Sun Ra news

 - july 2008: A review of Sun Ra's The Universe Sent Me: The Lost Reel Collection vol. 5 is online now. Check it out here.
 
 - june 2008: Christopher Eddy and Steve Antonelli have started a new weblog dedicated to Sun Ra and related artists: Sun Ra Arkive.

 - april 30, 2007: Out now on Transparency: Sun Ra - The Creator of the Universe, The Lost Reel Collection – Volume One

The Lost Reel Collection is a series of completely unheard and unknown recordings by SUN RA of the highest quality, none of which are listed in any previous discography or reference book. We anticipate configuring these records in seven Volumes totalling eleven discs.

The first disc of Volume One is a concert at awarehouse in San Francisco in June 1971. The centerpiece is a very dramatic and intense 20-minute declamation by Ra, punctuated by the horns of the Arkestra. This must be heard to be believed. Disc Two is one of the classes given by Ra during his teaching residency at UC Berkeley in May 1971. You can even hear chalk on a blackboard in places while Ra is speaking. This is a Sun Ra album like no other!

Available at your favorite retailer, or via instant buy on Ebay.

 - january 12, 2006: There's a new Sun Ra double CD release just out: What planet is this?, recorded in concert on july 6, 1973. Surprisingly, there's no news at all of this release on Leo Records' own website.

 - march 5, 2005: Out now on dvd: The Magic Sun.

"The classic 1966 film by Phill Niblock featuring Sun Ra & His Solar Arkestra, plus rare & exclusive Sun Ra footage, photos & audio 'proclamations'! Composer, photographer and filmmaker Phill Niblock's classic of experimental underground filmmaking with a sensational soundtrack by pianist Sun Ra and the members of his Solar Arkestra. Shot in the mid '60s, when the Arkestra was based in New York, this film was produced using a unique negative process and ultra-tight close-ups on the moving hands and mouths of the musicians. The result is a virtually abstract music film, mastered from a new print in all its incredibly sharp black & white glory. The Magic Sun DVD also includes a luminous, largely unseen photo gallery accompanied by 14:00 of unheard, self-recorded Ra audio: a truly 'inside' auto-bio interview; TRT approx 32:00."

 - february 28. 2005: Earthly extensions, a new website with discographical info about Sun Ra, is online now. Other good news is that a new Sun Ra cd titled Heliocentric Worlds vol. 3 - the lost tapes is available now from ESP Disk.

 - may 9, 2004: May is Sun Ra Month on Cosmictones.com! With the celebration of Ra's arrival and departure dates, Marshall Allen's arrival date and the new release from both the Arkestra and the Hinds Brothers, Cosmictones figured there was no better month Right now they are broadcasting John Cage Meets Sun Ra, the whole lp!
Don't forget to check Cosmictones for details on how to buy the new Sun Ra Research CD! And keep checking back, there will be all kinds of Ra stuff over the next month!

 - april 9. 2004: On May 1 the Hinds brothers will release a new Sun Ra CD with over 70 minutes of never before heard Sun Ra interviews and music! Visit Cosmictones.com for details on this amazing new CD! A must have for all Sun Ra fans!

 - march 9, 2004: the second official Arkestra (under the direction of Marshall Allen) release after "A song for the sun" reached Planet Earth! It is very well recorded live set of the Pochiavo concert at the Uncool Festival on May 31, 2002. The title is Music for the 21st Century. More information here.

 - february 21, 2004: According to the latest copy of The Wire - issue 241, "UK based Art Yard Records plan to release digitally remastered vinyl editions of LPs previously only available in tiny quantities on such imprints, and Ra owned publishing ventures, as El Saturn, Enterplanetary Koncepts and Infinity Is. The first release will be Disco 3000, a quartet recording made in Milan in 1978, with more lined up to be issued throughout the year. Info: artyard@macunlimited.net".

 - december 21, 2003: A DVD of The Cry of Jazz is now available.

"Shots of the Arkestra (playing anonymously) are intercut between the discussion and location shots of the Chicago scene -- making for amazing interplay as the narrative expounds on the different types of jazz, and their relation to African-American struggle and identity. Mindblowing stuff, and a film that's almost never been seen over the years -- equally important to fans of Sun Ra as it is to any follower of underground American cinema! 35 minutes, black and white, and featuring Sun Ra music that's never been issued on record!"

 - november 4, 2003: New Sun Ra CD Spaceship lullaby is now available!

 - september 24, 2003: Ever-ready to delve into some serious sonic archeology, The Atavistic Unheard Music Series is proud to bring to light a compelling and particularly obscure facet of Sun Ra’s Chicago activities from the mid-1950’s: a collection entitled SPACESHIP LULLABY, featuring Ra’s work with several vocal ensembles from the period. This 37 track CD will be released on november 4. 
Also from Attavistic comes the DVD release of The Cry of Jazz, a film featuring an otherwise unavailable Sun Ra soundtrack. 

 - august 14, 2003: On October 28, 2003, Plexifilm will release the director's cut of legendary film SPACE IS THE PLACE (1974) for it's 30th anniversary starring other-worldly jazz bandleader Sun Ra. With over 20 minutes of added footage, the film has been restored to its original theatrical length, reintroducing several subplots heretofore omitted in the previous video version.
Plexifilm's DVD release will be a must-own for any Sun Ra fan and cult film buff: on top of the restored director's cut of the film, the disc also contains 10 minutes of never-before-seen footage taken from extremely rare home movies of the Arkestra's trip to Egypt in 1972 where they played in front of the pyramids, as well as psychedelic projections for the band's live performances shot by Richard Wilkinson, the Arkestra's light and sound coordinator. These wonderful vintage images will be rounded out with liner notes by Sun Ra biographer John F. Szwed, written introduction by Sonic Youth's Thurston Moore as well as video interviews with director John Coney and producer Jim Newman and an essay by John Coney.

After having traveled through space in a yellow spaceship propelled by music, Sun Ra finds a planet he believes could serve as a new home for the black race. Returning to earth, he lands in Oakland, California circa 1972 and has to fight The Overseer, played by Ray Johnson (from 1971's DIRTY HARRY), a supernatural villain who pimps out the black race. Sun Ra offers those who would follow him into space an "alter-destiny," but the Overseer, the FBI, and NASA--who are after Ra's Black Space Program--ultimately force him to return to space before the destruction of Earth. Cosmic blaxploitation cum sociological critique, SPACE IS THE PLACE defies categorization. It is at once a platform for Sun Ra's radical racial philosophies, an indictment of the government's policies in Vietnam-era U.S., cult camp flick, sci-fi movie and concert film with unforgettable performances by the Intergalactic Myth-Science Solar Arkestra featuring June Tyson chanting "Calling planet Earth!"

Since its extremely limited release in 1974--the film played very briefly in San Francisco and New York--SPACE IS THE PLACE has become an underground cult legend spoken about but never seen and if so, in poorly dubbed bootlegs or in the severely adulterated 1992 VHS version. Reminiscent of other 'black' films of the time--it has been compared to Melvin Van Peebles' SWEET SWEETBACK'S BAAD ASSSSS SONG (1971)--the film has a vast mystical quality channeled through the music and words of Ra himself. Although the mystic and mythic foundations of SPACE IS THE PLACE are similar to another cult classic of the time, Alejandro Jodorowsky's THE HOLY MOUNTAIN (1973), the film started as the brainchild of producer Jim Newman who convinced Ra to make a half-hour PBS documentary. From these beginnings, SPACE IS THE PLACE grew into something which John F. Szwed in his liner notes describes as a "revisionist Biblical epic" and spawned an album of the same name on Blue Thumb records as well as Szwed's highly acclaimed eponymous biography.

SUN RA is considered a giant in twentieth century contemporary music. He pushed the envelope of what music could be: from his mystical philosophies to his band's dress, both of which were an outer space vision of Egyptian costume. Although claiming to be sent from Saturn to save humanity, it has been documented that Ra was born Herman P. "Sonny" Blount in Birmingham, Alabama in 1914. After playing in many Birmingham based bands throughout the 30s and 40s, Ra relocated to Chicago. In the early 50s, he changed his name to Le Sony'r Ra and slowly expanded his band, which included many players still in high school whom he taught himself. In 1956 Ra established his own independent label, Le Saturn Research, which started releasing records under the name Sun Ra and his Solar Arkestra and continued to release over 100 albums. Ra explored the vast possibilities of music from exotic instrumentation and composition, from big band, vaudeville to bop, and from the beginning of the sixties his music was labeled as "free jazz" which was being explored by such musicians as Albert Ayler and Ornette Coleman. Always a maverick, Ra did not like the term "free," as he claimed his music was very structured and composed. Ra also pioneered the use of electronic instruments such as moogs and various synthesizers. Extremely prolific and forward thinking, Sun Ra was a true visionary. Ra has been highly influential to many popular musicians from Parliament Funkadelic's dress and stage act, the MC5 who incorporated his lyrics into "Starship" off their first album KICK OUT THE JAMS, and more recently to Yo La Tengo's anti-war mini ep which covered "Nuclear War".
DVD release date: October 28, 2003

 - august 12, 2003: Leo Records will release a new Sun Ra CD soon in their Golden Years of New Jazz-series: Solo Piano Recital Teatro La Fenice, Venezia", 1977.

 - july 16, 2003: From Othermusic.com's weekly newsletter:

SUN RA "Nuits de la Fondation Maeght Vol. 1" (Comet) CD
SUN RA "Nuits de la Fondation Maeght Vol. 2" (Comet) CD

"Sometimes in the amazing ignorance I hear things and see things I never knew I saw or heard before." I Love Sun-Ra! No one brought the future funk to the forefront of jazz or gave electronic music a soul like he did. "Nuits de la Fondation Maeght No. 1 & 2" are taken from two concerts in Paris 1970, two months before he went to West Germany to record "It's After the End of the World." Nineteen musicians and dancers in all, and the Moog is in full effect; Ra's touch can be as sinister as a digital smear from Aphex Twin, or as light and fluid as water. John Gilmore and Marshall Allen are featured heavily as well as June Tyson and special guest Alan Silva. "No. 2" begins with "Friendly Galaxy Number 2," a fierce keyboard solo by Ra opens the piece, then grows into a six flute assembled lead pulse, with rumbling percussion bubbling like a volcano about to overflow. "The World of the Lightening" starts with crashing cymbals and percussive audience clapping, and then becomes a harsh smear of Moog, cymbals, erratic sax, and the deepest, strangest bass I've ever heard from Silva. "No.1" includes a 19-minute Moog solo by Ra and the great June Tyson vocal piece "The Star Gazers." Both shows are described by Ra as "out of this world" and they certainly are!

 - may 15, 2003: Since finding a copy of the Sun Ra-related Roz Croney LP "How low can you go?" about 2 years ago Peter Cummings has been trying to find out more about her life. "I have been thinking since reading Irwin Chusid's book 'Songs in the key of Z' that someone should publish the story of this strange limbo LP she recorded with Sun Ra and a few of the other Arkestra guys. So I have decided to make it my life's mission to find Roz Croney. I have spoken at great length to Ed Bland who produced the LP and Marshal Allen who plays alto on a few tracks. I have some stories about the session, but no one knows where Roz is or what happened to her. I have exhaused nearlt all my leads and am hoping that tracking some royalty info may turn something up. I have set up a web site called The Roz Croney Research Foundation in hopes of finding someone who can tell me where she is or what happened to her."
[Note: The Roz Croney website is no longer online]

 - march 2, 2003: Issue Three of Sun Ra Arkive is now available for free PDF download at Sun Ra Arkive.
[Note: the Sun Ra Arkive website is no longer online]

 - february 2003: Sun Ra Scores is a new forum to discuss and share arrangements, sheet music, and transcriptions of the master composer Sun Ra. A concentration on the formal aspects of Sun Ra's compositions and their performances by the Arkestra is encouraged.

 - Issue Two (January 2003) of Sun Ra Arkive is now available for free PDF download at Sun Ra Arkive. This issue focuses on those who have worked to preserve the Sun Ra Legacy, including exclusive interviews with Sun Ra Research's Hinds Brothers and Trudy Morse.
[Note: the Sun Ra Arkive website is no longer online]

 - november 2002: New Sun Ra CD available now from Atavistic: Music from Tomorrow's World. Read more here...
 

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