feature photo: Tom Copi
Zev Feldman set his mind on honoring the legacy of yet another jazz giant by finding previously unavailable recordings of that artist and preparing them into a significant new entry in that jazz giant’s catalog. And again, he succeeded.
The jazz archive recordings impresario has recently released to the public a two-disc set of club recordings from one of the true iconic outliers of jazz, Sun Ra and his Arkestra. At The Showcase, Live In Chicago 1976-1977 (Jazz Detective) captures Sun Ra and his ragtag big band of jazz contrarians performing at the fabled jazz club for a couple of dates in November, 1977 and another one from February, 1976.
As with every one of Zev Feldman’s archival projects, At The Showcase is the product of close cooperation with the estate of the deceased artist and key surviving figures associated with the artist and recordings, meeting the exacting standards of all parties.
Whenever Sun Ra and his Arkestra played in Chicago at this time, it was a homecoming of sorts. The genesis and initial development of Sun Ra & Arkestra all happened in the Windy City in the 50s, prior to their 1961 move to New York. This is where Herman Poole Blount of Birmingham, Alabama became Sun Ra from a distant planet, collecting an impressive collection of musicians; some such as woodwind aces John Gilmore and Marshall Allen stuck with the Arkestra past Sun Ra’s 1993 death.
The Arkestra that returned to its old stomping grounds in 1976-77 was far more experimental than the one that was cutting its teeth when they lived there. But so was Chicago itself: the AACM movement had taken root and flourished over the decade that led up to these Showcase dates, and so the local audience was primed to embrace the prodigal son (Sun?) who moved away not only physically by artistically.
In the mid-70s, the Arkestra was stacked. Gilmore and Allen were still stars in the band but there were two other sax players, three trumpet players, a guitarist, bassist, drummer, three percussionists and three vocalists. Sun Ra himself had for years moved beyond just piano and played organ, synthesizer and other electronic keyboards. All of these musicians were plenty capable; Marshall still is.
“New Beginning” launches the November 1977 dates gently, a free flowing piece peacefully led by a trio of flutes and a kora. “View From Another Dimension” melds traditional African percussion and otherworldly synthesizer adventures improvisations initially performed solo, with a barrage of horns eventually joining in. This clash of old and new never seemed like a mismatch to Sun Ra and his crew; that artificial barrier is easily broken down by the unified attitude everyone brings to the music.
Sun Ra’s funky organ leads “Synthesis Approach,” an R&B-inflected swinging stomper keyed by the rip-snorting tenor sax of Gilmore. “Ankhnaton” is just slightly less intense but the full array of horns are brought to bear, an orchestra that looks back to Fletcher Henderson (Sun Ra’s old boss) and forward into a future jazz still being played out today.
“Rose Room” (stream above), the Hickman-Williams tune made into a jazz standard by Duke Ellington, has maybe less grace but more spunk in Sun Ra’s hands. Sun Ra was one of the few original avant-garde giants to make his music fun, as exemplified by the singalong jaunt “Moonship Journey,” which also left room for some fierce sax and trumpet solos. Finally, the bop burner “Velvet” is a tune — as is “Ankhnaton” — that looks back but in a nostalgic way, as it was part of the band’s repertoire when Chicago was their home some twenty years earlier.
The second disc goes back to February of 1976 at the same venue, the Arkestra kicking off the gig with a nearly eighteen minute of a wild and wooly travel through jazz space called “Calling Planet Earth & The Shadow World.” Here encapsulates much of what has made the Arkestra stand alone, where thrown in its atonal futuristic sounds and urgent, free jazz cries from a succession of horns (Marshall, Eloe Omoe on bass clarinet and Ahmed Abdullah on trumpet) is a rapid 40s big band styled horn arrangement. Maybe others had already done one or the other; only Sun Ra dared to toss all this together.
And none of others would chant cosmic phrases in the middle of crazy electric keyboard and a rock guitar riffing as was done on “Theme Of The Stargazers.” That leads right into one of their big crowd pleasers, “Space Is The Place” where shouting the title competes with all the horns in a song that’s spiritually a lot closer to New Orleans than Saturn.
The encore two-fer first features trumpeter Akh Tal Ebah’s speaking in tongues (“Ebah Speaks In Cosmic Tongue”) and bridging the gap between gospel and freestyle rap followed by the millennium countdown “Greetings From The 21st Century.”
The Showcase recordings didn’t present the audio challenges of some of Feldman’s prior projects as these are quality remasterings, though the 1977 dates get the nod as the better of the two discs. As always, the printed material is first class, full of previously unpublished photos of these performances at the Showcase by Hal Rammel, liner notes from Chicago writer/musician/producer/radio host/teacher/gallery owner and free jazz champion John Corbett and essays from notables like Marshall, Rammel, David Murray, Matthew Shipp, Thurston Moore (Sun Ra opened for Sonic Youth in his final years) and Reggie Workman.
On the last song played, the Arkestra chants “there’s only twenty-four years from the century of 21,” but here we are well into that century and Sun Ra’s music from these performances is in some ways, still ahead of the present time. At The Showcase, Live In Chicago 1976-1977 is a homecoming more than worthy of release.
Grab your copy of Sun Ra’s At The Showcase, Live In Chicago 1976-1977 from Amazon.
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