Known primarily as a composer and bandleader – and leader of a varyingly large ensemble at that – Sun Ra’s small-group and solo recordings are exceedingly uncommon, and not often sought out among those who want to hear the Arkestra at its swingingest and most powerful. But if the dynamic weight isn’t quite the same in a quartet as in a twelve-piece band, an unfettered intimacy is certainly developed in such a format. Joined here by regulars John Gilmore (primarily on drums) and reedman Danny Davis, as well as bassist Stafford James, The Night of the Purple Moon is, along with the fine Horo quartet dates New Steps and Other Voices, Other Blues, a standout Ra recording from his third decade on the scene.
Originally released on Saturn in 1970 and apparently slated for Impulse reissue, this is the first time the session has made it onto CD. Here, it’s augmented by an alternate of “Love in Outer Space” and three 1964 solo keyboard/celeste recordings. The surprises on this record are numerous, and begin with Gilmore’s ability as a drummer. Of course, he’s frequently taken the role of percussionist in the Arkestra, along with nearly everyone else in the band, but this was a collective role rather than a standout one. In the quartet setting, Gilmore is on a regular kit for all but four of the date’s eleven original tracks. He contributes light, free chatter to the jagged “A Bird’s Eye View of Man’s World” and cooks mightily on the funky straight-time “Sun-Earth Rock.” Gilmore is not in the league of Clifford Jarvis, Robert Barry or Bugs Cochran (and it’s doubtful he would belabor the point), but it’s a pleasant surprise to hear his easygoing backbeat and tasteful propulsion in the proceedings. Purple Moon wouldn’t be a Ra record without a Gilmore tenor feature, and it is here on “Impromptu Festival,” which features a highly memorable unison tenor-Rocksichord theme in addition to spirited interplay atop the James-Davis rhythm section.
Ra has the proceedings all to himself on three mini-Moog features, including “Blue Soul” and “Narrative.” Ra’s mastery of a very specific area of keyboard wizardry is on full display in the hazy spirals of “Blue Soul,” but the horn-less “Dance of the Living Image” is positively jovial in its alternately coy and rambunctious soloing by the leader, over James’s rubbery electric bass and the twin percussion of Gilmore and Davis. There’s a sickly clunk to “Love in Outer Space,” made more outwardly present on the alternate on which Davis’s leaky alto clarinet is at the fore in the beginning, Ra childishly (or devilishly) hunting and pecking even as his hands sail. The unaccompanied keyboard studies unearthed from six years earlier are curious, Ra finding a groove through insistence on modified Wurlitzer and on one example, Monkish celeste. Perhaps it’s prescient that Atavistic chose to reissue two Ra recordings seemingly at odds in their aesthetics. But rather than The Night of the Purple Moon being, as the liner notes state, the “accessible” session, it is the improviser to Strange Strings’ sound-sculptor.
Posted by clifford on July 27, 2007 10:59 PMAmong my favourites Sun Ra albums , stand the two double Horo lps in quartet with John Gilmore Michaël Ray and Luqman Ali recorded in Roma 1977. Sun Ra Quartet : Other Voices Other Blues HDP 23-24 & New Steps HDP 25-26. Horo vanished in beginning 80's. This quartet format shows admirably well the sensitivity of both Ra and Gilmore and how good was already the then- young trumpet player, Michael Ray. There were no fireworks or acrobatics in this music but rather a melancholic and intimate climate stepped in to the blues with sometimes a little bit of funk. The sound of Gilmore is warm and listening to this , I think, that's a lot of babble with the lessons of JG to Coltrane that Valerie Wilmer wrote about. There's a peaceful My Favourite Things (on tenor sax !) opening the first track of New Steps and a Sun Steps penned by Ra which bring to mind the Giant Steps of the Trane.
Gilmore was to Trane what a Clifford Jordan was to Rollins or something like that. At that time Jordan was touring often Europe with Cedar Walton Sam Jones and Billy Higgins (Steeple Chase made six lps'). Ra is playing some electronic keyboard not in his weird fashion and the grand. This album is revelatory about the weight, pace and substance of his pianisms in a small setting. The leader is unequivocally a collective player and never try to impress the listener by technical means. You will agree listening to this why some put Sun Ra in the same "category" as that of Paul Bley, Ran Blake, Jaki Byard , although I never heard Ra doing the brilliant acrobatics Byard was capable of (Live at Lennie on the turnpike - Prestige or the album with Rahasaan Kirk on the same label). In these Horo albums , whatever you can think about jazz tradition, continuity or evolution , you get the feeling of an ideal afro-american music far more than a big deal of the stuff that one (the current crop of jazz producers/businessmen) try to convince you jazz is to be. Other Voices, Other Blues & New Steps have the marks of authenticity.
Right on, Jean Michel, I'll have to look for those 2 you mentiona and check this one out.
Michael Ray lived here in my town for a number of years and even though I wasn't always wild about his "Kosmic Krewe" bands (a little too slick-funky for my tastes, clearly the influence of his time with Kool & the Gang) he was and is always an amazing trumpet player. Two gigs memorable in particular - one was a concert I organized for Billy Bang, Frank Lowe, + Abbey Rader. Michael sat in on the encore and played some of the tune snippets Bang and Lowe were quoting, but in a high register that most trumpet players use to cap off a solo - M.Ray could actually navigate clearly in this super-high range. On another my band was doing a gig with guest Jonathan LaMaster on violin. Michael's band was on the bill and he asked if he could play with us - whoa! he proceeded to blow the walls off the joint with us for the entire set. A real treat for me to get to hang with him in a more expressionist/free-jazz type setting. Also got to see him playing with Marshall Allen recently and way back in '89 I remember first seeing him sit in with Ed Blackwell's Quartet (the connection there being Arkestra member Ahmed Abdullah, who was in Blackwell's group).
These days he's back living in Philly I hear. Any word from anyone on his activities there?
Dear Rob, these Horo double lp's are quite difficult to get even in Italy and besides some tapes sent to the label most of the sessions have never or not yet (to my knowledge) resurfaced somewhere. The label ceased his activities abruptly. It was a better business (as far the ethic is concerned) than , let say, BYG, but a less serious job than INCUS or Black Saint.
Much of the recordings were sessions or live recordings like the Tuba Trio of Sam Rivers recorded in Perugia and on the Trasimene lake, one of the most beautiful place in Italy .There is an Archie Shepp with Harris and Brown , very good, a Lester Bowie double (never heard) , one Ran Blake, one Jeanne Lee - Gunther Hampel, three single lps of Steve Lacy , one Aldo Romano Jenny Clarck , . E - BAY is full of offers over 50 usd. The Bennink Schiano Rutherford Mengelberg double is at 69 usd. Rutherford in it is great . Paul Rutherford is the greatest poet of the trombone that I have ever heard. When Ray, Hannes, the late Albert, Alan T are often wild and powerful , I rarely heard such delicacy and details on a trombone in relationship with pitch. Rutherford was gifted melodically to the point he made singing abstract sounds. Milo Fine has a Lotus Sound cd called Precision in Inexactitude....... or call it Control of the Random : Paul was amazing about the precision of very high pitch, all his noises are related to pitches in his own personnal scales and intervals.
His notes and tones are emotionally what players like Miles Davis or Chet Baker did in their own styles. I don't think that I have heard a be-bop t-bone player with such feelings. Derek Bailey wrote that his Solo Gentle Harm of Bourgeoisie is the ultimate solo free improvised recording album number one. Listen to DB own Lot 74 (nor reissued) solo improvisations on Incus , that 's a similar feeling of abandon ( Why this album is the lesser quoted by critics ??)
Also as I have caught Paul and a lot of trombone players on a bandstand without mike and PA , Rutherford is remarkable because he never overblows and all his sounds are heard very distinctively in a large hall with around one hundred and more "clothed" listeners although some of the sounds of many of his colleagues "stay on the bandstand" and are not reaching our ears. I have met him sometimes these last years and , believe me , he was not in the shape of praticing his due two / three hours (a day) unless most of his colleagues couldn't play the whole horn. One of his colleagues was stunned by his ability to play his horn while not being in shape physically and very tired.
An exceptional ear for pitch equal to his very sincerity and unpretentiousness........ a great musician !!
And you're right Michael Ray (as John Gilmore) is a very underrated player......... amazing high pitch agitator, very different than Paul but as my "moods" listeing tastes , I enjoy him a lot in these superbs Sun Ra rare Quartets recordings
Ouf !! bye fr now
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