Shortly after their landing in NYC, Tom Wilson (responsible for Jazz By Sun Ra's financing) gave the band the opportunity to go into a Newark, N.J. studio and record a fresh album, eventually titled The Futuristic Sounds of Sun Ra. On this session, the Arkestra quintet was fortified with contributions from guest performers such as Detroit
euphonium/trombone player Bernard McKinney, drummer Willie Jones and conga
drummer Leah Ananda. Additionally, Marshall Allen began playing the "morrow", a homemade instrument which consists of a clarinet mouthpiece attached to a shakuhachi, allowing for a timbre in between both. With the entire Arkestra also contributing on percussion, these new timbres allowed for the band to reach out even farther towards a bop/exotica/avant-garde "spaceways" sound. "The Beginning", "New Day" and "Looking Outward" in particular lean towards some some avant-garde ("free") tendencies which would be even more fully embraced in just a couple years.
In his 1997 book
Space Is the Place: The Lives and Times of Sun Ra, John F. Szwed writes:
Sun Ra had the octet plus vocalist format he often used in Chicago, and they produced a record which could have easily represented their repertoire during an evening at a club there: included were some especially angular and contrapuntally played bebop tunes like “Jet Flight,” Latin vamps, ballads such as “China Gate” (sung by Ricky Murray in a Billy Eckstine baritone against bells and gongs), and modal pieces like “Where Is Tomorrow,” with two flutes and a bass clarinet improvising collectively over a lower-register single-chord figure on the piano against a tambourine back-beat. But there was also something new: in “The Beginning,” wood blocks, maracas, claves, and conga drum established a fast pulse over which a long, languorous exchange was set up between bass clarinet and trombone free of any harmonic structure or song form; and in “New Day,” the same open form allowed Gilmore’s bass clarinet and Marshall Allen’s homemade morrow (a Japanese shakuhachi with a Bb clarinet mouthpiece) to intertwine freely, yet play with a beat and atmospherics which could have come straight from Martin Denny’s exotic workshop in Hawaii, all of it buoyantly danceable.In his 1993 article "Sun Ra - Supersonic Sounds From Saturn", Robert L. Campbell notes John Coltrane's interest in John Gilmore's playing at the time, as demonstrated in the track "Jet Flight".
After a frenetic bop head, Gilmore launches into a punchy, fragmented solo, full of abrupt stops and starts. “Space Jazz Reverie” offers another sample. Pieces like “New Day” and “Looking Outward” on the Savoy album are jaunts through the bush, with sinuous winds gliding over congas, bongos, sticks, bells, and scrapers. Marshall Allen used his flute on these pieces; Gilmore used the bass clarinet he had picked up shortly before leaving Chicago. He had a genial, woody tone in his lower register, and a keening cry up top.
Sun Ra: Piano
Marshall Allen: Alto Sax, Flute, Morrow (shakuhachi with clarinet mouthpiece attached)
John Gilmore: Tenor Sax, Bass Clarinet
Pat Patrick: Baritone Sax
Ronnie Boykins: Bass
Willie Jones: Drums
Bernard McKinney (Kiane Zawadi): Trombone, Euphonium
Leah Ananda: Conga
Ricky Murray: Vocals (on "China Gate").
Additional percussion by the members of the Arkestra.
The Futuristic Sounds of Sun Ra (rel. 1962)
All tracks recorded at Medallion Studio, Newark, NJ, October 10th. 1961 and written by Sun Ra (except for "China Gate", Harold Adamson, Victor Young).
1. "Bassism"
This loping mid-tempo piece opens on a jovial bass riff with lurching piano ornaments on top, but soon features rounded horns in an AABA main theme section. Bassist Ronnie Boykins then introduces two solos, a swirling flute lead featuring Marshall Allen, followed by a bluesier spotlight from Bernard McKinney (trombone, with brass and cowbell adding accent figures). After a brief bowed bass transition, McKinney continues to solo over the main theme's final chorus.
2. "Of Sounds And Something Else"
A modulating piano trio leads into a mid-tempo swing tune featuring solos from McKinney (trombone), John Gilmore (tenor sax), and Sun Ra (piano) over a fairly straightforward harmony. McKinney's muted euphonium is featured over a restatement of the theme at the end.
3. "What's That?"
This is a churning up-tempo swing tune with a thorny, accented head melody. McKinney takes a solo on trombone, followed by a collective lead section featuring intertwining horn lines from Pat Patrick, Marshall Allen and John Gilmore. Afterwards, Sun Ra offers a witty lead on his own, followed by a return of the main theme.
4. "Where Is Tomorrow?"
This relaxed, swaying swing tune has some interesting syncopated figures in its main theme. This is followed by a mischievous modal vamp featuring a duet between Marshall Allen's flute and John Gilmore's bass clarinet. Sun Ra is then featured in a solo where he plays around with some low-register figures, after which the main theme returns.
5. "The Beginning"
Threads of exotic percussion sounds open this piece, but soon coalesce into a tapestry over which Gilmore (bass clarinet) and McKinnon (muted euphonium) present "primeval" figures drifting on a river of free harmony. Sun Ra and Marshall Allen (briefly on flute) eventually join in as well, with Ra's piano steering the piece towards a somewhat more centralized modality. The piece eventually returns to the forest of percussion, punctuated with Boykins' bass pulses.
6. "China Gate" (Harold Adamson, Victor Young)
This arrangement features Ricky Murray's plaintive vocals and a plethora of bells over an eastern-sounding processional groove. Sun Ra eventually takes a brief piano solo (featuring an "ethnic" flavor), after which a final vocal chorus leads the song to a "ringing" end.
7. "New Day"
An accented bass figure and exotic percussion textures introduce a mid-tempo groove, allowing for the entrance of Marshall Allen playing a shakuhachi fitted with a clarinet mouthpiece (a "morrow"). The groove eventually becomes a bit more elaborate, over which Allen continues his solo on shakuhachi but with the clarinet attachment discarded. A bass vamp brings on a brief duet between Allen on morrow and Gilmore on bass clarinet, before a percussion spotlight finishes off the piece.
8. "Tapestry From An Asteroid"
A nuanced piano trio opens this lushly-orchestrated ballad. After the theme statement (led by McKinnon's euphonium), the brass ensemble usher in an inviting bridge section before the main theme returns. This relatively simple tune would be further developed over the years in many live arrangements. An earlier version of this tune would later surface on the album We Travel the Spaceways (1967).
9. "Jet Flight"
This uptempo swing tune has a limber bebop head featuring tricky accents and understated counterpoint lines. John Gilmore then presents a bracing solo filled with jagged rhythmic figures (one can imagine this particular lead influencing John Coltrane's solo flight in "Chasin' the Trane", recorded at the Village Vanguard that same year). McKinney follows with a solo on trombone, while Sun Ra adds a final solo rife with clever syncopation. A final restatement of the theme closes out this "hot-rodded" swing-bop number.
10. "Looking Outward"
A tight snare beat rhythm introduces an eerie harmony on winds (Marshall Allen on flute and Gilmore on bass clarinet). Allen and Gilmore's parts soon bifurcate into separate threads, expanding the florid atmosphere into multiple layers of harmony. Finally, a conga solo by guest percussionist Leah Ananda finishes off this moody piece.
11. "Space Jazz Reverie"
This bouncy mid-tempo swing-bop tune has a nebulous opening theme featuring piano and trombone which is soon joined by slightly less-forbidding accents from the rest of the horn section. This is followed by a spotlight section in which Sun Ra injects nimble piano leads in between solos from McKinnon (trombone), Gilmore (bass clarinet and then tenor sax), and Marshall Allen (alto sax), before a final restatement of the theme.
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