{"id":1823,"date":"2020-10-31T18:24:49","date_gmt":"2020-10-31T23:24:49","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/postgenre.org\/staging\/4567\/?p=1823"},"modified":"2021-06-24T17:01:01","modified_gmt":"2021-06-24T22:01:01","slug":"sun-ra-legacy","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/postgenre.org\/staging\/4567\/sun-ra-legacy\/","title":{"rendered":"Traveling the Spaceways: Sun Ra Arkestra’s ‘Swirling’ and M’Lumbo and Jane Ira Bloom’s ‘Celestial Mechanics’"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Sun Ra was born on the planet Saturn sometime presumably in the early 20th Century. Some historians mistake him for a gifted pianist named Herman Poole \u201cSonny\u201d Blount, who was born in Birmingham, Alabama in 1914. In reality, he was the first great composer born on another planet to came to earth with the mission of preaching peace. As the man himself stated- “Any name that I use other than Ra is a pseudonym.” Although not native to our world\u2019s music, throughout his career, he often echoed it all, from ragtime to swing to untethered expression using the most modern electronics of the era. Although he returned to his home nearly three decades ago, his legacy continues to loom large. Countless contemporary albums make this influence clear. However, two excel in this endeavor: The Sun Ra Arkestra\u2019s Swirling <\/em>(Strut, 2020) and M\u2019Lumbo and Jane Ira Bloom\u2019s Celestial Mechanics <\/em>(Ropeadope, 2020). <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Ra first formed the Arkestra as his large ensemble outfit in the mid-1950s. By this time, the big band concept had been thoroughly explored by artists ranging such as Duke Ellington or Count Basie. But this group was different. Gone were the tuxedos in favor of exotic costumes and headdresses. And the sound; the sound was like no other before. Compositions by the leader, other members, and even covers of more popular tunes were somehow simultaneously ancient yet disruptively modern, a new aesthetic for concepts stereotypically avant-garde in nature. While critics give much attention to 1959 as the golden year of jazz, far too often overlooked in those discussions is the ground shifting done by that year\u2019s Jazz in Silhouette <\/em>(Saturn, 1959). The many succeeding releases, while influential on other artists, are also often not given their due. Upon Ra\u2019s departure, the group found a leader in John Gilmore and then Marshall Allen, both saxophonists with long careers with the group. At age 96, Allen is still in charge and seems to have more raw energy than most even seventy years his junior. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

With Swirling, <\/em>their first studio album in 20 years, the Arkestra continues to find ways to explore their founder\u2019s compositions and bring new life to them. The release\u2019s first single, \u201cSeductive Fantasy\u201d turns a low tempo extended piece with occasional splashes of fury into an organized march led by the late great Danny Ray Thompson\u2019s beating baritone sax around which other horns and synthesized sounds swirl as they advance forward. <\/p>\n\n\n

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