Lights on a Satellite by Sun Ra
By some accounts, the ever-morphing lineup of Sun Ra’s various “Arkestras” had reached a high point in 1978 when this live set was recorded. Some of the tracks may be familiar to fans of the Afrofuturist bandleader from filmmaker Robert Mugge’s documentary Sun Ra: A Joyful Noise. Most have surfaced for the first time in this new episode in Resonance Records’ ambitious series of archival jazz releases.
Setting aside his claim of extraterrestrial origin, Ra (born Sonny Blount) catapulted from the big band era into the space age, grounded in the music of his formative years while searching for the stars. Several numbers caught on Lights on a Satellite are piano only or with only minimal accompaniment, including his exploration of the spaces between keys in “Somewhere Over the Rainbow,” highlighting Ra’s roots in Erroll Garner, Fats Waller and an earlier generation of jazz pianists. The live version of Fletcher Henderson’s “Yeah Man” swings at a careening bebop tempo, while the bluesy rhapsody of his own “Space Travelin’ Blues” reaches boogie-woogie tempo.
“Tapestry from an Asteroid” is illustrative of Ra’s orchestral range, beginning with a sci-fi lyric sung by June Tyson in the voice of a ‘50s jazz singer before an outbreak of calibrated cacophony led by John Gilmore’s shrieking tenor sax and concluding in synthesizer swooshes and electrical noise. It was a trip, as was Sun Ra’s delightfully eccentric sojourn on Earth.
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