SUN RA — Sun Ra And His Intergalactic Infinity Arkestra : The Night Of The Purple Moon (review)

SUN RA — Sun Ra And His Intergalactic Infinity Arkestra : The Night Of The Purple Moon album cover Album · 1970 · Avant-Garde Jazz Buy this album from MMA partners
4.5/5 ·
js
Seeing as how he has one of the largest discographies in the history of music, you would expect many Sun Ra records to hit some kind of generic sameness, but instead quite the opposite happens as many Ra records contain unique musical visions that never appear again. Such is the case with “The Night of the Purple Moon”, on which Ra leads a small group of some of his closest musical allies in a series of weird swingin lounge tunes from Saturn and beyond. Ra fans won’t be totally surprised to hear the music on “Purple Moon”, as this style has been hinted at on “Angels and Demons at Play” , the small group cuts on “Atlantis” and the striking crime jazz tune, “The Perfect Man”, which shows up on various Ra singles collections. It’s a style many of us have always wanted to hear more of, so Sun Ra fans will be glad to know this album does exist.

Ra is joined on this album by Danny Davis on woodwinds and John Gilmore, who usually plays tenor sax, on drums. These two musicians are a couple of Sonny’s closest allies and they all think as one on a musical level. Stafford James also plays electric bass, but he is mixed down fairly low. Throughout this album Ra plays the Roksichord, a cheezy 70s keyboard that was a sort of electric harpsichord/electric piano with a few tone controls for cheap exotica effects. On three cuts Sonny also plays a couple of Moogs while the rest of the band takes a break. A lot of the music on here is presented as typical 60s lounge combo fare with some bluesy hard bop, spy movie themes, a cute swing waltz and some generic latin grooves, and then there are some other numbers, like “21st Century Romance”, that sound like lounge jazz treated to mathematical serial deconstruction topped with a screeching saxophone. An unexpected plus about Ra’s tacky roksichord instrument is the clarity of its lines. Sonny can sound very cluttered on the acoustic piano, but on the roksichord every note he plays is very clear and you can hear his ability to subdivide rhythms in bizarre, yet precise patterns.

You can listen to all manner of avant-garde music, or music that's just plain weird, but you will not find another record like this one. Needless to say, this isn’t for everyone, even fans of avant-garde jazz may find this sort of lounge deconstruction to be an acquired taste at best. This album is highly recommended for Sun Ra fans and people who like quirky music with a sense of humor played by some of the best musicians of our time.
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