Forums

I seldom know birth dates, but the Sun Ra birthday is interesting. It was in Alabama. It must have been great influences of early jazz that made him become such a great artist, one of my favourites in my early beginnings of loving jazz.  I even might say that I "learned" about traditional jazz thru Sun Ra when they sometimes at the end of a set would play just for fun some late 20´s, 30´s stuff and it really sounded great....., he was an important figure for me, as was Mingus, both having come up in the old jazz tradition and become leading figures to talk jazz beyond the boundaries, exploring new areas. That meant jazz for me in my very beginnings with that music.....

I also think I never heard him, but is it possible that somewhere I read that he was deeply influenced by Thelonious Monk ? That might be great.....

oh, never saw that thread. Well for me it is only the music that counts, so the cover is less important for me. If I have an original LP and it still works and don´t have scratches I try to record them on an USB, or at least I started once, but I don´t have the time to spin stuff that I don´t need to listen to right now. Let´s say I have all the electric Miles double albums they made in the 70´s because I lived then and bought what came out, but if I´m not in the mood for that kind of music right now in the moment, I wouldn´t spin it, as much as I love it in general.  So, if the LP still sounds ok, I spin it, and I don´t think I have bought CDs of the same album, if I already KNOW the music. For me it would be a waist of money and time. I buy CDs if I don´t have the original LP or if they were recorded when the LP era was over.  I know that it´s other way round for other folks, for who the cover art or the different issues of recordings are a kind of hobby in their hobby of listening to music, and that´s mighty fine.  It´s just that music is my passion and I just didn´t find the space for something else.......

Great music indeed. I saw the same group in 1983 in Austria. Electra Musician was Bruce Lundvalls try to record all the artists who where dropped by CBS after Lundvall left the company, It must have been terrible frustrating for men like Woody Shaw and Dexter Gordon to be dropt by a major label and forced to record for a small label and maybe this led to there abuses with harmful stuff in the following years, that´s my opinion.  I saw both Woody and Dexter after the loss of the CBS contract each one on stage and from successful artists on the top of the field they turned to frustrated men, loaded with all kinds of harmful stuff and their was an air of death during their gigs, it was a tragedy back then, as the 80´s went on......

+1 I listened to this throughout my childhood (my mother tap danced and was a huge Astaire fine - it rubbed off...). I purchased it again recently as my copy was so worn out!