Label: Evidence
Audio CD: (September 26, 2000)
Jazz
This 1978 session, coming relatively late in Sun Ra's creative history, is another extraordinary venture into uncharted musical terrain. As the name suggests, it's a liquid and languid musical state, from the lounge area of Ra's cosmos, but it can also be resiliently funky and subtly dissonant in ways unheard outside the orchestra's precincts. The rhythm section of electric bass, two guitars, and three drummers creates deep pulsing grooves for Sun Ra's assortment of ethereal organs and synthesizers and a horn complement of two trumpets and five reeds that are used sparingly for maximal effect. There are some elements of commercial crossover funk and even Miles Davis's electric period, but this is highly original music, an acid jazz prototype in which groove and electronica intersect with muted brass and a heady assortment of reeds and percussion. Sudden squiggles of funk guitar mix with strong improvisation from Sun Ra and his regular soloists, like saxophonists John Gilmore and Marshall Allen, who are always ready to bend the music into some new pitch zone. The lyrical title track bears a resemblance to Mingus's "Goodbye Pork Pie Hat," and "There Are Other Worlds" is supplemented by overdubbed "Ethnic Voices" and additional percussion and electronics, creating an eerily engaging tapestry. Recorded in a New York studio with the sound further improved by Evidence, this is unusually well recorded for Sun Ra music of the period, a warm bath in music both lush and exotic.
By Stuart Broomer. AMG.
**
When Carl Sagan pondered the possibility of life elsewhere in the solar system, he conjured up creatures such as a hot-air balloon-sized flying jellyfish that would float through Jupiter's blistering atmosphere propelled by sulfurous discharges. Sun Ra operates on a similar wavelength, apparently attempting to recreate what musical instruments would sound like on other worlds. "Lanquidity" is the most repeatedly listenable Ra release I've encountered (The title track for "The Magic City," for instance, an album released 13 years earlier in 1965 sounds much like a construction site hooked up to a loudspeaker) and one that easily holds its own beside Miles Davis' "Bitches Brew," Art Blakey's "Free for All" and Sonny Sharrock's "Ask the Ages." The meandering Hammond, droning horns, and occasional whale-speak and duck-honk effects give the set a malleable, dreamy complexion. "There Are Other Worlds (They Have Not Told You Of)" feels like a combo LSD deprogramming session and love-in taking place inside a robotic whale adrift in the deep ocean. Some of the songs even suggest a contemporary trip-hop vibe, then abruptly zoom ahead back into the future and eventually steps outside time's bounds, just looking back at the one-dimensional timeline, nothing more than a stray slug's slime trail. Like music that makes you jabber like you're Carlos Castaneda? Then this is the one.
By K. D. Kelly.
**
1978’s Lanquidity (now re-issued by Evidence) features a silver and purple cover image of Ra that begs the question: Has Sun Ra made a fusion album? This thought at first seems merely ridiculous, then after further consideration becomes a bit surreal, and then upon hearing becomes downright disturbing. As with any Ra project, a simple description such as “Ra does fusion” serves no justice in truly describing the actual music. Ra was a master at twisting known musical idioms into his idiosyncratic vision, and Lanquidity proves to be a stirring, mesmerizing example of this vision.
All of the tunes generally follow the same basic structure: the Arkestra riffs on dark, bluesy motifs; the bass and percussion create an interlocking, unchanging groove; and behind it all Ra, on piano and synthesizers, and the two guitarists (a rarely used instrument in Ra’s music), fill in the space with ethereal chords and disembodied riffs.
On the title track the Arkestra pieces together a creeping, mournful melody with shifting combinations of the two-trumpet and five-reed horn section. Against this, Ra plays wistful fragments on his Rhodes, while Richard Williams provides the glue with a sparse electric bass line. This funk-stuck-in-slow-motion points to an uncomfortable dread waiting below the surface.
The rhythm section opens “Twin Stars of Thence”, setting up a hypnotic, dragging pulse. Acoustic bass, guitar, traps and tympani lock in while Ra muses methodically on organ. The horns materialize out of nothingness and Gilmore weaves abstract blues lines into the mixture. A guitar solo, then the baritone saxophone takes a spare turn that lags behind the beat, while behind Ra incorporates lines from the guitarist’s solo into the background. Combined, these elements disorient and displace the listener. You feel as if this music should go down easy, but the candy coating turns out to be a sticky, unescapable molasses.
The Arkestra finally drags you where they want you on “There Are Other Worlds (they have not told you of)” A sleepy, barely noticeable hi-hat beats perpetually, soon joined by a low-register chorus of humming. Ra’s synthesizer and piano textures threaten to overtake the other instruments, pushing the piece toward disintegration. Towards the end the atmosphere ge s downright spooky, with breathy, whispering voices materializing, chanting the title over and over again. All the while flutes, then synthesizer, then dissonant piano chords, then saxophone swirl about, until they all dissipate like some phantom, leaving you wondering if what you just heard was really there at all.
On Lanquidity Ra turns the idea of disco and funk on its head: the repetitive beats, which usually make one feel like they know where the next step will land, instead leave one warily hanging on every moment. The music leads us in an unsettling direction, to a secret world where the lumbering grooves at first seduce with their simplicity, then intoxicate with their richness, until finally the darker sound textures overtake you and drop you in a place you had not imagined.
By Matthew Wuethrich. AAJ.
**
John Gilmore- Sax Tenor
Danny Ray Thompson- Flute, Sax Baritone
Eddie Gale- Trumpet
Michael Ray- Trumpet, Flugelhorn
Marshall Allen- Flute, Oboe, Sax Alto
Luqman Ali- Percussion
Artaukatune- Drums, Tympani
Disco Kid- Guitar
Dale Williams- Guitar
Atakatun Odun- Conga
Ego Omoe- Flute, Clarinet Bass
Julian Presley- Sax Baritone
Richard Williams- Bass
James Jacson- Oboe, Basson, Flute, Voices
June Tyson- Voices
and
Sun Ra
**
01. Lanquidity 8:21
02. Where Pathways Meet 6:32
03. That's How I Feel 8:05
04. Twin Stars of Thence 9:34
05. There Are Other Worlds (They Have Not Told You Of) 10:57
**
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