Myth Syzer Voeux

When Angels Speak of Love, released in 1966 on Sun Ra's Saturn label, is a rarity, there having been limited pressings (150 copies, by one estimate), which were sold thru the mail and at concerts and club dates. The tracks were taped in New York during two 1963 sessions at the Choreographer's Workshop, a rehearsal space/recording den with warehouse acoustics. Ra spent countless hours at the CW from 1961 to 1964 sharpening the Arkestra during exhaustive musical huddles. John Corbett calls this "one of the most continuous, best-documented periods of Ra's work"; much tape from these seminal sessions has survived and been issued on LP, CD and digitally.

These two discs from Sun Ra and his Solar Myth Arkestra are not, as their title suggests, parts of a singular or continuous work. They were initially issued as two separate titles – similar to the two-part Heliocentric Worlds of Sun Ra – by the Belgian BYG Actuel label in 1971. Both volumes consist of mid-fidelity and primarily self-realized and -produced recordings. Despite the claim that these sides were taped in New York City at Sun Studios, Ra discographer Robert L. Campbell notes that by the time these tracks were documented, the Arkestra had ended its N.Y.C. residency and returned to Philadelphia.

Biffy Clyro release the surprise new project The Myth of the Happily Ever After. The record is a homegrown project that represents a reaction to their #1 album A Celebration of Endings and a rapid emotional response to the turmoil of the past year. It is the ying to the yang of A Celebration, the other-side-of-a-coin, a before-and-after comparison: their early optimism of 2020 having been brought back to earth with a resounding thud. It’s the product of a strange and cruel time in our lives, but one that ultimately reinvigorated Biffy Clyro.

The band was formed in 1989 by Rick Eddy and Tim Drumheller, an American duo of multi-instrumentalists who handle keyboards, guitars, percussions, flute and trumpet, although they regularly enlist the contribution of talented guest musicians on drums and percussion. Heavily keyboard based (especially the piano), their style is a curious mixture of jazz, rock and classical (symphonic) music with dark, mysterious overtones without being sinister - more like suspenseful. Even when the guys kick into high gear the atmosphere remains tension-filled. As far as comparisons go, names such as Gentle Giant, Van der Graaf Generator or ELP have surfaced but none truly convey the originality of this twosome, whose sublime interplay and strong emphasis on counterpoint cleverly blends all of these bands' styles and more, resulting in a unique contemporary sound of its own.

This is the third and final guest appearance by clarinetist Bill Smith in the place of Paul Desmond with the Dave Brubeck Quartet. Like the earlier record dates, this 1961 session focuses exclusively on Smith's compositions, resulting in a very different sound for the band than its normal mix of the leader's songs and standards. Smith was a member of Brubeck's adventurous octet of the late '40s and, like the pianist, also studied with French composer Darius Milhaud. So the clarinetist is willing to take chances, utilizing a mute on his instrument in "Pan's Pipes," and having drummer Joe Morello use his timpani sticks on the piano strings in the swinging "The Unihorn." Smith proves himself very much in Desmond's league with his witty solos and equally amusing, pun-filled liner notes…

Sun Ra & his Myth Sience Arkestra - Fate In A Pleasant Mood / When Sun Comes Out (1993) {Evidence ECD 22068-2 rec 1960-1963}
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© 1960-63, 1993 El Saturn / Evidence Music | ECD 22068-2
Jazz / Experimental Big Band / Avant-Garde Jazz / Cosmic Jazz / Progressive Jazz

Before Sun Ra careened into the jazz avant-garde with his banks of electrickeyboards and highwire group improvisations, he made recordings like *Fatein a Pleasant Mood.* Rich with Ra's persistent astro-mythology, *Fate* is equally rich with an immersion in the history of big band music. The charts played on Fate are as orchestrally complex as anything Duke Ellington wrote, yet they still maintain a clear position on the cusp of the avant-garde. More than anything, changes are the order on Fate, fast runs across difficult melody statements, on-the-fly changes in harmonic aims and rhythmic jumps that illuminate just how completely Sun Ra understood the overlap of jazz traditions as the 1960s approached.

PROVIDENCE were formed in 1985. For some years around their foundation they had changed the members or produced some demo tapes but they could not appear upon major scene in those days. In 1989 they saw the light with solidifying their members and recording their debut album 'And I'll Recite An Old Myth' (released in the following year), in that Madoka TSUKADA (keyboards) composed all songs. This album has got renowned also with the collaboration of Christian Beya (ex-Atoll). After replacing some members in 1991, PROVIDENCE had got more active on stage or production. In 1996 they released their second work 'There Once Was A Night Of Choko-Muro The Paradise'. PROVIDENCE had gigged in Japan actively until 2002 but sadly been disbanded without any notice.

Sun Ra - God Is More Than Love Can Ever Be (2018) {Cosmic Myth Records CMR 003}
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© 2018 Cosmic Myth Records | CMR 003
Jazz / Avant-Garde Jazz / Progressive Jazz

Sun Ra is best known for the extensive archive of recordings he made with his Arkestra, and most Ra enthusiasts are probably first attracted to his work by the sui generis imagination he brought to arranging for large ensembles. These span the recalibrated swing-band tropes of Jazz In Silhouette (Saturn, 1959), a perfect choice for an advanced-level Blindfold Test, through off-planet takes on exotica such as those compiled on the previously reviewed Exotica (Modern Harmonic, 2018), and on to such spectacularly experimental albums as The Heliocentric Worlds Of Sun Ra Vol. 1 (ESP, 1965).