Search - Sun Ra & His Arkestra :: Live at Montreux

Live at Montreux
Sun Ra & His Arkestra
Live at Montreux
Genres: Jazz, Pop
 
  •  Track Listings (7) - Disc #1
  •  Track Listings (7) - Disc #2

From the original album liner notes in 1976: Nothing has grown more tiresome in our hype-saturated era than claims of people being ahead of their time. Given the recent raising of extra-terrestrial consciousness generat...  more »

     
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CD Details

All Artists: Sun Ra & His Arkestra
Title: Live at Montreux
Members Wishing: 5
Total Copies: 0
Label: Inner City
Original Release Date: 1/1/2010
Re-Release Date: 5/9/2008
Album Type: CD
Genres: Jazz, Pop
Styles: Avant Garde & Free Jazz, Swing Jazz
Number of Discs: 2
SwapaCD Credits: 2
UPC: 077712710398

Synopsis

Product Description
From the original album liner notes in 1976: Nothing has grown more tiresome in our hype-saturated era than claims of people being ahead of their time. Given the recent raising of extra-terrestrial consciousness generated by Star Wars and Close Encounters of the Third Kind, I wouldnt be surprised to find Sun Ra, whose Arkestra has been out there for over 20 years, hailed as a harbinger of R2D2 in some quarters. While the connection is not totally tenuous (compare the theme of Lights on a Satellite, written no later than 1959, with the musical greeting in Close Encounters), it is Sun Ras numerous compositional and ensemble techniques that make him truly prophetic. From 1955, when Sun Ra began recording his Arkestra, one hears not only complex, irregular structures and model improvisation but miscellaneous percussion, odd meters and polyrhythms, electronic keyboards and the use of two keyboards at once. By the end of the 50s Sun Ra and his band were into the whole area of noise elements and collective sonic exploration, while his elaborate stage shows and vocal interludes paved the way for the currently popular Parliament/Funkadelic. A Sun Ra concert is truly something else more than music and more than musical theater, it is a self-created and self-contained mythic universe. Two dozen men and women, dressed in outrageous space garb, carry on for hours without pause, spanning all of jazz history from staples of the original Duke Ellington or Fletcher Henderson books to ethereal child-like tunes and the outraged caterwaulings of the entire horn section. Enjoy two discs worth of the musical magic and mischief that is Sun Ra on this classic Inner City re-release.

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CD Reviews

If one Ra disc is all you can buy in your lifetime!
Jazz Headcase | Indiana USA | 02/18/2004
(5 out of 5 stars)

"THIS should be the one! I've been patiently waiting for this to be reissued on CD as the LP has been out of print for many years.From the opening vocal chant/percussion to the abrupt segue into wailing reeds and horns to John Gilmore's technically and musically adept gallop through Ellingtonia to Star Wars-like "Lights on a Satellite" to the closing "We Travel The Spaceways" singalong, this disc is the epitome of Sun Ra's group as they sounded live in 1976. Powerful, emotive, creative and challenging, this disc keeps your attention for the two hours + of its length. Aside from the portions listed above, "El is the sound of joy" brings a fanfare of trumpets that for some reason invokes the spirit of live ARt Ensemble of Chicago to mind for me. There isn't one minute of music on this disc that is superfluous. It will alternately tear you up and tearDROP you up. I consider this disc essential listening not just for Sun Ra fans, not just for fans of avant garde jazz, but for everyone who would like their ears and musical conceptions stretched a bit. As the proud owner of nearly 5000 pieces of avant garde jazz music, this disc is #1 on my list and has been since I first heard it in 1981. It just might become a favorite of yours as well."
Feels Like The First Time
Mr. Richard D. Coreno | Berea, Ohio USA | 10/26/2008
(5 out of 5 stars)

"Though Sun Ra was well into his third decade of artistry, this 1976 live set was an introduction to a wider audience.



The double album - back in a period when such releases were all the rage - features the 15 piece Intergalactic Cosmo Arkestra and has 14 selections that were familiar to fans, such as On Sound Infinity Spheres, El is the Sound of Joy, We Travel the Spaceways and Take the "A" Train, Sun Ra's salute to Duke Ellington.



With a hefty catalog of albums - but many on independent labels or limited editions only available at concerts - this release then and now is an outstanding way to begin the journey into the influential and amazing career of an iconic jazz performer."
The Ra album to measure all others by
T. Bayard Williams | baltimore, md United States | 11/01/2009
(5 out of 5 stars)

"This is the quintessential Sun Ra CD. Great sound, big band, at the pinnacle of his creative and visionary talents: avant guard and "Take the A Train". This disc is a must."