SUN RA — Pictures of Infinity (aka Outer Spaceways Incorporated ) (review)

SUN RA — Pictures of Infinity (aka Outer Spaceways Incorporated ) album cover Album · 1971 · Avant-Garde Jazz Buy this album from MMA partners
4/5 ·
js
“Outer Spaceways Incorporated” (also called "Pictures of Infinity") covers some ground that is probably well known to Sun Ra fans. Its not a bad CD, or even mediocre, but its also not one of his more unique efforts. Recorded in 68 when the Ra band had a steady lineup of some of his best sidemen ever, all of the playing on here is outstanding. Album opener “Somewhere There” starts with an all band free jazz blowout before the percussionists take center stage for a long African flavored section before the horns come blasting in again. The title track follows with a sing-song group chant about space travel and more outside freakouts from the ensemble. “Saturn” is crazy off kilter high speed bop with killer sax solos. All of these songs are great, but they are typical of the sort of material you may have heard on other Sun Ra albums.

The remaining tracks get more into the sort of unique Sun Ra vision that make some his albums stand out from others. “Song of the Sparer” starts off like a ballad with a nice, but slightly off piano intro, but when the horns enter it becomes a painfully slow dirge with thick low chords on the horns and weird lounge figures on the piano, a real Sun Ra masterpiece. “Spontaneous Simplicity” closes out the album with a very pleasant laid back African modal jam and a weird, but pretty, solo from Ra on the very high keys on the piano. Lots of nice flute solos on this one too.

Some CD re-issues will include “Intergalactic Motion”, which is an excellent hard bop arrangement with the same sort of noire riffs favored by Ellington and Mingus. Lots of good horn solos on this one and a great slam bang piano solo from Ra. Overall the sound on this album isn’t too bad, considering it is a Sun Ra joint and was probably recorded under less than ideal conditions on a tight budget, but still most of the solos come through and only the low end is a bit muddy. Sonny’s piano is terribly out of tune, but I get the idea he likes it that way and he uses it to great effect on many of his solos, especially the one on “Spontaneous Simplicity”. This is not the best Sun Ra album out there, and possibly a little generic in places, but still most of his fans will probably want to get this eventually.
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