space Is The Place, this late-1960s CD features Ra and Arkestra at their most expressively gentle. A collection of finely-rendered ballads and standards, Holiday For Soul Dance stands as a testament to how tradition may be both upheld and furthered. More Arkestra perennials (like log drummer James Jackson and reedsman Danny Thompson) enter the picture here, while singer Ricky Murray delivers pining reflections of lonely need on Early Autumn, Gilmore and Ra serve up the Jazz artist’s challenge, Body And Soul, with unforgettable elegance. From loveable themes like Holiday For Strings to the upbeat tip pumping Keep Your Sunny Side Up, Ra and the Arkestra lights a candle in the window of the ages, filling our eyes with the eternal workings of stardust.

With five more Saturn releases set for this fall, and more in the works, one can hope for the eventual CD release of the late-1970s/eartly 1980s masterworks like the two-fisted Live At Montreux (featuring a hardjamming version of Take The A Train, the ethereally-swinging Omniverse, and the breathtakingly tender Interstellarism. The last, a 1980 LP, features June Tyson singing a jaunty Sometimes I'm Happy, and the sweetest, most acutely dramatic version of Charles Chaplin's Smile since the classic Nat King Cole rendition. Yes, there is much in the offering, waiting to be heard.

Allin all, this is a historic series which holds essential listening for any serious jazz connoisseur. From Blues-shouting stomp to hymnlike refrain, the Evidence collection shows definitive, irrevocable proof of the Myth Realist’s awesome credentials as a Jazz master. Even if you're not a Sun Ra fan, you owe it to yourself to give these recordings a chance. Simply put, they happen to be some of the sweetest sounds this side of Saturn.

Write Evidence Music, 1100 East Hector Street, Suite 392, Conshohocken, PA 19428, U.S.A. for further information on these, and future releases from El Saturn, Theresa Records, and more. Special thanks to Jery Gordon ard Howard Rosen for their help in the preparation of this feature.

Author of the independent column Bloods Edge, Michael F. Hopkins teaches Perspectives In Jazz for the Dept. Of African American Studies at the State University of N.Y. at Buffalo . A Ph.D. candidate for UB's Department of American Studies, he also teaches Topics In Art And Culture for that department. Artist-

In-Residence for the N.Y. State Alternative Literary Programs In the Schools since 1980, and the author of A Kind Of Twilight, a collection of poem and essay: {2}

Ref : Coda Magazine Sep/Oct 1992