By no means is this one of the best Sun Ra offering; but it happens to be a pretty fine set from the cosmic leader and his Arkestra. This particular album gets a little overlooked and possibly unfairly criticized due to the fact that Ra was digging back to his roots in older sounding "straight jazz" on these recordings rather than his more free and wild leanings. I must admit, "Reflections In Blue" can be a little too squeaky clean for me at times; but it is RA and it's worth hearing for the strangely heartbreaking "I Dream Too Much" which features on of the very few times that SUN RA handles vocal duties on a song.
Dream on
5 comments:
Thanks for the post. If you re-up the download link, I might be more inclined to respect (or at least rethink) your opinion. Your "favorite" SUN RA album I presume takes into account that you are familiar with his variegated career and repertoire, and have a comprehensive collection, not missing a beat...no holes, no omissions. His work is flawless, withstanding cackling naysayers, copycats, and ridicules of his mantra. They seem to know his story better than he does, as in other areas of life, rife with pin-headed detractors with no REAL clues. This album marks his TACIT departure from planet Earth, and culminates in his acknowledgment of such. His health beginning to fail, and planet-weary (probably), he stipulates his triumphs, and is yet indestructibly happy and celebratory. He faded with the UTMOST dignity. Your concurrence with the "heartbreaking" 'I Dream Too Much' gets you of the hook here with me for the moment, if not completely. I really think you "get the picture". Don't mess with my RA! Case in point: the opening tune 'State Street Chicago' comes across like a contemporaneous New Orleans Funeral March Circus dirge in a customized midway... a hat's off goodbye/signing off theme, bowing out after an extended stay Star Date here below. It is done in the most basic, yet refined, 'stately' (pun again intended) classy way that you could've played this and other offerings here for the Queen Mum's funeral. This thematically consistent thread runs throughout. Soul Note's engineering is fantastic! (as it is for all their offerings from the 80's period, also on Black Saint...) Even his appearance on 'Night Music' with David Sanborn on NBC-TV in 1990 proves this. My retort could go on forever, as I am a stalwart Ra Cadet, and Soulmate/Spacemate collector understudy. With all due respect (to you) I hope YOU didn't fuck YOU (PUN again INTENDED) with your casual dismissal of a masterpiece that could only be borne in the face of death, AND after a long STELLAR career. How many people get THAT chance: self-composed vespers/biograph on the way out??? This album is a characteristic, customary RA musical masterpiece too. Just listen. It is DISTILLED 180 proof RA and band. They popped the cork on the champagne on his departure drawing nigh, as poignant a time as it was for them, and those who knew and know...RA. This is a trip we must ALL take OR make. Where we go is certainly debatable. If you, et al, are anywhere in the same Universe of Consciousness with this cat, you "just know" as Miles once said. It can't be taught, or earned or given or stolen. You either have it or you don't. A VERY happy bio-elegy characterizes this album, and the other one on Soul Note from this "end" period that I consider its companion 'Blue Delight'. No harm intended (with the expletive "fuck" rendered benign by your established context in the title of your blog) just viable discourse. I take it we're both adults here. THANKS!
The above is the most self-righteous comment I've read in my life. There is no right and wrong in people's perception and appreciation of music. Sun Ra is not the army with a rulebook. Time to start your "understudy" work all over again.
.. and for others, here's the link from the re-up in a different post here :
http://www.megaupload.com/?d=YJNDGME4
Thanks!
Great perception and writing, Dolphydays. Sometimes I still cannot figure out that Sun Ra has gone back to space and I don't like the feeling that he's not around. Personally I think the sextet at the Village Vanguard was his most intense farewell, but yes, also these two are the door for his last period. John Zwed biography of Sun Ra, so full of details in the first part, is lacking something in the last years. This music, anyway, tells us a lot of things...
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