The Sun Ra Discography.
The latest addition to my Sun Ra Collection has arrived this week. This album is another of my very first introductions to Sun Ra. I had borrowed a copy of this from our public library and I remember enjoying it quite a lot at the time. It was recorded somewhere around the end of 1960 or very early 61' and it is a real contrast to some of the other recording I have been listening to previously in the Ra discography. It is a bit of a step back for the Arkestra as we have a selection of jazz standards here with no original material by Sun Ra himself, played pretty straight up, this set shows that the Arkestra can play sounding tight and melodic, so unlike the shambolic sounding material they usually play of Sun Ra compositions. I think this album is a bit of a revelation, because it shows me the Arkestra can play well and sound like a normal Jazz Band, whereas Most of the time, on the surface Sun Ra and his Arkestra sound very loose and chaotic sounding on the surface, sometimes almost out of tune sounding. I think now that this was deliberate from Sun Ra in the way he composed his music and conducted his bands. His Music requires dedicated attention to find the hidden rewards.
This album is not like that, it is much easier on the ears. As I said, played straight, an enjoyable set, although not as good as I remembered but a quality album all the same. Rating 3.5/5.
No comments:
Post a Comment