"Alongside heavy hardbop orchestrations (“Medicine for a Nightmare” with its menacing trombone snarls) and agreeable soul-jazz (“Kingdom of Not”) are lyrical Ra solo features (“Advice to Medics,” “Portrait of the Living Sky”) and a beautiful ballad for James Scales, Sun Ra, and percussion (“Springtime in Chicago”). And there in embryo is one of Sun Ra’s greatest compositions, “El is a Sound of Joy.”"
Super-Sonic Jazz (released 1957)
Personnel:
(Le) Sun Ra: piano, electric piano, Wurlitzer, Space Gong, percussionJohn Gilmore: tenor sax and/or percussion
Pat Patrick: alto & baritone sax and/or percussion
Arthur Hoyle: trumpet
Charles Davis: baritone sax
Julian Priester: trombone
James Scales: alto sax
Ronnie Boykins: bass
Victor Sproles: bass
Wilburn Green: electric bass
William Cochran: drums
Robert Barry: drums
Jim Herndon: tympani/timbali
1. "India" (rec. RCA Victor Studio, Chicago, November 21, 1956)
This hypnotic modal piece is driven by electric piano and percussion in a patient rhythm. After Sun Ra outlines the harmony with an electric piano lead figure, a muted trumpet solo from Art Hoyle is featured, followed by Jim Herndon's solo on timpani. In the final stretch, Sun Ra reenters with some additional soloistic ornamentation. Various forms of exotic percussion add color and drama to the proceedings throughout.INDIA is a vibrant thought in sound, projecting to the mind the feel of the soul of India.
2. "Sunology, Pt. 1" (rec. RCA Victor Studio, Chicago, November 21, 1956)
After a brass and floor tom fanfare, this track settles into a modulating, lushly-orchestrated brass theme section followed by a slow blues. A baritone sax solo from Charles Davis is followed by a tenor solo from John Gilmore and then an "orbiting" piano solo from Sun Ra. After Ra takes a chorus on Wurlitzer electric piano, Art Hoyle takes the final solo on trumpet before a final restatement of the modulating opening theme returns.
SUNOLOGY is a pleasant philosophy in sound, it is actually a suite of which India is a part. Sunology is a different kind of blues just like the sky is a different kind of blue, Sky blue is a daytime blue, the symbol of a sunny sky. Charles Davis is on baritone. Charles is a real person, you can hear it in his playing. William Cochran is on drums.
3. "Advice to Medics" (rec. either at Balkan Studio around March 22, 1956 or at a 1957 rehearsal with Clyde Williams)
This is a solo electric piano piece performed by Sun Ra, featuring tinkling ornamentation
accompanied by a jaunty left hand rhythm figure. After a soloistic interlude which explores a series of elaborately ornamented arpeggios, Ra returns to the jaunty opening rhythm for the ending cadence. (Likely due to it's "toy-like" keyboard texture, some people have theorized that this recording may have been sped up to double speed.)
ADVICE TO MEDICS is a leap forward into the better unknown. This is a Sun Ra solo specialty.
4. "Super Blonde" (rec. Balkan Studio, Chicago, around March 22, 1956)
This track was initially released as a single preceding Super-Sonic Jazz. Opening with a piano lead, this is a swing blues characterized with a brassy theme melody. Hoyle takes the opening trumpet solo, followed by Gilmore on tenor. After a wittily-harmonized ensemble bridge section, Julian Priester's trombone solo arrives, then Pat Patrick on baritone sax, and finally Sun Ra on piano (before a closing return to the head melody).
SUPER BLONDE is a happy story about a blonde who is just as super as someone else called super. Wilburn Green is on electronic bass; Pat Patrick on baritone; Robert Barry on drums.
5. "Soft Talk" (rec. Balkan Studio, Chicago, around March 22, 1956)
This uptempo track (composed by trombonist Julian Priester) was initially released on the same single featuring "Super Blonde". It opens with "crime jazz" baritone accents before launching into a head featuring tightly-accented melodic motifs. Gilmore's opening tenor solo is followed by several choruses featuring Priester's trombone and then Hoyle's trumpet.
SOFT TALK is a moving swingy concept of sweet nothings whispered in a manner modern. Julian Priester is on trombone; Patrick is on baritone.6. "Sunology, Pt. 2" (rec. RCA Victor Studio, Chicago, November 21, 1956)
After an opening dominated by an accented floor tom figure, this track revisits
the lush opening theme featured in "Sunology, Pt. 1". During the ensuing blues section, Davis' baritone solo (supported
by Ra's distinct piano ornaments) is followed by solos from Gilmore on tenor, Victor
Sproles on acoustic bass, Sun Ra on piano and electric piano, and finally two
choruses from Art Hoyle on trumpet.
7. "Kingdom of Not" (rec. RCA Victor Studio, Chicago, November 21, 1956)
After a finger-snapping opening lead figure (with hand claps), the secondary theme arrives with solo alto sax ornaments winding through ensemble brass accents. The opening piano solo quickly gives way to Davis' growling baritone coasting over a blues groove for a few choruses. Ra eventually returns with another piano solo followed by a Hoyle muted trumpet lead (during which Ra tastefully drops in some accent chords) and then a brief Herndon timpani solo. The song ends on a "fade-out".
KINGDOM OF NOT is not about a kingdom which is in the past but it is about a kingdom called Not which although it is not, yet is.
8. "Portrait of the Living Sky" (rec. RCA Victor Studio, Chicago, November 21, 1956)
Leaving behind the brass for a change, this "tone poem" opens with rustic piano figures over rolling percussion before then exploring some Debussy-like keyboard textures. In the final sequence, more complex piano harmonies sometimes surface, but are then just as quickly blown away.
PORTRAIT OF THE LIVING SKY is a tone poem, a sound etching of rare beauty and life. Jim Herndon is on tympani and timbali; William Cochran is on drums, and Victor Sproles is the bassist. Victor always plays with perfect intuition.
9. "Blues at Midnight" (rec. RCA Victor Studio, Chicago, November 21, 1956)
Picking up from the drum roll ending of "Portrait of the Living Sky", this lively blues opens with a brief solo from Ra on piano followed by several choruses from Gilmore on tenor. After Hoyle's trumpet solo the tune wraps with a brief Ra piano lead (ending on a syncopated chordal figure).
BLUES AT MIDNIGHT features John Gilmore on tenor; Art Hoyle on trumpet. Gilmore is playing with a joyful sound, chorus after chorus of new ideas blending with the rhythm section which is moving like a touch of fire.
10. "El is a Sound of Joy" (rec. RCA Victor Studio, Chicago, November 21, 1956)
A drum/timpani roll leads into a modulating ballad theme, which then leaps into a strutting mid-tempo groove featuring baritone sax and punctuated by an exotic theme melody. A somewhat Monkish piano solo from Sun Ra is accompanied by hand claps, after which Pat Patrick enters on alto sax. Another more aggressive piano break is quickly interrupted by a return to the ballad theme at the very end.
Pat Patrick is on alto. Pat is a very creative musician artist.
11. "Springtime in Chicago" (rec. Balkan Studio, Chicago, April 13, 1956)
This ballad opens with a cascading piano figure which then gives way to Scales' heartfelt alto sax lead. Ra's "out-of-tune" piano (see Szwed below) then takes over with metallic "space bells" (Gilmore) still situated in the foreground. This is followed by an "otherworldly" electric piano lead, after which Scales eventually returns with an elaborated version of the head as Wilburn Green's bass subdivides the beat to create a sense of urgency.
SPRINGTIME IN CHICAGO features James Scales on alto. All you have to do is shut your eyes to look at Chicago in the springtime because Scales is painting the picture with his heart and soul. Wilburn Green is playing electronic bass with just the right touch. SUN RA is on piano and electronic piano. Scales is a most unusual altoist.
In his book Space Is the Place: The Lives and Times of Sun Ra, John F. Szwed
writes:
"On “Springtime in Chicago” Sonny played a piano so out of tune it sounded “prepared,” altered for percussive effects. And the electronic delay used on this cut was so extreme that it reverberates like Jamaican dub music which would not be heard until the 1960s."
12. "Medicine for a Nightmare" (rec. Balkan Studio, Chicago, around March 22, 1956)
This uptempo swing tune is led by a muted trombone figure briefly broken by a brass ensemble cadence. Pat Patrick takes the first solo on baritone sax, followed by Sun Ra on "warbling" electric piano, then acoustic piano. This is followed by Priester's slightly distant trombone lead in the final ending stretch.
An alternate version of "Medicine for a Nightmare" from the same session first appeared on the 1996 compilation album Singles. On this version, the opening trombone figure from the LP version is performed by the entire brass section. The solo section follows the same order of players but Sun Ra plays acoustic piano and Priester's trombone solo is more upfront. The structure of the ending sequence in this version is also a bit more elaborated.
MEDICINE FOR A NIGHTMARE is full of fiery Counter rhythms; the pace is terrific. Robert Barry is on drums; Pat Patrick on baritone; Jim Herndon is playing tympani and timbali; Green is on electronic bass; Julian Priester is on trombone.
"Adventur(e) In Space"/"October" (single released in 1967)
This single from 1967 contains tracks recorded from the same late '50s period as the above tracks but contain early 20th Century "avant-garde" elements which would be more fully leveraged in the '60s. For example, "October" seems to imply a familiarity with Stravinsky's bitonality experiments, while "Adventure In Space" has elements found in many of Bartok's most energetic pieces. Additional commentary from Robert L. Campbell and Paul Griffiths follows.
"October" (recorded 1959)
"“October,” released on a single, shows off Sun Ra’s love of incongruities; it superimposes ballad statements by trumpet and piano over loud mooing pedal tones from tenor, baritone, and trombone. During the second half of the piece, lushly scored horns (led by the alto sax) try to seize control from the pedal tones, but they hang on till the end." ("Sun Ra - Supersonic Sounds From Saturn", Robert L. Campbell)
"'October’ is an autumnal ballad but replete with Ra's dissonances and intervallic idiosyncrasies. In the first theme statement, trumpeter Walter Strickland takes the elegant and angular melody. In the second iteration, the saxophones and a trombone play a re-harmonized version which shows Ellingtonian roots but also points the way towards Sun Ra's more open form explorations of the '60s New York era." (Paul Griffiths, from Singles liner notes)
"Adventur(e) In Space" (recorded 1956)
""Adventur in Space" skips the usual vowel ending in the title and is a quite unique quintet performance of piano, tympani, drums, bells and guiro. The piano line initially suggests the exotic Latin feel that Sunny had often used throughout the ‘40s and ‘50s but quickly veers off into a meteor storm of percussive piano clusters prefiguring his atonal rhythmic approach of the 1960s." (Paul Griffiths)2014 Bandcamp Release
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