Sun Ra SUNRISE IN DIFFERENT DIMENSIONS

[ghost of miles]

Just a heads-up:

Sun Ra SUNRISE IN DIFFERENT DIMENSIONS

...one I've long wanted to hear.

Also of interest:

Art Ensemble of Chicago, Salutes the Chicago Blues Tradition

Edited July 5, 2010 by ghost of miles

[paul secor]

Just a heads-up:

Sun Ra SUNRISE IN DIFFERENT DIMENSIONS

...one I've long wanted to hear.

Also of interest:

Art Ensemble of Chicago, Salutes the Chicago Blues Tradition

AEC Salutes the blues Tradition was initially issued as a CDR. Has it been reissued as a CD?

[jazzbo]

I'm skipping this Sun Ra. This is a side of Ra's work (the re-imagining of swing era charts) I don't listen to.

[Hoppy T. Frog]

Just a heads-up:

Sun Ra SUNRISE IN DIFFERENT DIMENSIONS

...one I've long wanted to hear.

Also of interest:

Art Ensemble of Chicago, Salutes the Chicago Blues Tradition

AEC Salutes the blues Tradition was initially issued as a CDR. Has it been reissued as a CD?

All I know is, it's not very good.

[JSngry]

I'm skipping this Sun Ra. This is a side of Ra's work (the re-imagining of swing era charts) I don't listen to.

Not any real re-imagining going on here on this one. Those charts are pretty much played straight-up/ahead/etc. No bassist is a "slant", I suppose, but the arrangements of the Henderson tunes themselves...pretty much verbatim, really.

Not really sure where the idea that this album is a "Henderson tribute" comes in anyway...here's the tracklist:

1. Light From A Hidden Sun
2. Pin-Points of Spiral Prisms
3. Silhouettes Of The Shadow World
4. Cocktails For Two
5. 'Round Midnight
6. Lady Bird / Half Nelson
7. Big John's Special
8. Yeah Man!
9. Disguised Gods in Skullduggery Rendez-Vous
10. Queer Notions
11. Limehouse Blues
12. King Porter Stomp
13. Take The A Train
14. Lightnin'
15. A Helio-Hello! And Goodbye Too!

It's either later-mid Ra or early-late Ra, depending on how you look at it. Plenty "better" had preceded it, Some "worse" would follow. But it was, then, the first-released on-record documentation of Ra's recent "retro" additions to the repertoire & as a such made a bit of a "critical stir" at the time. Today, several years and multitudinous recordings late5r, one might well wonder waht the fuss was about, but hey, c'est la vie.

[kh1958]

I'm skipping this Sun Ra. This is a side of Ra's work (the re-imagining of swing era charts) I don't listen to.

It was great fun to hear them play Hotter Than Hell or Big John's Special live, but of course the originals were better.

Actually, it sounded like Ra had kept the original arrangements at the bottom of his suitcase since he played with Fletcher Henderson, and the dusty arrangements had been pulled out for the Arkestra, which didn't quite have the classic big band discipline to make them sound smooth as opposed to a bit ragged.

Edited July 6, 2010 by kh1958

[Hot Ptah]

Sun Ra's renditions of the swing era songs on "Unity" (Horo) are much better than the versions on "Sunrise in Different Dimensions." The versions on "Unity" are more cohesive, together, swing more, and feature focused soloing. I find the "Sunrise in Different Dimensions" versions disappointing by comparison.

I heard some very exciting live versions of the swing era material by Sun Ra and Arkestra in the 1978--82 period. I recall a bouncy, swinging, tight version of "Satin Doll" at the Detroit art museum close to Halloween, 1980.

[ghost of miles]

Hot Ptah, thanks for the rec--I might check that one out first before SUNRISE, as I'm interested in the Arkestra's recordings of swing standards. (And I'll keep an ear & eye out for those live late 70s/early 80s dates as well.) Jsngry, maybe not a full-blown "tribute," but "Yeah Man," "Queer Notions," "King Porter Stomp," and "Limehouse Blues" were all part of the Henderson book.

Edited July 6, 2010 by ghost of miles

[jazzbo]

Okay, so "re-imagined" wasn't the right word. But they are filtered through the active imaginations of this band, and they aren't really an attempt (in my opinion) to get the original sound and feel.

Either way, they don't work for me, I skip them on anything I have, and I don't really collect Ra after the mid-seventies in general, for a number of reasons. Love the work previous to that though, can hardly get enough.

[JohnS]

A couple of fun tracks. I used to have the double vinyl but it didn't stand the test of time.

[Hot Ptah]

Okay, so "re-imagined" wasn't the right word. But they are filtered through the active imaginations of this band, and they aren't really an attempt (in my opinion) to get the original sound and feel.

Either way, they don't work for me, I skip them on anything I have, and I don't really collect Ra after the mid-seventies in general, for a number of reasons. Love the work previous to that though, can hardly get enough.

"Yeah Man" and "King Porter Stomp" on the "Unity" album (Horo)get the original sound and feel, and work really well. Until one has heard "Unity", one has not heard Sun Ra at his best with this type of material. Of my hundreds of Sun Ra albums, the swing music on "Unity" is among my very favorite Ra.

From hearing many versions of this material by Sun Ra both live at the time, and on different recordings, I think that the problem was that the band members did not always play all the parts cleanly, or the recording balance was off, or both.

On some of the recordings of this swing band material by Sun Ra, sometimes a large horn section sounds unsteady, and then a trumpet player will come blazing across the sky playing a frantic note for note recreation of the original trumpet parts and solo, but it does not always hang together perfectly. Also, sometimes part of the band will be frustratingly way, way back in the mix, so that you strain to make out their parts, while other parts will boom out at you.

It happened other times besides "Unity." I have a tape recorded from the radio, of Sun Ra at the Ann Arbor Jazz Festival 1978, in which the swing era music was performed and recorded cleanly, with cohesion, precision and excitement. At Merlin's in Madison, Wisconsin in December, 1980, during the second set, the Arkestra played a series of swing era standards, with buoyant swing feeling, precision and great excitement. A member of our group at that concert liked only swing music generally, and this set was totally satisfying to her. I remember "Deep Purple" as a particular highlight of that set.

One interesting thing, to me, about "Sunrise in Different Dimensions." It contains a recording of something John Gilmore used to often do live at that time, take a solo into very high pitches with great intensity, going steadily upward until I always imagined that dogs were hearing more of his playing than we were. It always brought the house down. That is on "Sunrise in Different Dimensions".

[jazzbo]

I've heard Unity. This stuff just isn't what I want to hear of all the many different Ra recordings I have. Glad others dig it!

[ghost of miles]

Much appreciation for all of the input, both pro and con, on the post-1978 Sun Ra reinterpretations of standards. Looking forward to hearing some of them soon.

[JSngry]

Maybe to place Ra's introduction of older big band pieces into his repertoire into a broader context, along this same time he started getting pretty vocal about what he saw as the "breakdown" of African-American culture due to to a lack of personal discipline. He saw an explicit link between the discipline and subjugation of self needed to successfully play in a section & that needed to be a productive member of society. To him, like so many others, freedom was a reward of sustained discipline, not something to seek in place of it.

[Hot Ptah]

I've heard Unity. This stuff just isn't what I want to hear of all the many different Ra recordings I have. Glad others dig it!

It just goes to show that different listeners respond quite differently. That album has always blown me away. Our differences make it interesting, in my opinion.