Uncharted Passages

1977年7月にニューヨークのダウンタウンにあった「アクシス・イン・ソーホー」と呼ばれるジャズ・カフェでの、ほとんど未発表のラーの演奏が収録された作品集。

Uncharted Passages is an especially sweet piece to the seemingly infinite puzzle box that is the Sun Ra discography. Discovered on a (possibly intentionally) mislabeled reel of tape, these mostly solo piano performances were eventually discerned to be a recording from a 1977 gig at a small Manhattan jazz club called The Axis-in-Soho. Mostly unreleased before now, Uncharted Passages presents the best of the unearthed 1977 Axis material and augments it with tracks from another tape of mysterious origin, also solo piano but this time from 1979. Ras range is diverse throughout the album, getting loose on the jumpy boogie of "St. Louis Blues" and taking on more traditional pages of his songbook on standard tune "Everything I Have Is Yours" and the wistful and achy "Sometimes I Feel Like a Motherless Child." Not long after, hes going way out on what sound to be improvised pieces like the clattering "Axis Extempore" and the extended technique playing of "Blue Play." Somewhere in the middle of familiarity and complete cosmic freedom are tunes like the "Honeysuckle Rose - Enlightenment" or a snippet-length version of Ra classic "Space Is the Place," here with just piano and a vocalist. On "At Sundown," he mutter-sings the melody in a way thats barely audible beneath his sprightly, free-flowing piano riffing. The entire album flows with a similar unbridled carefree joy. Its lighthearted and happy, with Sun Ra landing on ideas, melodic phrases, musical memories, and new pathways for a moment before wandering on to the next. Along with creating this joyous sound environment, Uncharted Passages is yet another example of how singular Ras musical voice was. Alone at the piano in a tiny club or leading an Arkestra made up of dozens of other musicians -- in any setting, the music Sun Ra made was unmistakably his own. ~ Fred Thomas