I had to check the date online because I was lucky enough to see Sun Ra and the Arkestra in person, at the Brecon Jazz Festival, in 1990, three years before the leader’s death. It was great too, and every bit as strange and beguiling as you might expect, the helmeted and bacofoil vest clad leader sitting magisterially behind his keyboards and observing his band’s performance unwind with a deadpan expression of complete inscrutability.

The music’s mix of Fletcher Henderson-style big band swing (Ra – Herman Blount as was – had played in the Henderson band and a composition by Fletcher’s brother Horace appears on this brand new studio recording) with Les Baxter era exotica, Disneyfied vocal anthems and free jazz influenced blowing from a powerful horn section, made quite an impression, as you would imagine.

The new double album, recorded at New York’s Power Station in June this year with the 24-piece Arkestra “under the direction of Marshall Allen“, reprises a number of classic Ra compositions, together with a small number of tunes associated with the band, like the aforementioned Henderson.

Allen – who turned 100 years old last May – was in that band at Brecon, as was the great tenor saxophonist John Gilmore. Allen’s propulsive alto-sax technique, where he seemed to be strumming the keys like a harp to produce perfectly formed high register squeaks and squeals, was an absolute highlight.

You can hear what remains of that unusual technique here when Allen plays a solo as part of the first LP’s opening number, the titular Lights On A Satellite. It’s an extraordinary rendition of a canonical Arkestra tune, and it gets the album off to a flying start. Against a hypnotic chant-like dirge from the band, first Allen and then two tenor saxophonists, Nasir Dickerson and James Stewart, wail their gospel souls out on long arabesque lines that eventually increase in both speed and intensity until they retreat and resolve into the canon-like backing. Nine minutes long, it’s quite a performance by any criteria and the best track on the album.

As far as the rest goes, it’s well up to the Ra’s own standards although I was less captivated by the novelty vocal numbers, which include new lyrics to ‘Holiday For Strings’ (written by David Rose, and the signature tune to a popular radio show), and the rather tired-sounding ‘Way Down Yonder in New Orleans’, sung by the band’s guitarist, Carl LeBlanc.

Elsewhere, Horace Henderson ‘Big John’s Special’ is a real hoot, and in the central Ra role pianist Farid Barron sounds in top form throughout, excelling on solos in ‘Images’ and the far out and spacey ‘Friendly Galaxy’ – another standout track – where he also plays theremin. Drummer George Gray and percussionists Elson Nascimento and Jose Jorge Da Silva add the necessary weight and welly to the overall ensemble sound.

There are informative sleeve notes by author Sibylle Zerr and the orange vinyl of the two LPs looks good and sounds superb. Produced by Frank Kleinschmidt, who has had a forty year relationship with the Arkestra, this is clearly a labour of love.

from https://ukjazznews.com