Space is the Place

Welcome to the first day of the first theme week, Free Improvisation. Let's kick this stuff off right...

For starters, Sun Ra is the most far-out musician in jazz, if not the entire musical spectrum. I'm not going to go into any history, but to say he released scores of albums through his forty year career as a band leader and brought new countless innovations to the jazz scene. Sun Ra is by far my favorite jazz man and to me criminally underrated outside of the scene. No body in the public knows him like they do Louis Armstrong or Miles Davis, which is a huge shame.

So today I have three samplings of his huge output.

First, Space is the Place. The 21 minute title track here is the real standout. It begins very structure with sax and drums leading the rhythm along. Female and backing male vocals come in and proclaim "space is the place". After some time the band diverges into freeform rhythms and sections, always returning to the original "chorus". Far-out stuff especially with Sun Ra firing off laser beam after laser beam on his "space organ". As for the rest of the album, it's something different all together. Both "Images" and "Discipline" are your more straight forward jazz pieces with a space age touch. "Sea of Sound" is one of those pieces that people think of when they hear the term "free jazz", lots and lots of sounds going on in all different directions for the whole period of time. The closing track is an odd one, a steady sax bass line accompanied by laser beams shots from Sun Ra. Free jazz elements here mainly come from the vocals that are present the entire length and the little mini-dirges provided by the band.

Sun Ra - Space is the Place

1. Space is the Place

2. Images

3. Discipline

4. Sea of Sound

5. Rocket Number Nine

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These next two albums, I don't know if there is much I can say. These really are Sun Ra's starting point for messing around with free jazz, and quite possibly his most famous albums. Vol. 1 focuses more on short and sweet abstract pieces while Vol. 2 goes for the long-form kills. Amazing and mind-blowing stuff. Get this...

Sun Ra and His Solar Arkestra - The Heliocentric Worlds of Sun Ra, Vol. 1

1. Heliocentric

2. Outer Nothingness

3. Other Words

4. The Cosmos

5. Of Heavenly Things

6. Nebulae

7. Dancing in the Sun

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Sun Ra and His Solar Arkestra - The Heliocentric Worlds of Sun Ra, Vol. 2

1. The Sun Myth

2. A House of Beauty

3. Cosmic Chaos

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If you enjoy Sun Ra, you're in luck. I have a plethora of other albums and will be posting them in the future.

Also prepare for Dream/Aktion Unit tomorrow...