The Sun Ra Discography
Ok, so this Sun Ra obsession is getting out of hand. When I first came across this release I thought why would any one want that. 28 CDs of live recording from a week long residency at The Detroit Jazz Center(he says, repeating the obvious from the picture above).
Twenty eight CDs, the biggest, most expensive and probably the most limited box set I own. I am quite excited to now have this, it even cost me an extra $140 to get it through customs, bugger it.
So is it worth it? The recordings were all taken from the sound board and although they are more than listenable, I would say they are almost slightly inferior to the recordings from the last Sun Ra set I reviewed, but the fidelity is certainly acceptable enough for my usually fussy palette and it is Sun Ra after all, many of whose recording were decidedly Lo-fi.
Looking through the track list of 28 CDs, and there is a vast repertoire of music on offer from several standards, plenty of Ra originals from throughout his career and a bunch of improvised and untitled tracks covering most aspects of Ra's output. Wow!
Can't Rate this yet as still only heard a couple of discs but it sounds pretty good so far and these concerts from this period are a bit easier to absorb with the Jazz standards and other Ra composed tracks of a more melodic bent keeping things less chaotic than the relentless Free improv of some of his early 70's concert recordings. I look forward to becoming more familiar with the overwhelming contents of this mammoth release.
No comments:
Post a Comment