Lights On A Satellite: Live at the Left Bank＜限定盤＞

Sun Ra and His Myth Science Cosmo Swing Arkestra were on fire when they took the stage at the Famous Ballroom in Baltimore on a late July night in 1978. In a concert presented by the Left Bank Jazz Society, Ra, along with mainstay collaborators June Tyson, Marshall Allen, John Gilmore, and a band that included over a dozen other players, blazed through the kind of interstellar jazz experimentalism they were innovating in real time throughout the 70s and beyond. Lights on a Satellite: Live at the Left Bank collects recordings from this inspired performance and releases them for the first time. After warming up with a spotlight on percussion and rough, minimal synthesizer playing, the band launches into the large group improvisation of "Tapestry from an Asteroid," a tune that moves from a standard vocal introduction to walls of instrumental chaos, ending with space-age solo electronics from Ra. Its a perfect display of Sun Ras masterful control, moving organically from cluttered noise to almost pristine synth symphonics. This control continues throughout the concert, with moments of playful sweetness like an out-there rendition of "Somewhere Over the Rainbow," loose and stumbly romping on "Space Travelin Blues," a cyborg reading of Thelonious Monks "Round Midnight," a few spaced-out standards, and Arkestra staples like "We Travel the Spaceways." Other standout Sun Ra originals include the woozy and melancholic "They Plan to Leave," a tune where multiple vocalists croon, howl, and harmonize a tale of outsiders conspiring to escape from Earth. The performance of "Lights on a Satellite" here is one for the books, with the group moving like a unified organism around the sadly lovely ballad. Its thrilling that even with the endless hours of archival Sun Ra material, theres still new previously unreleased recordings of this high caliber coming out 30 years after Ra himself left Earth for a different planet. Live at the Left Bank is a top-tier document of what Ra and his band were capable of at the height of their powers, and a must-hear set for anyone enthusiastic or even curious about their music. ~ Fred Thomas

ジョン・ギルモア、ジューン・タイソンなど今は亡き花形達やマーシャル・アレンやマイケル・レイの想像力溢れるプレイと共に御大サン・ラーのストレート・ジャズやブルースに根差した圧巻のスウィング展開で大輪を描くアコースティック・ピアノ。御大の側面"フリー・ジャズのサン・ラー"を覆す1978年のボルチモア公演。ドキュメンタリー映画『ジョイフル・ノイズ』に一部挿入されていたが、初となるCD2枚の完全演唱。約50年前の発掘ライヴ音源とは思えぬ鮮明音で"ジャズ探偵"ゼヴ・フェルドマンが監修下に甦るアーケストラのステージ。ええやんええやん。
intoxicate (C)黒田"ハイプ"朋規