Sun Ra & His Arkestra - Greatest Hits - Easy Listening for Intergalactic Travel
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Free Music Notes for Greatest Hits - Easy Listening for Intergalactic Travel
Free Music Review: Great introduction to Sun Ra
Hit: 4 Stars
I've heard a few Sun Ra songs from free downloads and You Tube viewings, and the songs and Sun Ra's reputation are intriguing. I figured I dip my toe into the Sun Ra water with the aptly titled "Greatest Hits: Easy Listening for Intergalactic Travel." It takes you from 1956 to 1973, and gives you a sense of which Sun Ra era might be best for you. The early Sun Ra is fairly straight jazz. "Saturn" is a very catchy song, and the only unusual thing about it is the electric bass. Then, you get into the straight jazz with odd chants, like on "Rocket Number Nine". These are charming songs, they seem kitschy like gigantic tail fins on cars. In the mid '60's the music gets stranger still, and as a rule I like the songs less as the CD goes on. However, Sun Ra is experimenting, and if you don't get anything wrong you're not trying anything new. The odd sensibilities of Sun Ra are perhaps best shown by the last song, "The Perfect Man", which was originally a single. It's Sun Ra funk, though the drum beat is unlike anything a Headhunter would think to play. I think most jazz fans would like this CD, dedicated free jazzers would love it - if you don't have any Sun Ra CD's this is a good place to start.
Free Music Review: Don't Leave Earth Without It
Hit: 5 Stars
Philadelphia is a city of neighborhoods; Germantown is one of the more celebrated ones. Known for its cobblestone streets and historic buildings, Germantown has grown tough and dangerous over time. Our Bicentennial year found me driving a cab there twelve hours a day, six days a week, a rugged job with few perks. One of the best was the opportunity to catch a glimpse of Sun Ra and members of his Arkestra having a bite to eat at the local McDonald's. If this idea is not improbable enough, bear in mind that he was invariably dressed in full Saturnalian regalia.
Sun Ra looked then, as he always did, like a visitor from outer space, quite happily out of context, oblivious to acceptance or the lack of it. This, I think, is ultimately the force of Sun Ra. However much critics desire to dismiss him as a quack, charlatan, or vaudevillian, he himself was utterly sincere. When you buy CDs by almost all musicians, you buy entertainment - predictable entertainment. When you buy a Sun Ra CD, you are purchasing a key to an alternate dimension.
While Sun Ra recorded almost obsessively, he certainly didn't have "hits," unless there's a radio station on Saturn, in which case everything he did is a hit. Most of his records were self-produced and it's a minor miracle that we have them at all. I prefer the subtitle of this CD, Easy Listening For Intergalactic Travel. For novices and devotees alike, this CD offers a very agreeable trip into the world of Sun Ra, from swing and bop into the celebrated interstellar travelogue material for which Sun Ra is best known. It is a particularly good CD for neophytes, because it won't scare them away. There is enough that is familiar to help listeners understand that Sun Ra knew his musical roots cold, and that every note he played, however unexpected, he played on purpose. By the time you hit The Order Of The Pharaonic Jesters you are deep in Sun Ra country, reclining in Rocket Number Nine, libation of choice in your hand, gazing at Jupiter through the portal. Highly recommended.
Free Music Review: For Sun Ra's genius, start with other CDs instead
Hit: 3 Stars
First off, i must state that I LOVE Sun Ra, and own 25 or more of his reissued CDs. (I named my cat after him, too.)
Second, I *applaud* Evidence records for all their many great reissues of Sun Ra, and for even attempting to do a "Greatest Hits" CD retrospective. In some ways they succeed: they've compiled in one CD one track from almost each full length CD they've reissued. And you really can hear a WIDE variety of the many sounds & styles by Sun Ra & his Arkestra.
However, eh. The success of pulling a track from so many styles and eras ends up sounding too disjointed (if that is possible for Sun Ra). Evidence does a fine job reissuing often two original Saturn recordings on one CD, and they pay attention to the moods of each album and always pair them with like moods. I don't want to discourage anyone from buying this if it is the only way they'll discover Sun Ra. I guess i just want to say that a better way to discover his music would be to listen to several albums in their entirity (go to the library and check them out for free if you don't want to invest $ yet.) Best ones to try first :
"Angels & Demons At Play/Nubians of Plutonia" - A good beginner's CD. more straightforward but not straight. For those who either love jazz already or are indie pop/post-rock fans wanting to dip into Sun Ra.
"Super-Sonic Jazz" - also a great beginner's CD, (not too wildly chaotic but early in Ra's career. Still contains brilliant pieces which aren't 'straight.'
"Sun Ra Visits Planet Earth / Interstellar Low Ways" - another good start, but if you have and enjoy the above, why not try something a bit more out there, like the following...
"Cosmic Tones for Mental Therapy/Art Forms for Dimensions Tomorrow" - WONDERFUL abstract work, each piece has its own feel and mood. My first and favorite Ra.
"Heliocentric Worlds v1" - another masterpiece, more percussion oriented.
"The Magic City" - the song 'the magic city' is a 27min masterpiece. part of me wants to mention Miles Davis 'bitches brew', but i know Ra fans would give me hell for that so i suppose i won't.
"The Singles" (2CD) - many excellent moments. This is the CD (2CD) for those who must have a retrospective spanning his entire career.
"Soundtrack to Space is the Place" - lots of fun vocal songs here. 70's and proud. the film is a blaxploitation classic!
I bought this "Greatest Hits" to give to my father for a first go at Sun Ra, but ended up deciding to give him "Angel/Nubians" instead, which he ended up prefering. If you really want to start with a retrospective and hear samples of all eras of Sun Ra, try the 2CD "Singles" instead.
Free Music Review: A superb introduction to Sun Ra's work
Hit: 5 Stars
This is as good an introduction to Sun Ra's music as one could possibly wish for. The collection has many things going for it: a very generous selection (18 tracks, 78 minutes - it justifies the disc's steep price) organized chronologically, which amply showcases the evolution of the Arkestra's work; Evidence has culled the 18 tracks from 18 of their Sun Ra reissues, so if the listener has some favorites (s)he can then easily find the album they originated from. Among the highlights, I'd personally mention the jaunty 'Kingdom of Not', perhaps the collection's most accessible instrumental piece; the strange, fascinating and unique 'Rocket #9', whose successive episodes both contrast and complement each other; the moving piano solo 'The Alter Destiny', full of delicate melodic touches by Sun Ra; the spare and percussive 'Yucatan'. The Arkestra's listeners will not merely hear a band play music, but literally live it; music here becomes a ladder towards the transcendent.Free Music Review: A great introduction for the beginner to Ra's music
Hit: 4 Stars
I bought this CD after watching several videos of Sun Ra that were made later in his career, including Space is the Place, an appearance on Night Music the TV show, and a docementary. I saw him live once at a festival and was charmed and intrigued, I like his nature-humanity-alter destiny message, and the music I enjoy a lot, too. I like the chants, the standard jazz, not so much the squeaking, but it grows on you. The biography book Space is the Pace is also very interesting. The music on this CD is varied, charming, listenable. I hope to get some more of his CDs. This is somewhat earlier in his career, I think, but it has been a good introduction, it has a lot of levels that reveal themselves with more listening. I recommend it.
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