Zev Feldman’s Jazz Detective record label keeps cracking cold cases, and with some great results. This time it’s a slice of classic Sun Ra recorded in 1976 and ’77 at Joe Segal’s Jazz Showcase in Chicago.
At this point in their trajectory through the cosmos, the Arkestra (the Intergalactic Infinity Arkestra, as it was styled around this time) was well into its first decade of world tours and a couple of years away from its residency at the Squat Theatre in New York. Sun Ra was himself still in his vigorous prime and the line-up of the band was nothing short of stellar — John Gilmore on tenor, sax Marhall Allen and Danny Davis on alto, Richard Williams on bass, to name just a few. (Sun Ra and Gilmore are on particularly outstanding form here.)
News of such live recordings unearthed after nearly half a century provokes a mixture of jubilant excitement and fingers-crossed wariness — excitement for the potential musical treasures on offer, wariness about the quality of the tapes after all those years. So, not to keep you in suspense, it’s a relief and delight to report that these recordings sound superb, with great presence and immediacy, providing an exhilarating sense of being present at the creation of some terrific performances.
View From Another Dimension features scorching futurist electronics from the keyboards of Sun Ra, but the real electronica excursion is Calling Planet Earth & the Shadow World , a free jazz excursion with excoriating horns and reeds, notably Ahmed Abdullah’s trumpet, Marshall Allen’s alto and Eloe Omoe’s bass clarinet, all of which are not for the faint hearted. (It’s interesting to speculate what club owner Joe Segal, devotee of straight ahead jazz and opponent of the avant-garde would have made of this.) Moonship Journey is a classic space march of the kind the Arkestra had been playing for decades and would continue to provide for decades to come, while the misleadingly soft-sounding Velvet is actually a whirling dervish of a chase.
For a live set, with all the hazards of recording on location in a busy venue under less than ideal conditions, At the Showcase possesses impressive transparency and clarity, with the musicians well balanced and beautifully presented — the microphone placing is excellent, thanks to Richard Wilkerson who recorded all the gigs. At the same time the sense of the spontaneity of the occasion has been carefully preserved — though personally, I could have lived without the generous slab of applause, trumpeter Ak Tal Ebah speaking in tongues (he doesn’t actually play trumpet on any of the selections here) and Joe Segal announcing future gigs. But there’s no question that these evoke the time and place.
In addition to the fine work of Wilkerson recording the original performances, credit is also due to Michael Anderson, Sun Ra’s audio archivist who had access to state of the art recording equipment from the radio station WRTI and who transferred the original tapes from these concerts, assembling performances from a wide range of dates to form a coherent and compelling set. These were remastered by Joe Lizzi and mastered for vinyl by Matthew Lutthans. And speaking of vinyl, this is a particularly lavish double LP set, with a 12 page booklet featuring perspectives on the music by the likes of Jack DeJohnette, Reggie Workman, David Murray and Marshall Allen himself.
There is no shortage of Sun Ra recordings on the market but this set, painstakingly curated by Zev Feldman and offering a generous helping of the Arkestra, beautifully recorded and in top form, is one for the permanent collection.
LINK: Buy At the Showcase from Presto Music
2023 interview with Zev Feldman by Morgan Enos
