Sun Ra "Monorails and Satellites Vols. 1, 2 and 3"

[soulpope]

https://sunramusic.bandcamp.com/album/monorails-and-satellites-vols-1-2-and-3

[Rooster_Ties]

Hot damn!!  Are these the same folks that brought us that rare Sun Ra piano-trio release last year? - God is More Than Love Will Ever Be (is the title, iirc).

 

I'm all in for this one too, probably.

[T.D.]

Wow! Thanks for the update.

I bought the aforementioned piano trio from Bandcamp last year. Will almost certainly go for this one, as I only have Volume I (Evidence CD), tracks 1-8 of 22.

[Rooster_Ties]

4 hours ago, T.D. said:

...as I only have Volume I (Evidence CD), tracks 1-8 of 22.

I've been meaning to pick up that Evidence CD for years (almost a couple decades actually, hasn't it been?) -- but I never got around to it.  And it always bugged me that there was a Vol. 2 that went unissued on CD, which I really HATE when stuff gets issues incompletely like that (I know, it was two separate albums, but they were two of a kind, and I presume recorded at the same sessions, or around the same time).

And man, that piano-trio record is phenomenal.  EVERYTHING you'd expect from a Sun Ra piano trio album -- every bit as quirky as you might expect, with a good dash of weirdness, but not too much!!  Highest recommendation (for that trio record), and I'm sure these 3 volumes of solo-piano sessions will also prove very interesting as well.

[John L]

I didn't even realize that there was a volume 3.   

 

 

[Rooster_Ties]

2 hours ago, John L said:

I didn't even realize that there was a volume 3.

Apparently newly found material...

 

Monorails and Satellites were two volumes of solo piano works recorded by Sun Ra in 1966. Volume 1 was issued on his Saturn label in 1968, volume 2 the following year. They were the first commercial LPs of the artist's solo keyboard excursions. Vol. 1 featured seven idiosyncratic Sun Ra originals and one standard delivered in Sunny's singular manner. Vol. 2 consists entirely of original compositions. A tape of a third, unreleased volume was discovered posthumously by Michael D. Anderson of the Sun Ra Music Archive. Released here for the first time, it consists of five originals and four standards, and was recorded in stereo. 

Despite Sun Ra's obsession with the future, Monorails and Satellites is something of a nostalgia trip. As a youth in Birmingham, Alabama, the man who became Sun Ra—Herman Poole Blount—spent hours at the Forbes Piano Company, amusing himself (as well as staff and customers) at the showroom keyboards. He practiced standards, emulated his piano heroes, played the latest pop songs, and improvised. The idyllic reveries which the teen experienced in those formative years were no doubt recaptured during the Monorails sessions.

The playing here speaks less of a style, and more of a collection of statements. Some of the tunes, with their odd juxtapositions of mood, could be mistaken for silent film scores. Perhaps they were audio notebooks, a way to generate ideas which could be developed with the band ("I think orchestra"). Regardless of any secondary (and admittedly speculative) intent, they serve as compelling standalone works. The fingering reflects Sun Ra's encyclopedic knowledge of piano history as his passages veer from stride to swing, from barrelhouse to post-bop, from march to Cecil Taylor-esque free flights, with a bit of soothing "candelabra" swank thrown in. Sunny's attack is mercurial, his themes unpredictable. His hands can be primitive or playful, then abruptly turn sensitive and elegant. As with the whole of Sun Ra's recorded legacy, you get everything but consistency and predictability. 

The listener also experiences something rare in the Sun Ra recorded omniverse: intimacy. His albums, generally populated by the rotating Arkestral cast, are raucous affairs. With the Monorails sessions, we eavesdrop on private moments: the artist, alone with his piano. These are brief audio snapshots of what was surely a substantial part of Sun Ra's life, infinitesimal surviving scraps of 100,000 hours similarly spent, most lost to posterity. 

The 2-CD and 3-LP packages of this set include an essay by three-time Down Beat Artist of the Year VIJAY IYER, along with a historical chronicle by jazz authority BEN YOUNG. 

– I.C.

[Gheorghe]

very good analysis of Sun Ra´s piano style. Yes, somehow as he is into it all, from stride to post bop to free a la Cecil Taylor he almost could be seen as similar to Jakie Byard, who also could play all stiles from old stride to free, sometimes in one solo.....

[Rooster_Ties]

Love the new cover, BTW.

Very mod!

[soulpope]

8 minutes ago, Rooster_Ties said:

Love the new cover, BTW.

Very mod!

This actually caught my eye .... but you most likely know about my spleen for cover art  ....

[sidewinder]

Remember seeing/hearing Sun Ra doing stride during his solo ‘Tribute to Fletcher Henderson/Stuff Smith’ set in 1989 - an ear opener for sure. I will be interested in picking up this one.

[JSngry]

16 hours ago, Rooster_Ties said:

EVERYTHING you'd expect from a Sun Ra piano trio album -- every bit as quirky as you might expect, with a good dash of weirdness, but not too much!! 

Hope you're not being affected by the shutdown, but if you are, you can go to work for Dusty Groove wring their blurbs, i mean, no interview needed!

[Rooster_Ties]

4 minutes ago, JSngry said:

Hope you're not being affected by the shutdown, but if you are, you can go to work for Dusty Groove wring their blurbs, i mean, no interview needed!

Ha!!  Fortunately I'm not affected by the shutdown at all -- nor my wife (she works for a Federal agency, but they're fully funded for the whole fiscal year).

Yeah, I think MOST of us here could write some Dusty Groove burbs, if we tried.

[JSngry]

I'd just like to know what is "too much" weirdness. Is it like Capsaicin, where you know it when you get it, but otherwise, who knows, could be anywhere, just have fun finding out and live to tell the tale?

[chewy-chew-chew-bean-benitez]

im in for the 3lp.  everyone knows and is okay with vol 2 is a needledrop cause the tape is lost? Stoked theres vol 3!!! OF COURSE THERES VOL 3!!!!!

[JSngry]

Vol 4 coming once Oumuamua gets here.

[mesfen]

What are the titles of the piano trios discussed?

[jazzbo]

It's titled "God is More than Love can Ever Be" and is on Cosmic Myth Records.

 

Edited January 29, 2019 by jazzbo

[chewy-chew-chew-bean-benitez]

i ordered thru amazon and a ship date is still pending AND the record store in town did not recive it today as which they were expecting...but im sure its just a little delayed right.  the previous release "god is more than love can ever be" is for sale on amazon right now its probably just delayed little bit

[mjzee]

If you want to hear it now, download it from eMusic for $7.49: https://www.emusic.com/album/196939053/Sun-Ra-/Monorails-and-Satellites-Vols-1-2-and-3

[chewy-chew-chew-bean-benitez]

its also streaming on their bandcamp page

[Rooster_Ties]

11 minutes ago, chewy-chew-chew-bean-benitez said:

its also streaming on their bandcamp page

There's a playlist of the entire release on YouTube too. Listened to most of it that way just this afternoon!

[chewy-chew-chew-bean-benitez]

they updated the page- says it ships monday!

(bancamp)

[romualdo]

just received the 2CD set today - I presume it came with a booklet (unfortunately mine didn't) - all my other Cosmic Myth CDs have associated mini booklets 

the set was sealed & stickered - maybe it was never included? Anyone else had the same problem. Bought my copy from Import CDs - don't really want to return it (they have a bothersome return policy)

can't seem to find any contact details for the label either

Edited April 5, 2019 by romualdo

[kh1958]

My copy included a booklet.

[jlhoots]

So does mine.