SUN RA AND HIS ARKESTRA

SUN RA AND HIS ARKESTRA

Jazz Festival di Kongsberg Broadcast

Broadcast by NRK1, 1982-09-17 

The first time I ever heard Ornette Coleman was with his double quartet. I was absolutely and totally shocked. I had much the same reaction when I first heard Sun Ra. I can’t really say my reaction has changed much

Sun Ra's piano technique touched on many styles: his youthful fascination with boogie woogie, stride piano and blues, a sometimes refined touch reminiscent of Count Basie or Ahmad Jamal, and angular phrases in the style of Thelonious Monk or brutal, percussive attacks like Cecil Taylor. Often overlooked is the range of influences from classical music – Sun Ra cited Chopin, Rachmaninoff, Schoenberg and Shostakovich as his favorite composers for the piano.

As a synthesizer and electric keyboard player, Sun Ra ranks among one of the earliest and most radical pioneers. By the mid-1950s, he used a variety of electric keyboards, and almost immediately, he exploited their potential perhaps more than anyone, sometimes modifying them himself to produce sounds rarely if ever heard before. His live albums from the late 1960s and early 1970s feature some of the noisiest, most bizarre keyboard work ever recorded

Sun Ra's music can be roughly divided into three phases, but his records and performances were full of surprises and the following categories should be regarded only as approximations.

June TYSON vocals

Carla WASHINGTON vocals

Beverly PARSONS dancer

Greg Pratt dancer

Marshall ALLAN alto sax, flute 

John Gilmore tenor sax, clarinet 

Danny THOMPSON alto & baritone sax 

Leroy TAYLOR alto sax & bass clarinet 

James Jackson fagotto & drum 

Tyrone Hill trombone 

Thomas Hunter trumpet 

Ron Brown trumpet 

Longine PARSON trumpet 

Rollo REDFORD bass 

Hayes Burnette bass 

Clifford JARVIS drums

Eric Walker trumpet 

Sun Ra bandleader, keyboards, voice