Day 18 Sun Ra - When Angels Speak of Love

When angels speak of love, this is the whole Rilke 'Every angel is terrifying' sort of angel. And I can't say much about the love.

The opening track (Celestial Fantasy) starts with an isolated screeching reed as black as some Fushitsusha recording. It is accompanied by subtle echo-effected-percussion and some low horns/winds. The next track (The Idea of it All) may at first seem like a jazz standard throwback, but quickly breaks down into a 7+ minute bout of hard blowing atonalism. This is continued on Ecstacy of Being, but with less regard to jazz structure and more piercing moments like Celestial Fantasy. It also clocks in at nearly 10 minutes. No sensation of love yet, unless it's the love of blowin' your mind.

The title track is low key, low end, beautiful and at moments potentially straight, but then the horns start blowing high pitch sustained tones, such that the discrepancy between the two is a work of surrealism.

The centerpiece of the album however is the hard blowing 18 minute Next Stop Mars. It's a harrowing number with the loud, Brotzman like moments, but also highlighted are some of the individual performances (Ra's obsession with using the piano in Cage-like percussive manner; IE more like mallets on steel than for melodic purposes, etc.) This is forward looking stuff, though not out of step with forthcoming albums from the same period.

I will have to go back and listen to some of the other 'out' jazz from this period to gain a sense of perspective. Coleman's 'Free Jazz' album is 61, and this is 63. It's easy to say which is more ferocious and pioneering, but no one heard this album. I wonder who else, if anyone, was coming close to performances this abrasive in the early 60's.

My final take on the album? Well, it is a fantastic one, but it is also challenging with little regard for the listener other than continuing to push them as far as possible. You won't find melodic hooks or even the whole modality thing that Ra seems to be famous for. Whether it is free jazz or not, it is unrooted (IE no improvisation along a scale or chord) screeching and wailing. I dig it, but not at 6:30 in the morning.