Sun Ra - 1987-01-22 Community College, Philadelphia, Pa (Remastered, Live On Broadcasting) '2025

Tracks list

	Tracklist:

1. Intro Anncr=groover Washington (Gw) (Live) (01:02)
2. Discipline 27-Ii / I Know the Meaning of Planet Earth / Right Road Wrong
Direction / Bad Truth (Live) (11:28)
3. Untitled Ballad (Live) (05:43)
4. Song Intro + Bio (Live) (01:07)
5. Yeah, Man! (Sissle-Henderson) (Live) (03:47)
6. Untitled Blues (Live) (08:46)
7. Gw,dj,gw (Live) (01:25)
8. Daydream (Strayhorn) (Live) (05:12)
9. Blue Lou (Hayes) (Live) (04:56)
10. I'll Never Be the Same (Live) (13:30)
11. Gw (Live) (00:07)
12. Piano Intro,gw Over Piano (Live) (01:12)


 moreBorn Herman Sonny Blount in Birmingham, Alabama (although he claimed he
was from Saturn), Ra led his own band for the first time in 1934. He freelanced
at a variety of jobs in the Midwest, recording with blues singer Wynonie Harris
in 1946 and working as a pianist/arranger with Fletcher Henderson in 1946 and
1947. He also performed with swing musicians Coleman Hawkins and Stuff Smith in
1948, but really got started around 1953. Leading a big band (which he called
the Arkestra) in Chicago, Ra started off playing advanced bop, but early on was
open to the influences of other cultures, experimenting with primitive electric
keyboards, and playing free long before the avant-garde got established.
Following several singles, including songs recorded with doo wop and R&B vocal
groups such as the Qualities and the Cosmic Rays, early albums released by the
Arkestra on El Saturn Records included Super-Sonic Jazz and Jazz in Silhouette.
Jazz by Sun Ra, Vol. 1 also appeared on producer Tom Wilson's Transition
Records.

After moving to New York in 1961, Ra performed some of his most advanced work.
This period saw the release of The Heliocentric Worlds of Sun Ra, Vol. 1 and
Vol. 2, both on the famed ESP-Disk label, and often regarded as some of his best
work. In 1966, the Arkestra had a weekly Monday night gig at Slug's Saloon, a
jazz club in the Lower East Side in Manhattan, which greatly increased his fan
base among beatniks and music critics. While Ra's music, mythology, and
appearance went over the heads of many listeners and audience members, he was
praised by jazz legends Dizzy Gillespie and Thelonious Monk.

In 1968, he relocated his group to Philadelphia, and the band undertook their
first tour of the West Coast of the United States, exposing their elaborate
performances to hippies and Deadheads. Ra was featured on the cover of Rolling
Stone in 1969. The ensemble began performing in Europe in 1970, and they
traveled to Egypt for the first time in 1971. Their concerts alternated free
improvisations and mystical group chants with eccentric versions of swing tunes,
sounding like a spaced-out Fletcher Henderson orchestra. Many of Ra's most
important sidemen were with him on and off for decades (most notably John
Gilmore on tenor, altoist Marshall Allen, and baritonist Pat Patrick).

In 1972, Sun Ra recorded an album called Space Is the Place, as well as an
experimental science fiction movie of the same name. The album, led by the
21-minute title track, was released in 1973, and endures as one of his most
popular and influential works. The film, directed by John Coney, was released in
1974, and is often cited as a seminal work of Afrofuturism. The Arkestra
recorded an original soundtrack for the film (unrelated to the Space Is the
Place album), and it was eventually released on CD in the '90s.

The Arkestra continued recording and performing, and albums appeared on labels
large (Impulse!, Atlantic) and small (Philly Jazz, Sweet Earth Records).
Releases on Y Records, including the infamous Nuclear War (1982), exposed Sun
Ra's work to post-punk/indie audiences. Ra became a fixture of Philadelphia
radio stations and regularly gave lectures. After appearing on Hal Willner's
Disney tribute album Stay Awake in 1988, Ra became obsessed with the music of
Disney animated films, and incorporated renditions of these tunes into live
performances. Ra suffered a stroke in 1990, but he still continued to lead the
Arkestra and compose music. Gilmore led the Arkestra on dates when Ra was too
ill to perform. Ra died in 1993, and Gilmore led the Arkestra until his death in
1995, at which point Allen took over.

Ra has been well served by Evidence's extensive repackaging of many of his
Saturn dates, which have at last been outfitted with correct dates and personnel
details. The label released a double-CD collection of his limited single
releases in 1996. Posthumous albums of live material have appeared on labels
such as DIW, Leo Records, and Kindred Spirits. In 2010, Norton Records released
a series of "Space Poetry" LPs containing Ra's spoken word material. U.K. label
Strut also released a few notable compilations, including In the Orbit of Ra
(presented by Allen) and To Those of Earth... and Other Worlds (mixed by Gilles
Peterson), as well as a more extensive compendium of his singles. Sundazed
sublabel Modern Harmonic was also responsible for dozens of Sun Ra reissues and
archival releases, from compilations like 2017's Exotica to previously
unreleased sessions such as 2022's Prophet, a rare recording of Ra playing the
Prophet VS synthesizer. © Scott Yanow



Sun Ra - 1987-01-22 Community College, Philadelphia.rar -  399.4 MB

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