{"id":27212,"date":"2025-03-19T06:28:24","date_gmt":"2025-03-19T06:28:24","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.sebpalmer.com\/blog\/?p=27212"},"modified":"2025-03-24T06:34:38","modified_gmt":"2025-03-24T06:34:38","slug":"music-space-is-the-place-sun-ra-1972","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.sebpalmer.com\/blog\/?p=27212","title":{"rendered":"MUSiC: Space Is The Place, Sun Ra, 1972"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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\u2018As all Marines are rifleman, all members of the Arkestra are percussionists.\u2019 (liner notes)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This Sun Ra release, or at least my version, is on the Impulse label, not Ra\u2019s own Saturn imprint. The cover sees Ra resplendent in full Crypto-Egypto regalia.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

What was side one of the vinyl is now simply the epic opening\/title track. \u2018Space Is The Place\u2019 has come to be very much identified with Ra and his Arkestra, as it was also the title of a 1974 film about them and their music.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The piece is structured around various riffs or motifs, some instrumental, some vocal. These elements weave a rug like tapestry on which the Arkestra and Ra ride, magic carpet style. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The track is loooong! At over twenty minutes. Poss\u2019 outstaying it\u2019s welcome? And in the latter stages gets rather stripped down, to relatively minimalist chanting, and Ra going all \u2018lunar\u2019 on his \u2018space (Farfisa) organ\u2019! I can imagine that live it might\u2019ve been more compelling in its wacky intensity. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Side two is made up of four tracks. \u2018Images\u2019 is actually rather lovely. With Ra on acoustic piano, and a fairly \u2018old-fashioned\u2019 or straight ahead jazziness about it. Pat Patrick\u2019s slightly out of tune electric bass helps remind us we\u2019re on Planet Ra. And when the big band horns kick in\u2026<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u2018Discipline\u2019 is, along with \u2018Images\u2019, possibly my favourite on this recording, being one of the mellower and more \u2018accessible\u2019 numbers. The horns and wind arrangement are fascinating. I love how the piccolo-esque high flute parts dovetail into the mid- and lower register reed sounds. And the bass clarinet is fab.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The percussion on \u2018Discipline\u2019 is so very Ra; multi-layered, semi feral, chaotic, and utterly wonderful. He gets his Arkestra to layer cymbal sounds and bubbling percolating hand drums in a unique way. I love it!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u2018Sea of Sounds\u2019 is a mini-free-jazz-epic, and lives up to its title. I\u2019m not a massive fan of free jazz. Esp\u2019 not when it\u2019s manic and atonal, as it is here. I can\u2019t imagine listening to this track often! That said, Ra and co bring a sense of form and purpose to proceedings much free jazz lacks. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u2018Rocket Number Nine\u2019 is kind of nutty. It was released as a 45 rpm single (as was \u2018Discipline\u2019), on Ra\u2019s Saturn label. That tells you all you need to know about Ra, et al. Almost nobody else on this planet<\/em> would think of this manic chant based piece as single material. But that\u2019s the whole point with Ra!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

So, in summary, a mixed and interesting bunch. As usual with Ra, boring it ain\u2019t. There are some great passages, and some terrific sounds. And whilst I\u2019m not equally keen on everything, it all bears Ra\u2019s hallmarks, and is a refreshing dose of pan-galactic Afro-Ameri-Egypto weirdness that is well worth hearing<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As a footnote: the liner notes reproduce segments of Ra\u2019s writings, which are semi-poetic screeds, that I find rather wonderful. I must get hold of his 1972 written anthologies.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

\u2018As all Marines are rifleman, all members of the Arkestra are percussionists.\u2019 (liner notes) This Sun Ra release, or at least my version, is on the Impulse label, not Ra\u2019s own Saturn imprint. The cover sees Ra resplendent in full Crypto-Egypto regalia. What was side one of the vinyl is now simply the epic opening\/title … <\/p>\n

Continue reading “MUSiC: Space Is The Place, Sun Ra, 1972”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_is_tweetstorm":false,"jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","enabled":false}}},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/paGwUa-74U","_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.sebpalmer.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/27212"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.sebpalmer.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.sebpalmer.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.sebpalmer.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.sebpalmer.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=27212"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"http:\/\/www.sebpalmer.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/27212\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":27262,"href":"http:\/\/www.sebpalmer.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/27212\/revisions\/27262"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.sebpalmer.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=27212"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.sebpalmer.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=27212"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.sebpalmer.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=27212"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}