Sun Ra Arkestra - Pleiades: A Jazz Symphonique '2018

Tracks list

The Pleiades are an open star cluster in the constellation Taurus. One of the
nearest such clusters to Earth, the Seven Sisters (as theyre also known)
comprise middle-aged, hot B-type stars which can be viewed by Earthlings in the
night sky without a telescope. The nine brightest stars of the cluster are named
for the Seven Sisters of Greek mythology and their parents.

Pleiades is also one of the earliest existing Sun Ra compositions, first
recorded on a home piano demo by 34-year-old Herman Sonny Blount in his
sweltering South Side Chicago apartment in August 1948. Blount had moved to the
Windy City in 1946 and began musical dues-paying that found him writing
arrangements for sundowning big bands and wild R&B shouters, fronting small
combos in dancehalls and dives, and making a local name for himself as an
ambitious composer/arranger-for-hire. That vintage demo, recorded in solitude
and redolent with sandpapery surface noise, opens this album.

We then segue ahead 42 years, to the twilight of Sun Ras long and storied
career. At age 76, when many of his contemporaries were in nursing homes or
under headstones, Ra embarked on six visits to Europe, several comprising
multiple bookings in different countries. (This rigorous travel schedule
allegedly contributed to his suffering a stroke later that year.) Among dozens
of dates in celebrated clubs and concert halls, Ra led his Arkestra in a Jazz
Symphonique at the Théâtre-Carré Saint-Vincent, Orléans, France, on
October 27, 1990. Other than renditions of two Swing Era chestnuts, Blue Lou and
Frisco Fog, it was an all-Ra repertoire.

The opening work was the ancient Pleiades.

The pairing of Ras raucous Arkestra with an elegant classical ensemble, while
unusual, would come as no surprise to those who followed Sun Ras trailblazing
career. To Ra, nothing was unthinkable. Across 40+ years of studio recording and
public performance, Ra offered everything except consistency and predictability.

Ra discographer Christopher Trent, co-author (with Robert L. Campbell) of The
Earthly Recordings of Sun Ra, recalled: My impression is that for the Pleiades
gig, a selection of classical musicians were hired rather than a complete
orchestra. Ra biographer John Szwed obtained information about the concert
directly from Arkestra trumpeter Jothan Callins, who had played a
larger-than-usual role on the date. As recounted by Szwed in Space is the Place:
The Lives and Times of Sun Ra:

“The Théâtre-Carré Saint-Vincent event in Orléans, France, was
billed as a ‘Jazz Symphonique’ concert, and Sun Ra had nineteen
classical musicians made available to him to add to the sixteen musicians he was
bringing, which already included two violins and a cello. He threw himself into
the project and bought a computer to help him produce the instruments’
parts. But once they reached Paris, Sun Ra confided to Jothan Callins that he
didn’t have the arrangements ready for the larger ensemble. And though he
didn’t ask for help, he seemed distraught, his hands shaking. So for the
next fifty hours Callins worked with Sun Ra on the parts, transcribing and
Xeroxing day and night, even adding his own composition, ‘Alabama,’
to the list, and then when the night of the performance came, Callins conducted
the Arkestra for Sonny. ‘When I finished he thanked me for it,’
said Callins. ‘It was the first time I’d ever heard him thank
anyone for anything.’”

The concert was apparently captured only on DAT (digital audio tape, a then-high
tech, but now obsolete compact cartridge format). While the recording is
generally crisp with dense ambience, the microphone placement sounds ad hoc and
many instruments are heard only as distant echoes, especially horns and
occasionally the piano. Three admittedly speculative scenarios: 1) considering
the large number of musicians involved, perhaps the stage crew ran short of
mics; 2) players shifted positions throughout the performance; and/or 3)
microphones were repositioned throughout the performance. (In at least one
instance, a sax solo begins solidly, then suddenly dips precipitously in volume
as if the player had crossed the stage or the mic was removed—or
malfunctioned. Talvin Singhs tabla are close-miked on some tracks, more distant
on others.)

This rare concert was issued in the UK on a 2-CD set entitled Pleiades, on the
Leo label in 1993. However, that albums audio sounds like a direct transfer from
a source DAT with no attempt at sonic adjustments. Consequently, the instruments
and channels are out of balance, and volume levels are erratic. The violins,
drums, and tabla are well-represented, often at the expense of other instruments
and soloists. In ensemble passages the horns generate enough collective power to
blast through, but some soloists are exiled to the sonic shadows. The tabla
(which sporadically seem to have been placed directly near a mic, or vice-versa)
are often intrusively loud, and the bass drum accents explode above the limits
of comfort.

Back in 1993, digital audio editing was a relatively young technology, and the
more sophisticated systems were largely housed in professional studios.
Software, plugins, waveform editors, and sonic juicers were primitive compared
to what can be accomplished today at home on a laptop. Consequently, this 2018
digital edition offers a remarkable upgrade to that 1993 CD. Our version offers
a better mix—the best that can be accomplished from a seemingly haphazard
stereo capture with no isolated stems.

Michael D. Anderson, of the Sun Ra Music Archive, supplied flat transfers from
two DATs of the full concert. (Each was 60 minutes, with the end of tape one
overlapping with the beginning of tape two, indicating two machines were used;
the mix was identical to the Leo CD.) We went in passage by passage and removed
transient noises, adjusted volume levels, and made the atmosphere slightly more
vibrant. Thankfully, its possible to boost the volume of imbalanced channels
because, unlike analog tape, DATs were virtually hiss-free.

The tabla slaps and kick drum blasts have been moderated (though nothing was
hammered down; they were meticulously lowered hit-by-hit). The kick still has
power but doesnt rattle the speakers; the tabla remain prominent—they are
crisp and cut through. The playing is spectacular, and theyre a crucial part of
these arrangements (also we love percussion!). However, there are other
instruments behind the tabla, and too much suppression would cause signal loss
in those instruments.

Theres a lot of onstage rustling—players moving stuff around, turning
pages in the score, coughing, positioning themselves to play. We minimized such
artifacts where intrusive (e.g., during piano solos), but left plenty of such
noise because thats Ra and it provides a sense of space.

Audience presence has been minimized; where tracks begin and end cleanly,
applause has been eliminated. Where intros or endings overlapped with applause,
all music was retained and applause was faded in or out respectively. This is
partly a necessity in the age of digital music, where tracks can be purchased
separately and/or listened to out of context.

Some titles were inaccurate on the Leo CD. Track 2, listed as Mythic 1, is in
fact Planet Earth Day. CD track 7, listed as Planet Earth Day, was actually a
work that Ra alternately titled Carefree or Egyptian Fantasy. Two tracks not
included on the Leo CD have been restored to their sequence in the concert:
Frisco Fog and a rousing concert-closing reprise of Planet Earth Day. (Blue Lou,
heard on the CD, had to be jettisoned from this digital edition because the
instrument mix was hopelessly beyond repair. Its a showpiece for Gilmore but
after he begins a rousing solo, his volume level drops precipitously as if his
mic cuts out, and it remains that way for the balance of the track, which is
largely an aggressive battalion of drums and percussion with most other
instruments buried in the mix. Did we mention we love percussion?) In addition,
track 3 on the CD, Friendly Galaxy, actually consisted of two
works—Galaxy was followed by a separate four-and-a-half minute work that
was not indexed or listed in the CD sequence. Anderson claims the unidentified
work is titled Disciplined One. Trent adds: It’s a separate piece, a
conducted improvisation with Sun Ra standing in front of the band, signaling for
various ensembles and solos. I don’t think there’s any written
composition in there. Its the kind of piece Ra would often initiate after the
band arrived onstage at the start of a set, but he would also use such pieces to
punctuate sequences of composed music.

Mythic 2 is a Sun Ra composition without a real/original title, said Trent. The
title was added by Leo as a placeholder. It’s the only recording on which
I have ever heard this composition as far as I remember.

The Callins original, Alabama, mentioned by Szwed, is absent from the tapes and
there is no indication it was performed.

Tracklist: 
01. Sun Ra - Pleiades (1948 home demo) (1:26)
02. Sun Ra Arkestra - Pleiades (concert version) (15:37)
03. Sun Ra Arkestra - Planet Earth Day (16:27)
04. Sun Ra Arkestra - Friendly Galaxy (13:01)
05. Sun Ra Arkestra - Disciplined One (4:23)
06. Sun Ra Arkestra - Sun Procession (12:56)
07. Sun Ra Arkestra - Lights on a Satellite (6:24)
08. Sun Ra Arkestra - Frisco Fog (3:10)
09. Sun Ra Arkestra - Love in Outer Space (6:55)
10. Sun Ra Arkestra - Carefree (Egyptian Fantasy) (9:54)
11. Sun Ra Arkestra - Mythic 2 (7:51)
12. Sun Ra Arkestra - Prelude in A Major, Op. 28 #7 (Chopin) (7:43)
13. Sun Ra Arkestra - Planet Earth Day (Reprise) (7:18)

Related artists