Sun Ra And His Arkestra - To Those of Earth,,,and Other Worlds

  by Keith How

published: 9 / 11 / 2015

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Review

“Come to the jazz night,” they said. ”You like jazz. It is right up your street.” Inwardly I froze. I knew exactly what my good friends meant. I took a deep breath and asked that age old question (already knowing the answer), “Erm, what kind of jazz?” There are at least 120 different Sun Ra recordings and then many lost or destroyed works that we may never hear. Sun Ra was the original maverick. Claiming to be from Saturn, he used cosmic philosophies and poetry to spread a message of awareness and peace. As a “jazz” bandleader and composer he was eclectic and very unorthodox. Taking the name and persona of an Egyptian Sun God, his music became truly “out there.” With so many recordings now available including the recent 'In the Orbit of Ra' selection compiled by Arkestra bandleader Marshall Allen, the work of Sun Ra, who died in 1993, is as popular as ever. This time Gilles Peterson is in the curator’s seat, picking a selection of rarities classic cuts and his own favourites, all of which are just amazing. Trying to understand the diversity of Sun Ra’s output is a task beyond most mortals. The best way to experience Ra is to open your mind, and to sit back and take it all in. The many different facets of the Sun Ra canon are all gathered here. From the slinky Bossa Nova of 'Black Sky and Blue Moon' or the plainly weird ambient dub of 'Cluster of Galaxies', listening to this double album is in every way “a long strange trip”. The doo-wop of 'Dreaming' sits nicely alongside the strangeness of 'I Roam the Cosmos'. Free jazz scat poetry mixes with strange Afrofunk anthem 'Blackman', which left me wondering if Miles Davis had been giving Sun Ra a spin during the 'Bitches Brew' period. Sun Ra was “far out” in the 1950s and 1960s before far out was conceived. Included in the mix is a superbly hypnotic version of 'We Travel the Spaceways', a track many might be familiar with as is a mind bending live version of 'Space is the Place' which fittingly closes this massive double c/d set 'To Those of Earth...and Other Words' is a superb introduction to Sun Ra’s universe for new listeners but is also a satisfying trip for those more familiar with Ra’s work.

Track Listing:-

1 Calling Planet Earth
2 Sun Song
3 Dreaming
4 India
5 Space Loneliness
6 Love in Outer Space
7 Adventure-Equation
8 Spontaneous Simplicity
9 Brazilian Sun
10 When There Is No Sun feat. John Gilmore
11 My Brother, The Wind
12 Mystery, Mr. Ra
13 Black Sky And Blue Moon
14 Watusa
15 The World of Africa
16 Cluster of Galaxies
17 Strange Worlds (Live In France)
18 Blackman
19 To Those Of Earth... And Other Worlds (Continuous Mix 1)
20 Twilight
21 Sleeping Beauty
22 Moog Solo (Live In France)
23 They Plan to Leave
24 Reflects Motion, Pt. 1
25 Children of the Sun
26 We Travel the Spaceways
27 Astro Black (Live In Zurich)
28 Somebody Else ' s Idea (Live In Paris)
29 On Jupiter
30 There Are Other Worlds (They Have Not Told You Of)
31 The All of Everything
32 Enlightenment
33 Make Another Mistake
34 Space Is The Place (Live In France)
35 To Those Of Earth... And Other Worlds (Continuous Mix 2)

Band Links:-

https://www.facebook.com/SunRaMusic
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sun_Ra
http://www.sunraarkestra.com/

Label Links:-

https://instagram.com/strutrecords/
https://twitter.com/strutrecords
https://www.youtube.com/user/strutreco
https://www.facebook.com/StrutRecords
http://www.strut-records.com/