Sun Ra

                             Sun RA

Sun Ra and his Arkestra, Super Sonic Sounds. Impulse AS 9271.

     For nearly twenty years now Sun Ra bas been producing, recording, and distributing his own records on the Saturn label, allowing a maximum of artistic freedom but minimum financial return. His recent Impulse contract should go a long way towards solving this dilemma. Luckily Impulse is a company with some degree of integiïty. Rather than promote Sun Ra as "The Glitter King of Jazz" or demand that his music conform to some streamlined, profit-motivated aesthetic (Yes I'm talking about CTI). they have chosen to reissue the original Saturn recordings completely intact.

     "Super-Sonic Sounds" is the latest of these reissues and in many ways the most important. Originally released circa 1956 thls album along with "Sun Song" and "Sound of Joy" (Delmark DS 411, 414) is the best example of Sun Ra's early "demented bop" period. At first the music may sound like 50's bop but listen again. In the words of a music-professor friend, "It's so corny, but it's so hip!" Many of the riffs and melodies do sound corny especially to a 1974 set of ears, but the harmonies, colors, rhythms, and horn-voicings are definitely hip, definitely ahead of their time. This record comes closer to answering the question, "What should music be than any other I've heard to date. It is emotional. adventurous, and challenging yet dominated by a playful sense of humor that comes from the Arkestras' mastery as individual musicians and unity as an ensemble. Behind it all is Sonny Blount, the Fletcher Henderson alumnus better-known as Sun Ra. whose lyricke keyboard mustngs will suddenly erupt info percussíve angular Unes which seem to expand in all directions at once before remming to the quiet that preceded.

     Yes, this is definitely MUSIC, to bc perceived and understood on many levels. For those A2- Festival-goers who have dug the visual spectacle of Sun Ra's show, . this historic recording should help you make sense out of the audio portion. Give this one half a chance and you'll probably end up like me: l've been playing "Super-Sonic Sounds" at least once a week for the past six years and it's a new album every time.--Brad Smith