Recent Sun Ra concerts in London have revealed our Celestial Traveller to have time-warped back into the thirties heyday of swing where he has metamorphised bizarrely as a kind of Fletcher Henderson on speed. Gone are the walls of synthesized sound, the atonal free-forms and the dramatic solos that so characterised earlier incarnations of the Arkestra. Now the emphasis is on relaxed, if somewhat ragged, swing charts propelled by Ra’s excellent keyboards in a combination that can best be described as camp.
Nuclear War is a 12″ single aimed at the disco (!) market, a casual stroll by honky piano and steady rhythm capped by some remarkably ham chanting. On the two Saturn LPs, only the two-part Ra To The Rescue is Ra music of old, the remaining tracks alternating between easy r ‘n’ b and lilting swing. The exception is Dancing Shadows, with an abrasive tenor solo from John Gilmore that shows to the full his improvisational and harmonic skills, but elsewhere little is heard of the rest of the Arkestra apart from the rhythm section and one alto solo by Marshall Allen. The chanting remains, but the magical ensemble work has gone.
(Y Records are distributed through IDS, and Recommended Records are at 387 Wandsworth Road, London SW8).
Discography
NUCLEAR WAR
Nuclear War (7.39) – Sometimes I’m Happy (4.25)
Recorded New York, September 1982.
(Y Records, RA1)
RA TO THE RESCUE
Ra To The Rescue Chapter 1; Ra To The Rescue Chapter 2; Fate In Pleasant Mood (17.40) – When Lights Are Dark; They Plan To Leave; Back Alley Blues (16.10)
Recorded Philadelphia, 1983.
(Saturn 9)
DREAMS COME TRUE
Dreams Come True; Back In Your Own Back Yard; Otherness Blue; Pleasant Twilight; Walking On The Moon (17.00) – Just Friends; Under The Spell Of Love; Dancing Shadows (19.33)
Recorded Philadelphia, 1983/4.
(Saturn 11)