Sun Song [Vinyl]

Sun Ra | Format: Vinyl

Product Details

• Vinyl (October 27, 1998)
• Number of Discs: 1
• Label: Delmark
• ASIN: B00000I7YP
• Also Available in: Audio CD  |  Audio Cassette  |  Vinyl
• Average Customer Review: 4.6 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (7 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #163,283 in Music (See Top 100 in Music)
  • #66 in Music > Indie Music > Jazz > Avant-Garde

Editorial Reviews

From Jazziz

"This is a spontaneous number which came to me in a flash," wrote composer and pianist Sun Ra of his tune "Call for all Demons" (featured) in the liner notes to Sun Song (Delmark). "It paints a picture of a faraway thought. I like to think it is a Grecian thought, interspersed with the truths hidden in fairy tales and ancient mythology." Originally released in 1957 as Jazz by Sun Ra on Transition Records, Sun Song presents some of the Ra's earliest recordings.

--- JAZZIZ Magazine Copyright © 2000, Milor Entertainment, Inc. --This text refers to the Audio CD edition.

Product Description

This album was Sun Ra's first, originally released in 1957 on Transition Records as Jazz by Sun Ra. Includes Sun Ra's original notes and poetry, such as Explanation of Compositions, The Techniques I Employ, and Instructions to the Peoples of Earth. Tracks include Brainville, Call For All Demons, and Transition.

Personnel: Sun Ra, piano; Art Hoyle & Dave Young, trumpet; John Gilmore, tenor sax; Pat Patrick, baritone sax; Jim Herndon, tympani; Robert Barry, Drums; Julian Priester, trombone; Richard Evans, bass; Wilburn Green, electric bass; James Scales, alto sax. --This text refers to the Audio CD edition.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

11 of 11 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Jazz by Sun Ra, Indeed!, May 12, 2005

By 

Michael F. Hopkins "A Deeper Groove" (Buffalo, NY USA) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Sun Song (Audio CD)

Recorded in 1956, Sun Ra's first album (here in its entirety)

is a welcome addition to anyone's musical library. Along with

streamlined swingers like "Brainville" or "Future", sly

finger-poppers like "Lullaby For Realville", and speculative

serenades like "New Horizons" or "Sun Song", the Delmark CD

presents the previously-unissued dance call, "Swing A Little

Taste". With its tip to the orchestral romps of Fletcher

Henderson, Tadd Dameron, and Dizzy Gillespie, bearing a

chromatic savoir faire worthy of Duke Ellington himself,

the landmark session is classic Sun Ra, pointing the way

for the instrumental voicings of the next half-century,

and beyond.

Arkestra perennials such as tenor giant John Gilmore and

maverick baritonist Pat Patrick take their place alongside

unsung titans such as the bright, buoyant trumpeter Art

Hoyle. Others, such as the renowned trombonist Julian

Priester, gained fame elsewhere, only to rejoin the fold

decades later. All and more are a treat for the ears.

As for the pianist (who doubles on haunting organ for the

title song), his playing is joyously bright with sobering

skill; always gentle in his fierce determination.

As the Myth-Realist stated in the 1950s, "There is a

great need for America to give all of its creative

artists a chance". A gauntlet in the face of everything

from that period's McCarthyism to current fund-cutting

and other forms of censorship, Ra's words and music

have always held true to this idiomatic creed.

If you've experienced Sun Ra's artistic diversity

over the years, this disc comes as a powerful

addition but no surprise. If, however, you are

among those who dismiss Mr. Mystery as an eerie

noisemaker, I offer you this delightful shock,

an accurate pointer to what this grandmaster

of Jazz has always been about.

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Swingin'!!! w/ Sun Ra???, June 22, 2006

By 

jive rhapsodist (NYC, NY United States) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)   

This review is from: Sun Song (Audio CD)

This is - like - the great lost Big Band CD. As has been noted, the influence of the Jazz Greats is everywhere. And at moments it would be possible to mistake this for a Mingus or Tadd Dameron session. But there's always some interesting moment of quirkiness that marks it as pure - but prehistoric - Ra. A quick overview:

1) Brainville: Marvelous use of Pat Patrick's baritone sax. A hypnotic theme that has some of the externals of Duke or Mingus but is relentlessly non-developmental in a way they could never be. Muted trumpet emerges out of the ensemble like pure early Gil Evans (Ella Speed, for example). A shout riff functions as a ritornello, almost hilarious in its purely formal nature. What does it propel? Not much...Julian Priester's boppy trombone is grooving.

2) Call For All Demons - Classic Ra theme - the illegitimate child of Caravan and Horace Silver. John Gilmore w/ demented quasi-Dameronian style comping. Jim Herndon's tympani solo (!!!) the star of the show.

3) Transition - Swinging at its most unswinging swinging-ness.The cowbell on the beat. the electric bass dutifully walking. The baritone dominates the sax section in a way that creates teleological visions of Fela. The generic Clifford/Lee - ism of the hard bop trumpeters is really piquant in the context. And then there's James Scales with his tortured Bird-isms.

4)Possession - A ballad which evokes Glenn Miller's Serenade In Blue - a Chicago favorite. All Gilmore, naturally.

5) A Street Named Hell - Could be the theme from the film of the same name. The tympani is again the star - amazing! That electric bass is so bad it's good.

6) Lullaby for Realville - what a groovy period piece - handclaps and everything. Not a pointed parody like Herbie Nichols' 2300 Skidoo, but cut from the same cloth. Than goodness for the upright bass here. Piano solo is beautifully addlebrained.

7) Future - Ra's piano at its approximate best - somewhere between Billy Strayhorn, Tristano and early Cecil Taylor. A strange place. Great orchestration of the drums - bringing them in and out. A whole psychodrama in 2:54.

8) Swing A Little Taste - Ra Jazz at its Ra Jazziest. The title says it all. So many cliches, all served up with a perfect pince sans rire. Enumerating all of them and their derivations could be an article in itself.(Buster) Keaton-esquely hilarious.

9) New Horizons - an almost conventionally beautiful film noir-y ballad. Could come from David Raskin's score for Joseph H. Lewis' The Big Combo. Goes up - tempo near the end for no discernable reason. Performance is so ragged, but that's part of its beauty.

10) Fall Off The Log -The incipient whole-toniness of some of the tunes doesn't really inform the solo sections as much as I might like. That's a typical transition Swing - to - Bop strategy that dates Sonny a bit. But somehow it's all of a jagged piece.

11) Sun Song - finally at the end the organ raises its lovely grotesque head. Perfect South Side Exotica. Chimes, temple blocks. Was Les Baxter an actual influence? I have no doubt...

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars definately worth a listen, March 28, 1999

By 

Sean Jain([e-mail]) (Calgary, Canada) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Sun Song (Audio CD)

this was the first jazz CD that i ever bought and i have been pleasently rewarded with sweet sounds and interesting harmonies. definately a good introduction to jazz and the cosmic world of sun ra.