Fate In A Pleasant Mood/Holiday For Soul Dance (1960)

Released in 1965, the album Fate In A Pleasant Mood was recorded during a marathon session in Milwaukee on June 14, 1960, the same session which produced tracks for Interstellar Low Ways, Holiday For Soul Dance (see below), Angels and Demons at Play and We Travel The Space Ways. Like those albums, it shows Sun Ra and his Arkestra consolidating the progress made in the preceding Chicago years and sees them continue to stretch the boundaries of harmony in a swing context (in other words, Sun Ra's themes here are as dry and witty as ever). Featuring one of the smaller Arkestra line-ups in this era (a seven-piece), the album also has Marshall Allen and John Gilmore demonstrate their flute and clarinet skills as a back up wind section (for example on "Lights On A Satellite").

In his 1993 article "Sun Ra - Supersonic Sounds From Saturn", Robert L. Campbell writes that the album...

"...emphasizes intimate Ra scores; the joyful, vaguely Caribbean “Fate in a Pleasant Mood” makes its debut, along with the mysteries of “The Others in their World,” the lush ballad “Lights of a Satellite,” the tangy blues “Ankhnaton,” and the middle-Eastern mambo “Kingdom of Thunder.” A suite called “Space Mates” offers star turns by Hardy with mallets and Allen on flute." 

In his 1997 book Space Is the Place: The Lives and Times of Sun Ra, John F. Szwed notes that:

This would be the last record of Sun Ra’s band from Chicago, and it includes “Space Mates”, a ballad for flute, piano, and drums which moves from free tempo to a slow ballad tempo and then back to free time; “Lights of a Satellite” with its Ellingtonish voicings; and “Distant Stars,” bebop with a startling harmonic configuration.

Personnel:

There's some confusion about the personnel on this session, but for the most part the names below are taken from "From Sonny Blount to Sun Ra: The Chicago Years" © Robert L. Campbell, Christopher Trent, and Robert Pruter.

Sun Ra: piano
John Gilmore: tenor sax, clarinet, percussion
Marshall Allen: alto sax, flute, bells
Phil Cohran: trumpet, cornet 
Nate Pryor: trombone, bells
Ronnie Boykins: bass
John L. Hardy: drums

(Some sources credit Lucious Randolph on trumpet instead of Phil Cohran.)

Fate In A Pleasant Mood (released 1965) 

Recorded at Elks Hall, Milwaukee, Wisconsin, June 14, 1960.

1. "The Others in Their World"

In this brief film-noirish piece, an understated opening leads to a warm, relaxed swing groove. Phil Cohran soon launches into a wide-open trumpet solo over a stomp groove, followed by a concise, undulating piano solo from Sun Ra. The shadowy opening sequence returns one more time to finish the piece.

2. "Space Mates"

The first part of this suite-like number features Sun Ra's piano and John Hardy's drums charting out a drifting "space waltz", punctuated by accents, rolls and sudden moments of silence. A second section in straight time (but still in a floating, ruminative mode) features a flute theme played by Marshall Allen, under which Sun Ra continues to slip in some "solar" keyboard harmonies. Hardy is then featured in a percussion program which shows off his skills with light and shade (and is eventually joined by intermittent, pulsing bass accents from Ronnie Boykins). This mood is then briefly transformed into a kind of extraterrestrial "hoe-down" before it settles back down into a closing piano cadenza in which Sun Ra revisits the earlier proceedings.

3. "Lights on a Satellite" 

This solo-less tune is notable for its tart top line and the imaginative way in which Sun Ra's orchestration mixes brass and wind textures (Marshall Allen and John Gilmore start out on saxophones but midway through the tune switch to flute and clarinet). 

After Ronnie Boykins' concise bass introduction, a tart, somewhat "tipsy" theme appears, led by Cohran's trumpet. A secondary, more accented brass figure soon appears, before a restatement of the first theme. Boykins's bowed bass is then featured, followed by a winds vamp based on the bass figure from the first theme (played by Marshall Allen and John Gilmore, now on flute and clarinet), leading back to Cohran's trumpet restatement of the main theme and a reprise of the accented figure, this time highlighted by the winds.  

4. "Distant Stars" (Ra-Boykins) 

This uptempo piece features a wry, drily-harmonized brass theme which incorporates some interesting contrapuntal lines. Phil Cohran then takes a boppish trumpet solo, followed by Gilmore on tenor sax. An accented wind figure then ushers in Sun Ra, whose piano solo modulates somewhere between swing and space-bop. A restatement of the theme finishes off this tightly-arranged composition.

5. "Kingdom of Thunder" (Ra-Allen) 

This amiable percussion-exotica showcase (highlighting John Hardy) features a main theme on flute and clarinet (Marshall Allen, John Gilmore). Phil Cohran (or Lucious Randolph?) soon enters with a bouncy trumpet solo over an exotic modal groove, followed by a flute solo (Allen again, here exploring some interesting variations of the secondary theme). After a short drum break the main theme returns, followed by a coda featuring an even more congenial variation of the main theme.

6. "Fate in a Pleasant Mood" 

This gently-swaying tune has a bright "scenic" flavor similar to that found in other Ra tone-portraits like "Planet Earth" and "Paradise". Although Sun Ra does allow himself a brief piano lead in the middle stretch, the song's main charm is the way in which Ra manages to re-orchestrate the modulating main theme in different variations throughout the piece. The B section of the theme also has some nice angularity to it.

7. "Ankhnaton"

An infectious loping piano figure introduces a lurching brass theme (including a zig-zagging secondary figure), after which a trumpet solo (Cohran) appears, followed by an alto sax solo (Allen). Restatements of the theme soon return (with brass accent and percussion variations), and a final brass fanfare ends the piece. Another version of this song (with two baritone saxes) also appears on Lady With the Golden Stockings/The Nubians of Plutonia.

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The same Milwaukee session also produced tracks for the 1970 album Holiday For Soul Dance (although "Early Autumn" reportedly comes from a session at Wonder Inn, Chicago, around October 1960). In contrast to Interstellar Low Ways and Fate In A Pleasant Mood (comprised of Sun Ra originals), these tracks are all Sun Ra arrangements of popular songs and standards (as well as one new piece by Phil Cohran). It features the same personnel as above but with Ricky Murray added on vocal for "Early Autumn". 

These readings are mostly pretty "inside" except for a pretty intricate intro for "Day By Day" and some impromptu-sounding Sun Ra piano intros and outros. Some of the smaller line-ups here (including two quartets and a quintet) also allow for the many facets of John Gilmore's tenor sax to be highlighted.

Holiday For Soul Dance (released 1970)

1. "But Not for Me" (George & Ira Gershwin) 

This bop-flavored arrangement (for a song originally appearing in Gershwin's 1930 musical Girl Crazy) features a crisp piano trio opening featuring Sun Ra, followed by the theme section and a deftly-played solo from John Gilmore on tenor. At the end, Gilmore returns with a tenor end tag which goes from sticky to soulful in just a few measures.

2. "Day by Day" (Cahn-Stordahl-Weston) 

This arrangement features some interesting layered rhythms and syncopated accents in an original opening section before the song "proper" arrives. The scope of Sun Ra's bold contribution to this piece can be heard when putting this side by side with Frank Sinatra's 1945 performance (not to mention Doris Day's). Solos: Allen: alto sax, Cohran: cornet.

3. "Holiday for Strings" (Rose-Gallo) 

In this intimate quartet reading, a cascading Sun Ra piano intro leads to a gentle swing arrangement of this tune (once known primarily as the theme for The Red Skelton Show). After a brief Ronnie Boykins bass spotlight, John Gilmore and Sun Ra exchange soulful solo statements.

4. "Dorothy's Dance" (Cohran) 

This is a cheerful swing tune written by Phil Cohran and driven by his bright cornet sound. The playing here is competent, but otherwise not particularly striking. Solos: Cohran: cornet, Allen: flute, Sun Ra: piano, Boykins: bass.

5. "Early Autumn" (Herman-Mercer-Burns) 

Featuring Ricky Murray on vocals, this is a fairly straight ballad (originally recorded by Woody Herman's band) with less obvious traces of Sun Ra's unique style of orchestration audible (although a few wry brass figures do manage to defiantly stand out). John Gilmore is featured in a tenor sax solo.

6. "(I Loves You) Porgy" (George Gershwin-Ira Gershwin-Heyward DuBose) 

A brief piano and flute duo (Ra and Allen) opens this reading of the 1935 Gershwin standard from Porgy and Bess. In this spare quintet arrangement, Gilmore gets to show off a more intimate side of his tenor in his featured solo spot.

7. "Body and Soul" (Green-Heyman-Sour-Eyton) 

In this standard from 1930 (famously recorded by Coleman Hawkins in 1939), Ra plays around with the harmony a bit in an opening piano trio before Gilmore comes in with a more straightforward reading of the theme on tenor sax (before he launches into his own solo space). This quartet arrangement eventually explores some interesting modulations in its solo choruses before a final Gilmore fanfare.

8. "(Keep Your) Sunny Side Up" (DeSylva-Brown) 

This uptempo swing-bop arrangement (of a song featured in the 1929 film Sunny Side Up) has some nice, wiry brass ensemble playing and features another smoking Gilmore tenor solo.

Links
Fate In A Pleasant Mood

2014 Bandcamp Release
Apple Music
Wiki Entry 
Temple.net Entry
United Mutations Entry  

Holiday For Soul Dance

2014 Bandcamp Release
Apple Music
Wiki Entry 
Temple.net Entry
United Mutations Entry