SUN RA — Monorails and Satellites (review)

SUN RA — Monorails and Satellites album cover Album · 1968 · Avant-Garde Jazz Buy this album from MMA partners
4.5/5 ·
js
“Monorails and Satellites” is one more unique one in the Sun Ra discog in that it is possibly the only album that features him alone on the acoustic piano. Some of this album sounds like what you would expect from Sun, but there are some surprises too. The biggest revelation comes with the two opening numbers that sound less like improvised jazz, and more like modern concert hall pieces, Sun Ra style that is. Both of these pieces (“Space Towers” and “Cogitation”) feature harsh dissonant music that organically evolves in rhythmic structures that can recall a more discordant Bartok mixed with the noisy mathematically processed music of Iannis Xennakis. If these two pieces were transcribed, they would hold up well in a modern concert setting alongside the likes of Milton Babbit, Charles Ives and Henry Cowell. The remaining two cuts on side one (“Skylight” and “The Alter Destiny”) are more what you might expect from a Sun Ra piano album. Both sound like vaguely familiar jazz standards, but played in a very tipsy and off-kilter manner. Art Tatum on acid is a possible reference.

Side two continues with Sun Ra covering “Easy Street”, sometimes almost straight, but then veering off into humorous deconstructions. The following number, “Blue Differentials”, continues Sun Ra’s odd take on traditional jazz piano forms, but the rest of side two takes us into a much more personal musical vision. Its hard to describe the music on the closing numbers, (“Monorails and Satellites” and “The Galaxy Way”), longtime Sun Ra fans may recognize some of this, but when Ra goes this route, he sounds like no one else. These two iconic closers and the brilliantly constructed opening cuts make this a must have for Sun Ra fans.
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