JULY 12

                           SUN RA
                    Sun Song
             
                    Recording Date:
                         July 12, 1956

                    Personnel:
                         Sun Ra             O,P

                         Robert Barry     D
                         Richard Evans   B,D
                         John Gilmore    Per,TS  
                         Wilburn Green   B,G
                         James Herndon  Tym
                         Arthur Hoyle      TP
                         Pat Patrick         B
                          Julian Priester   TB,Ch
                          James Scales     AS
                          Dave Young       TP  

 

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Review by Lindsay Planer
Originally issued as Jazz By Sun Ra in 1956, Sun Song was the first long-player to feature the enigmatic bandleader. However, his various bands — or "Arkestras" as Ra proclaimed them — had been issuing 78 and 45 rpms since the mid '50s. This recording initiated a much larger audience to the multifarious and otherwise logical post-bop rhythms of one of jazz's most notorious and equally respected figures. The sides which comprise Sun Song were recorded on July 12, 1956 by Tom Wilson, who would go on to produce such rock luminaries as Frank Zappa, Simon and Garfunkel, Bob Dylan, and the Velvet Underground, among others. Wilson's use of Chicago's premier Universal Recording Studio accounts for the amazing crispness and attention to nuance omnipresent throughout the disc. Ra's highly arithmetical approach to bop was initially discounted by noted jazz critic Nat Hentoff as "repetitious" with phrases which were "built merely on riffs with little development." In retrospect, however, it is obvious there is much more going on here. Among the musical innovations woven into compositions, such as the up-tempo "Brainville" and "Transition," are advanced time signatures coupled with harmonic scales based on Ra's mathematical equations. The intricate harmonies and complicated arrangements on "Possession" and "Sun Song" are inspiring in their deceptive simplicity. Text originally featured in a booklet accompanying Jazz By Sun Ra is reproduced in the CD liner notes booklet. This is noteworthy as one of the rare occasions upon which he sought to explain not only his influences, but his methods of composition and modes of execution as well. This may well be the most accessible work in Sun Ra's massive catalogue. It is likewise one of the most beautiful.