sun ra | fate in a pleasant mood
FATE IN A PLEASANT MOOD (Impulse AS 9270)
Sun Ra and his Myth-Science Arkestra: Sun Ra / piano, John Gilmore / tenor saxophone, Marshall Allen / alto saxophone and flute, Ronnie Boykins / bass, Lucius Randolph / trumpet, George Hudson / trumpet; Edward Skinner / percussion; Nate Pryor / trombone.
Recorded: 1959, Saturn Studios, Chicago.
Fate In A Pleasant Mood is an early Sun Ra recording that contains in seminal form any number of elements of Ra’s later work. But though those elements are here, one would not have guessed from this recording the gigantic and audacious steps forward Sun Ra would shortly take.
Certain pieces, however - for example, “Space Mates” - when drawn to their logical conclusions, lead directly toward the freer sense of form, structure and rhythm Ra later made the cornerstone of his most important music. Note the textural scope of “Space Mates,” its unpredictable format, and the way in which sound is both isolated and explored for its own sake and yet is completely logical compositionally.
Other pieces like “Distant Stars” express a more overtly rhythmic and boppish aspect of Ra’s music that he was also to retain and to combine with the freer forms. In 1971, attending a performance of the Arkestra in New York, I even heard them do a swinging version of “Swing Low, Sweet Chariot” that faded into strains of “Next Stop, Jupiter!”
A more striking connection with Ra’s later work is evident in the voicings and harmonic ideas presented. Throughout, there is the just-below-the-surface mysteriousness and slightly bizarre flavor that has marked nearly all of Sun Ra’s music and which perhaps holds one of the greatest attractions for his many admirers.
Sun Ra and Arkestra, of course, have far transcended the music on this record. But you might still hear them play one or two of these tunes, and the music is instructive in gaining insight into the mind of one of the most creative musical mentors of our time.
Henry Kuntz, 1974
Posted:
Wednesday, March 28th, 2007, 12:12.
Filed under: bells.
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