Customer Reviews

We Travel the Spaceways / Bad & Beautiful

5 star:		(3)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

I have been listening to Bad and Beautiful for 30 years.

The title track is the theme song from the movie, and it features a wonderful arrangement by Sun in which the tenor and flute share the melody. It has a very optimistic and careful pace with an ending that leaves you hanging.

Ankh is the ROOTS! Sun recorded it earlier on Delmark, here it is a bit darker and has an otherworld vibe. Just In Time, a nice standard with tenor blowing by John Gilmore. Gilmore was a wonderful tenor who hopefully will not be forgotten. Search Light Blues is another title; it evokes a dark, stormy mood. This music represents a battle of the elements, a lonely voice in the distance in danger of being washed away by the waves. Sun really knew how how to use those diminished chords.

The music world can only thank Sun Ra for all of the beautiful music he made. Those who hear him will remember him. Will you?

Normally I hate when critics say "it's worth the price for "[fill in the song title]" alone. Rarely does one song justify a purchase. "Search Light Blues," though, is such a song. The rest of the album is outstanding as well!

Of the "two-fers" Evidence has put out, this is far from the strongest - I wouldn't start here. But as an archeological collection, this is not without interest.

"We Travel the Spaceways" - the tracks here were nearly all recorded on other (available) recordings - and generally the versions on other albums are preferable. Hence, this becomes the equivalent of listening to an early rehearsal tape, and in places the sound is so low-fi that it bolsters this effect. But - "Tapestry From An Asteriod" - amazing. The variations on the other tracks are interesting to hear, also, it should be said.

"Bad and Beautiful" is pretty abstract - I can't get into much of it. I just don't hear a lot in it. My favorite track on there is probably "Exotic Two" where the chattering percussion anticipates the "world music" trend and approaches some kind of aggressive trance - but it's far from Ra's best music.

This is a two album package that explores the 1956-1960 transitional period for Sun Ra, as he wrapped up his productive time in Chicago for News York. The 14 songs clock in at 54:27.

We Travel the Spaceways is a collection of (Chicago) numbers, many which became concert standards, while Bad and Beautiful contains some of the first recordings done in The Big Apple. These years for Sun Ra was the foundation he constructed to expand his artistry. The release brilliantly shows a true artist on the move.

I agree with Scott McFarland's review below--my review is designed merely to second his thoughts on this twofer, and go into a little more detail. While little is bad here, this should be a lower priority buy than practically every other Evidence Sun Ra reissue. My middling rating should be read solely in comparison to other Sun Ra CDs. If it's the only Sun Ra CD available to you, snatch it up, by all means; if you've collected everything else, it's still an enjoyable listen.

Sun Ra released a huge backlog of recordings on a couple dozen self-released Saturn LPs in the mid to late 1960's. They were usually programmed according to approximate recording date and mood or theme.

The overall theme of the "We Travel the Spaceways" album seems to be "1956-1960 lofi-ish alternate versions of compositions which have already been released on other albums."

The one truly great cut is "Tapestry from an Asteroid," which trounces the later-recorded, earlier-released version on "Futuristic Sounds of Sun Ra." "Interplanetary Music" and "Space Loneliness" are performed definitively on "Interstellar Low Ways." "Eve" is given a lovelier and more precise rendition on "Visits Planet Earth." (These three recordings are all on the same twofer, which is a must-have!!) "Velvet" is perhaps best heard on "Jazz in Silhouette," though this one is decent--it includes some additional countermelodies worth hearing, though it was recorded at the end of a very long 1960 session and it shows (also on the "Greatest Hits" CD). "We Travel the Spaceways" is arguably more haunting on "When Sun Comes Out," though this version has a charming duck quack toy. "New Horizons" is a 1956 outtake, found in a slightly superior version on "Sun Song."

It _is_ interesting to compare these versions to the versions I listed--"Best" is subjective, of course, and some of the differences are worth experiencing if you are an obsessive fan.

*****

Sun Ra moved a small core of his big band from Chicago to New York City around mid 1961; but he lost a lot of musicians in the move. "Bad and Beautiful", the second half of this twofer, is the second album he recorded there (the first was the studio-engineered, Savoy-distributed "Futuristic Sounds"). It's the first of a long string of home-recorded lo-fi albums, usually engineered by percussionist Tommy Hunter in the "Choreographers' Workshop." It's also one of the least inspired of these usually innovative albums. Things started getting a lot more moody and wacky on "Art Forms of Dimensions Tomorrow," recorded immediately afterwards. He got on even stronger footing with the way-out, truly futuristic "Secrets of the Sun," which, sadly, has never been released on CD. [Update: as of 2008, "Secrets of the Sun" _is_ available on legit CD!] "Bad and Beautiful," on the other hand, is mostly sort of conventionally arranged, murkily-recorded lounge jazz by six great musicians. Not much more or less. (The harmonies on the closing cut are strange and nice, though.) The sound seems to be in rechannelled stereo, or a poorly-aligned mono tape on a stereo deck. The sound wanders back and forth.

There may be stuff going on here that I'm missing, but that's the way I hear it. Get "Visits Planet Earth"/"Interstellar Low Ways" instead, which is magical from beginning to end.