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Very few artists span the entire history of jazz in quite the same way that Sun Ra has. Ra began his career as a bandleader and performer in the mid-30s, when big band swing was at its peak. He even worked for a while with Fletcher Henderson, the man who more or less invented the jazz big band in the 20s. Later in his career Ra went on to be one of the leading innovators in the avant-garde, introducing collective free improvisation, electronics and all manner of modern big band concepts. By the time the mid-80s rolled around you never knew what to expect from a Sun Ra concert, sometimes it could be very African, other times layers of sonic avant-garde sound, and other times bizarre trips to the past in which Ra and his band would fill the entire evening with classic swing and jump blues from a pre-TV era when jazz bands were some of the only known entertainment for dancers and revelers. If you ever witnessed one of these classic swing concerts you will know what a rare and valuable treat they were, a mood and atmosphere that no longer exists re-created without somberness by a crew that was mostly there the first time it all went down.
More than likely many fans of classic swing band jazz will be turned off by Ra’s far less than museum approach to this music. As usual, Ra’s sly humor and mischievous nature are in full effect and bizarre anachronisms exist such as the use of an ultra cheezy DX7 synthesizer on one cut, and guitar solos that sound more rooted in Chuck Berry than Charlie Christian also show that the band is not the least bit interested in some kind of musicological correctness, but instead are more interested in bringing back to life the sassy and casual cool attitude that this music had the first time around. The piano playing and arrangements are on the playfully dissonant side of things, and although the musicologist might say these dissonances are historically incorrect, I have a feeling that if you were actually at the drunken rowdy clubs, burlesque shows and whorehouses where this music originated, I bet you would have heard a lot more dissonance and random chaos than most polite retro big bands would lead us to believe in today’s antiseptic approach to jazz’s past.
This record is more fun than a drunk barrel of penguins from start to finish, jazz for partying, drinking and hell raising from a bygone era re-created by guys who were there dodging flying beer bottles back in the dens of sin of yesteryear.