Jazz in Silhouette Running Order(s)

[JSngry]

Oh yeah, Supersonic Jazz as Supersonic Sounds as well...the had a pretty good bunch of Ra items from the Saturn catalog, from all periods.

All new covers, but they kept the OG liners and running order, except for the item in question...which still seems a mystery of some sort.

Finally seeing the original Saturn covers, yeah, I get it, and those are what we need to keep for this story. With Sun Ra, it's not just the story of the music, but of the whole..."universe" that came with it.

But...once seen (and bought), not forgotten!

So you get this record home, plop it on and....WHAAAAAAA?????

I forget how many they did altogether...more than 10, less than 20, two(?) original/new records, the rest Saturn catalog of different vintages, all repackaged to play into the expanding market, and to make you think it's all going to be "out" Ra. SURPRISE!!! IIRC, I bought Bad & Beautiful and Pathways To Unknown Worlds at the same time, same place, some East Texas mall chain record store...Musicland, maybe...I forget which one I layed first, but...it was discombulating, to put it mildly. I think I was 18-ish, just out of highschool, and I had HEARD about all these records and thought they were all going to be more or less the same, at least a little. Nope!

The availability of Saturn records, of Ra records in general...what we have today is nothng like I had in the early 70s before these came out...and they were in print for a quick minute or two, at best. And then it was back to the underground. And the impulse stuff did not last long in the cutout bins, either.

I had a buddy who lived in France for a while, had seen the Arkestra there a few times, and had some OG Saturns, including one or two hand lettered ones. He lsot them all in a divorce. I guess you shouldn't marry an Army ;awyer unless you're ready to lose big...

[JSngry]

I've gone ahead and got a few of the most recent bandcamp issues of a few early Saturn things and do have to (gladly!) agree that the sound is a lot clearer. I don't know if it's master tape quality, but it is clearer and "better" in an objective sense.

But also....it's kinda like hearing Pet Sounds in real stereo for the first time...a bit discombobulating, and it will be a generation or two before it really sinks in that those records didn't REALLY sound that way until relatively recently..like until after a lot of people who know differently are dead and shut up for good. Until then, it will always subconsciously sound like a trick!

What I'm really going to have to do now is clean off the top of my turntable and get my ABC Impulse records out and see how they compare to the Evidence reissues. Because apparently Alton Abraham (and Ra?) brought them SOME kind of tapes, and came and then came and took them back. Were they master tapes? Hell, who knows? Were there even any actual master tapes around then? Or now? The stereo stuff is beautiful, but it is not exactly "pristine", if you know what i mean.

But going forth, yeah, that bandcamp site is where I'm spending some more time if there's not newer CD available. Probably...

Either way, I've lived with what I am calling "he liner note track order" for a few days, and am really liking it. A lot. But hey, it's files. I can change it back any way at any time I want to. That seems like The El Saturn Way Of Doing Business anyway!

 

[T.D.]

Bandcamp looks like the place for Ra. I generally like Corbett vs. Dempsey's reissues, but bought their 2-disc Continuation and was disappointed by crappy sound quality of Vol. 1. Sounds much better on bandcamp.

Can't speculate on any track ordering issues. With Ra, minutia seemingly could reflect any combination of (a) profound messages; (b) a bit of dissimulation just to f**k with your mind; (c) haphazard business practices. I'm not smart or ambitious enough to venture down that rabbit hole.

Edited August 28, 2021 by T.D.

[JSngry]

Indeed!

I just played around with viable options. The thing that has me "excited' is having the piano into on "Images" open the album, it really does seem to set the table, not unlike Bill Evans on Kind of Blue. The way the album unfolds and reveals after that is pretty damn co!

[Teasing the Korean]

13 hours ago, JSngry said:

I've gone ahead and got a few of the most recent bandcamp issues of a few early Saturn things and do have to (gladly!) agree that the sound is a lot clearer. I don't know if it's master tape quality, but it is clearer and "better" in an objective sense.

Did you read that lengthy article that was posted several years back about how Sun Ra's archivist, who was also a WFMU DJ, held on to all of Sun's masters, at least the ones that were on Saturn?  These were the tapes that Irwin Chusid used for all these remasters.  The article is in the Jazz in Print sub-forum.  The reason the remasters sound so good is they are from this collection of tapes, which were in the guy's closet during the whole time that Evidence was releasing CDs in the 1990s.

https://believermag.com/logger/angels-and-demons-at-play/

Edited August 28, 2021 by Teasing the Korean

[JSngry]

Michael D. Anderson, yeah.