TERRY GROSS, HOST:
This is FRESH AIR. Jazz historian Kevin Whitehead is going to review a newly released recording of a concert he attended in 1978 by pianist Sun Ra and his Arkestra. Kevin says the colorful Philadelphia bandleader didn't always connect with traditional jazz audiences, but he'd found a second home doing so in Baltimore.
(SOUNDBITE OF SUN RA'S "WATUSI (LIFE AT THE LEFT BANK, JULY 23, 1978)")
KEVIN WHITEHEAD, BYLINE: Pianist Sun Ra called his sprawling orchestras Arkestras. And like Noah's Ark, they crammed in an improbable amount of vibrant variety. He had his earworm melodies like that one, "Watusi," with its percolating Afro-Cuban percussion. The Arkestra played squalling free jazz barrages and sang genial vocal chants connected with Sun Ra's personal cosmology, involving space travel and an interplanetary exodus.
(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, "TAPESTRY FROM AN ASTEROID (LIFE AT THE LEFT BANK, JULY 23, 1978)")
JUNE TYSON: (Singing) They say that you are a pleasant source when you get vibrations from an asteroid. Tapestry from an asteroid you caught makes your life filled with space joy.
WHITEHEAD: June Tyson, longtime singer and costumer for the Arkestra, who decked them out in striking, spangled outfits that look good when the chanting musicians did a ring dance in front of the stage counterclockwise like the ancestors. At the other end of time, Sun Ra's keyboard synthesizer could become a rocket taking off for and maybe arriving at a more hospitable planet than this one.
(SOUNDBITE OF SUN RA SONG, "TAPESTRY FROM AN ASTEROID (LIFE AT THE LEFT BANK, JULY 23, 1978)")
WHITEHEAD: This music comes from newly released recordings of Sun Ra in 1978, playing one of the Left Bank Jazz Society's weekly Sunday concerts in Baltimore. Some Left Bank regulars dislike the jazz avant-garde to the point of scolding musicians who went too far. And yet this show was Sun Ra's fifth for the Left Bank in under two years, making him very much a house favorite. He did draw his own audience, but the Left Bank's African American standbys dug him, too, knowing a comic persona and a Black carnival act when they saw one. Sun Ra was serious, but it's not like he didn't know he was funny. His wisdom was couched in puns and wordplay. But Sun Ra's warm welcome was really because his rocket to the future flew straight through the jazz of the 1930s and '40s. He was well-drilled in the fundamentals the old school jazz fans revered.
(SOUNDBITE OF SUN RA'S "SPACE TRAVELIN' BLUES (LIVE AT THE LEFT BANK, JULY 23, 1978)")
WHITEHEAD: I attended a few of Sun Ra's Left Bank concerts, and this one got even odder than usual when documentary filmmaker Bob Mugge's overhead movie lights came up after the first set, as if the gods were checking in from above. Some of Mugge's footage turns up in his fine film "Sun Ra: A Joyful Noise." In the '70s, Ra started reviving then-obscure 1930s swing tunes by his early idol and onetime employer, bandleader Fletcher Henderson. Those vehicles for trumpet sensation Michael Ray let the Arkestra traverse time as well as space. This is "Yeah Man"
(SOUNDBITE OF SUN RA'S "YEAH MAN (LIVE AT THE LEFT BANK, JULY 23, 1978)")
WHITEHEAD: Sun Ra and His Arkestra played three sets that evening in 1978. And the double album "Lights On A Satellite" gives a fair sampling of their range and includes a few tunes they didn't record so much. There are good features for tenor saxophone hero John Gilmore and altoist Marshall Allen. At age 100, Marshall leads a posthumous Sun Ra Arkestra that also has a new CD called "Lights On A Satellite." That modern band has its moments, but there's only one Sun Ra as a leader or keyboard player. Here he is on organ for "'Round Midnight" just playing the melody his way.
(SOUNDBITE OF SUN RA'S "'ROUND MIDNIGHT (LIVE AT THE LEFT BANK, JULY 23, 1978)")
WHITEHEAD: The producer of this and dozens of historical jazz records, many of which we've praised here on the show, is Zev Feldman, who likes to fill out album booklets with extracts from interviews he conducts with witnesses, whose memories are not always accurate or pertinent. The Sun Ra booklet contains a few contradictory or just plain wrong statements, some made by Feldman himself, about such easy to verify stuff as what day or days the Arkestra played that weekend or at what time.
Those famous ballroom shows were all Sundays from 5 to 9 p.m. In the booklet, someone guesses Sun Ra played three or four times for the Left Bank Jazz Society, when it was 13 concerts in 11 years. Producer Feldman calls himself the jazz detective, but it's a detective's job to sift through conflicting accounts to tell us what really happened, not just throw it all out there before racing off to another case. Valuable music like this deserves more scrupulous documentation.
(SOUNDBITE OF SUN RA'S "LIGHTS ON A SATELLITE (LIVE AT THE LEFT BANK, JULY 23, 1978)")
GROSS: Jazz historian Kevin Whitehead reviewed "Sun Ra Lights On A Satellite: Live At The Left Bank." Kevin's latest book is "Play The Way You Feel: The Essential Guide To Jazz Stories On Film." If you'd like to catch up on FRESH AIR interviews you missed - like this week's interviews with Billie Eilish and Finneas, or with Ronny Chieng of "The Daily Show" and the series "Interior Chinatown," or about TikTok and its uncertain future - check out our podcast. You'll find lots of interviews. And to find out what's happening behind the scenes of our show and get our producers' recommendations for what to watch, read and listen to, subscribe to our free newsletter at whyy.org/freshair.
FRESH AIR's executive producer is Danny Miller. Our technical director is Audrey Bentham. Our engineer today is Adam Staniszewski. Our interviews and reviews are produced and edited by Phyllis Myers, Roberta Shorrock, Anne Marie Baldonado, Sam Briger, Lauren Krenzel, Therese Madden, Monique Nazareth, Susan Nyakundi and Anna Bauman. Our digital media producer is Molly Seavy-Nesper. Thea Chaloner directed today's show. Our cohost is Tonya Mosley. I'm Terry Gross.
(SOUNDBITE OF SUN RA'S "LIGHTS ON A SATELLITE (LIVE AT THE LEFT BANK, JULY 23, 1978)") Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
NPR transcripts are created on a rush deadline by an NPR contractor. This text may not be in its final form and may be updated or revised in the future. Accuracy and availability may vary. The authoritative record of NPR’s programming is the audio record.
