Uncharted Passages by Sun Ra (solo piano)

Sun Ra was a master of misdirection. Tape boxes wrongly labeled—whether by accident or design—are legendary among Ra archivists. One can speculate about the artist's intent or carelessness, but source misinformation abounds on Ra tape cases, album jackets, cassettes, ephemera—as well as in interviews. It's as if Ra, in furtherance of his own mythmaking, wanted to keep historians guessing.

This project began as a misidentified tape discovered by Michael D. Anderson of the Sun Ra Music Archive. The 7-inch reel, which contained a live Ra solo piano performance of 11 works—some recognizable, others not—was of stellar quality, and was marked as a 1979 Carnegie Hall date. But the program on the tape did not align with known facts (e.g., titles played, concert duration) which were chronicled in a Newsday review of Ra's appearance at Carnegie in September of that year. With a prod from writer/historian Ted Gioia and further research by myself, the tape was eventually identified as a mostly unreleased July 1977 performance by Ra at a downtown NYC "jazz café" called The Axis-in-Soho. The venue had begun presenting weekend jazz programs in January at the Marvin Elson Gallery, 463 West Broadway. In the book Artists' SoHo: 49 Episodes of Intimate History, journalist Richard Kostelanetz recalled, "Lacking a liquor license, [Axis] charged four bucks admission and sold cappuccino, juice, and cheesecake." Pianist Paul Bley and Sun Ra, among others, enjoyed bookings there.

Two of the works on the full 70-minute "Carnegie" tape matched tracks recorded at Axis and released on a 1978 Improvising Artists Inc. LP titled St. Louis Blues. (IAI was co-owned by Paul Bley and video artist, and later wife, Carol Goss.) That gave us a venue and an approximate date—and nine unreleased solo works. Several titles here appear on St. Louis Blues, but the performances are different—recorded at different sets or on other evenings. We have assigned titles to the unidentified works for purposes of publishing registration, and to distinguish these compositions from countless other untitled Ra works which overpopulate his discography. Ra performs solo on all Axis tracks, but Saturnian Queen of the Arkestra June Tyson emerges from the shadows to add vocal flourishes on "Enlightment" and on what is possibly the briefest version ever recorded by the artist (less than two minutes) of Ra's anthemic "Space is the Place."

While sorting through the Axis material, an additional small trove of unissued Ra solo piano works from the same period were discovered. Tapes which had been languishing for decades at Ra's Morton Street home in Philadelphia were being rescued by Arkestra centenarian saxophonist Marshall Allen's son, Ronnie Boyd, and passed along to me. In turn, I dispatched them to jazz historian/engineer Ben Young, an expert in vintage tape preservation and restoration. Ben can identify tape brand, stock, and year of manufacture on sight. Many of these rescued reels—caked in grime, black gunk, fuzzy green spores, mildew, and flaking emulsion—should not have been handled without hazmat gear. Ben refers to these artifacts as "the Mold Tapes." Many had no boxes, plastic reels were cracked, and a few were tagged with cryptically worded adhesive strips from a Dymo Label Maker.

One hour-long tape captured a running session of Ra on piano, jamming with an unidentified drummer. The percussionist's style was unmistakable: it was Samarai Celestial (born Eric Walker), who accompanied Ra on two essential late-1970s Saturn albums: God Is More Than Love Can Ever Be, a trio date, and Omniverse, another Ra small-band session. Both albums had been recorded at NYC's Variety Studios in 1979. The ambience on the tape was similar to the atmosphere on both albums.

From a cursory listen to the found tape, it was apparent that Ra and Celestial were rehearsing, trying to lock grooves, forging a musical bond. They weren't creating masterpieces—they were testing their chemistry, with Ra occasionally calling out directions. When the quarter-inch, quarter-track tape was flipped, Celestial had taken a break and Ra vamped four solo numbers on piano, after which Celestial returned and the jam resumed. The solo pieces were extracted and added to the projected Axis set. Same artist, roughly the same period, same city, similar feel as the Axis recordings. Two of the Variety works were easily identified: "At Sundown" and "Everything I Have Is Yours," two 1920s relics which Ra had certainly heard countless times during his formative years. A search of the Ra discography indicated that Ra had never recorded either title. Here he even casually mumbles some of the lyrics. One of the two remaining Variety vamps was eventually identified by Tin Pan Alley sleuth Will Friedwald as another 1920s standard, "June Night." The other, which couldn't be identified, even by Uncle Will, we dubbed "Rumination," based on the tune's atmosphere. Apologies to the composer if he had another mood in mind.

— Irwin Chusid, May 2024

A Helpful Guide to the Many Sun Ra Albums on Bandcamp: daily.bandcamp.com/2017/10/13/sun-ra-album-guide
The foremost figure in musical Afro-futurism and space-jazz. Keyboardist, composer, Arkestra leader, arranger, philosopher-jester, fashion icon, cosmic guide. Born Herman Blount in Alabama, 1914, left the planet in 1993, giving Earthlings a monumental catalog of recordings that transcend genre.

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