Sun ra Fate in a Pleasant Mood

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.

Sun Ra & His Arkestra - Love In Outer Space (1983) {Leo Records ‎CDLR154 rel 1988}
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© 1983, 1988 Leo Records ‎| CD LR 154
Jazz / Experimental Big Band / Avant-Garde Jazz / Cosmic Jazz / Progressive Jazz

Another good live date courtesy of Leo Records, this one from December of 1983. This release is notable for both the fairly straight-ahead program and the fact that Sunny plays LOTS of piano as opposed to his synthesizers. In fact, there are no synthesizers heard until the "Love in Outer Space/Space Is the Place" medley, which is the last track. "Blues Ra" is a special treat; nearly five minutes of Ra playing a straight 12-bar blues on piano, accompanied by only a drummer and a bass player (who is slightly buried in the mix). Sound quality is quite good, and the band is in their usual fine form. As with the rest of the Sun Ra releases on Leo, it's probably not the place to start, but well worth owning if you've already been bitten by the Sun Ra bug.

Sun Ra - We Travel The Spaceways & Bad And Beautiful (1992) {Evidence ECD22038-2 rec 1956-1961}
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© 1956-61, 1992 Evidence Music | ECD 22038-2
Jazz / Avant-Garde Jazz / Experimental Big Band / Progressive Jazz

Much like Evidence's Fate in a Pleasant Mood/When Sun Comes Out two-fer, We Travel the Spaceways/Bad and Beautiful also features one album from the Chicago period and one from the New York period. The difference is that this New York session (Bad and Beautiful) is probably the first recording made in New York, and the overall sound is more closely tied to the Chicago sound than the later New York material, where rhythm and percussion dominated any melodic elements.

One of the towering figures of 20th century's music, Alabama-born pianist and organist Herman "Sun Ra" Blount (1914) became the cosmic musician par excellence. Despite dressing in extraterrestrial costumes (but inspired by the pharaohs of ancient Egypt) and despite living inside a self-crafted sci-fi mythology (he always maintained that he was from Saturn, and no biographer conclusively proved his birth date) and despite littering his music with lyrics inspired to a self-penned spiritual philosophy (he never engaged in sexual relationships apparently because he considered himself an angel), Sun Ra created one of the most original styles of music thanks to a chronic disrespect for both established dogmas and trendy movements.

Alexander Hawkins - Iron Into Wind (2019) {Intakt CD 330}
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© 2019 Intakt Records | Intakt CD 330
Jazz / Contemporary Jazz / Solo Piano

Alexander Hawkins is a creative epicentre from the London jazz scene and is regarded in the UK as one of the most innovative musicians of the younger generation with a surprising radius of action. He plays with Evan Parker, Wadada Leo Smith, Taylor Ho Bynum, Louis Moholo, Shabaka Hutchings and Elaine Mitchener. 'Iron into Wind' is the name of his new piano solo.