Sun Ra and his Arkestra - HORIZON (Saturn Records 1972)
Sometime in the mid-late 1980's I was lucky to be in attendance for a talk and performance
by Sun Ra and his Arkestra in front of a small audience.After the talk I went along to a private
party for the Arkestra, where I was fortunate to sit (literally) at the feet of the Master.
At one point during this heady day, I reached into my napsack and pulled out 3 original Saturn l.p.'s and asked him to sign them- as soon as he saw them he said "These are meant to be looked at under different colored lights" while I was in the process of gettingout a handful of different colored hi-lighters. So I said "Then please choose the right colors".
I then pulled out a postcard of Saturn (from where he had claimed to have been borne) and asked-
"Can you send me a message from space?"
He replied- "That's beautiful- No one wants messages from space anymore." And he signed the postcard.
Ungrateful wretch that I was, I was a tad disappointed that he hadn't given me something more profound - a Message, that is...
A Dream (ca. June 1, 1993)
I have been dropped off by a flying machine of unknown origin on to the top of a high-rise building. I don't remember if it was daytime or nighttime.
I am in the city of Philadelphia.
I want to see Sun Ra's house. As I remember from a documentary, his address is 5626 Morton St.
I notice suddenly that I am not alone up here-there is a woman, dressed in Black, with a black hood almost entirely covering her face. She is facing away from me, and seems to have no interest in me at all.
I ask her if she knows where Morton Street is. Though it is dark, I am shielding my eyes, trying to look out into the distance as I ask her. She either says "no" or shakes her head
to indicate "no"- I forget which.
I then ask her if she knows which way is East, not that I know in which direction Morton Street lies.
She says "no" in some fashion, and the scene
fades away to...
Upon waking, I went into the kitchen, where my father, who is visiting me, is reading
the newspaper. He looks up and says:
"Sun Ra died."
...
So- It seems I got my message from space after all.
Horizon: Sun Ra and his Astro-Intergalactic-Infinity Arkestra, forming part of the documentation of their first visit to Egypt.
Recorded at the Ballon Theatre, Cairo.
In various editions, the record has sometimes been known by the other title of "Starwatchers"
Side One:
1- Starwatchers/Theme of the Stargazers
Discipline 2
Shadow World
Side Two:
2- Third Planet
Space is the Place
Horizon
Discipline 8
Personnel
John Gilmore - tenor saxophone
Danny Davis - alto saxophone, flute
Marshall Allen - alto saxophone, flute, oboe
Kwame Hadi - trumpet, conga drums
Pat Patrick - baritone saxophone
Elo Omoe - bass clarinet
Tommy Hunter - percussion
Danny Thompson - baritone saxophone, flute
June Tyson - vocal
Larry Narthington - alto saxophone, conga drum
Lex Humphries - percussion
Clifford Jarvis - percussion
Hakim Rahim - alto saxophone, flute
Sun Ra - organ, Mini Moog, piano
Tam Fiofori - Engineer
Live album by Sun Ra and his Arkestra
Released 1972
Recorded December 17, 1971
5626 Morton St, Philadelphia-Sun's House
file repaired
(1)
This blog is awe-SOME. You go everywhere, you go out, but you don't get lost.
ReplyDeleteCheers!
What an amazing album.
ReplyDeleteBeautiful cover! Thanks for sharing the stories, too.
Thank you! It's always a treat to find some new Sun Ra (new to me, anyway). Great stories, too.
ReplyDeletelovely post. lovely(ist) blog - alway's grateful for it.
ReplyDeleteThis is so great! It sounds very different from the Art Yard reissue. Will you consider uploading it in FLAC? THANKS again!
ReplyDeleteI just found another message from space by clicking on Google Street View for 5626 Morton Street Philadelphia. The effect of the sun in the photo is, well... check it out (I'm not certain if it's enhanced or just an amazing coincidence).
ReplyDeleteThanks everybody.
ReplyDeleteSean- Is this the picture you mean?
It does sorta look like ectoplasm- like in those 'true ghost photos' from the 60's.Cool.
No, I mean if you look up Sun Ra's former house on Google Street View and adjust the perspective so you see the entire house there's the most intense sunrise going on... and it's directly over 5626 Morton St. & none of the surrounding rowhouses (the pic at the bottom of this post is a truncated version, just tweak the view until you can see the entire house). It's pretty amazing.
ReplyDeleteI suppose the person who drives the Google car around may have been from Philadelphia, known about Sun Ra, and timed his drive-by right at that moment, but that seems less likely than the mystical explanation :)
Sean- I finally got it figured out- I've never used that thing before.(I imagine if one has played computer games it's a breeze moving around, but-) It took a while, but I got a view of what you describe, and it can be accessed via the link in Sun's name under the truncated, much less interesting version (where you can only surmise what's going on outside frame top left.)
ReplyDeleteThanks for everything.
I hope the repair will be done soon! Really enjoyed your Sun Ra postcard encounter and subsequent dream story...I have the strange feeling someone like Sun Ra would have influence into the implicate non-local universe bypassing space and time boundaries and delivering the message in dream time...
ReplyDelete...if its the choice between the above interpretation and the dreary scientific-materialist "coincidence" explanation then aesthetically I prefer the former!
space is the place!
Considering how impossible it might be to collect all the Sun Ra in the world, this would be a welcome addition but the link is down. Could you re-up this please?
ReplyDeleteI'd also appreciate it a lot if you could re-up this album. Thanks in advance!
ReplyDelete