Live at the Hackney Empire

by Don SnowdenLive At The Hackney Empire may be the definitive latter-day Sun Ra recording for a couple of reasons. First, it's a full two-and-a-half hour concert on two CDs, so you get the actual flow Sun Ra programmed into his performance to showcase the different musical facets of the Arkestra -- swirling cosmic outbursts, swing-era big band, vocal chants rooted in Africa by way of Saturn. (Amazingly, there's hardly any duplication of material from the concert the night before with a dozen-odd French symphony musicians that Leo released as Pleiades). Second is the presence of guest players (or Arkestra members for the tour) like Charles Davis, with his robust baritone sax, India Cooke's high-flying violin, and Talvin Singh's tablas in the percussion section. That means new voices who definitely make their presence felt, so bingo, it's already not just another Sun Ra release. The space-age atonal outbursts are mostly front-loaded on the three long opening pieces. As Astro-Black fades in over drums, Davis and Cooke immediately take impressive solo spins, and the crowd roars at the end of 18 minutes that sure don't feel like it. "Other Voices" quickly ventures into abstract textural zones and it calls to mind how cinemagraphic, how full of soundtrack colors, Sun Ra's music can be. Davis' baritone slashes through and Michael Ray's trumpet flashes over the top, the Ra tosses some space-sonic keyboard discords and his peaceful piano transitions into "Planet Earth Day." Back at the movies again, the group is gathering momentum with thundering drums and big band stylings before Marshall Allen goes stratospheric and the lurching riff behemoth subsides behind Kash Killion's cello. "Hocus Pocus" is in-the-pocket big band romping with strong John Gilmore solos on clarinet and tenor bracketing Tyrone Hill's brassy trombone outing. Gilmore shoulders much of the solo load on "Blue Lou," a big band at the speed-of-sound outing with hot jazz drumming, before Singh and Elson Nascimento hit the final tablas-congas breakdown. "Face The Music" swings out in wonderfully joyous fashion with massed vocals before Noel Scott's great alto solo, and Davis galvanizes again -- his baritone's brawny tone really cuts a visceral swath through the essentially light swing of Sun Ra's Arkestra. ... Read More...