Heliocentric

Danny Davis (alto sax, flute), Marshall Allen (alto sax, piccolo, bells, spiral cymbal), John Gilmore (tenor sax, timpani), Pat Patrick (baritone sax, timpani), Chris Capers (trumpet), Teddy Nance (trombone), Bernard Pettaway (bass trombone), Robert Cummings (bass clarinet, woodblocks), Sun Ra (piano, bass marimba, electric celeste, timpani), Ronnie Boykins (bass) and Jimhmi Johnson (drums, percussion, timpani). From the album The Heliocentric Worlds of Sun Ra, Volume One (1965).

Sun Ra, whose birth name was Herman Sonny Blount, was an American jazz pianist, poet and composer who also used synthesizers. Of all the jazz musicians, Sun Ra was the most polemical. People didn’t take him seriously because he surrounded his music with clothing and mythology inspired by ancient Egypt and science fiction, but nevertheless he was a great innovator. He also claimed to be an extraterrestrial from Saturn on a peace mission.

In his unorthodox music we can find elements of swing, bebop, hard bop, modal jazz, free jazz and jazz fusion styles, and his compositions could be anything from keyboard solos to music works for bands of more than 30 musicians. From the mid-1950s until his death he led the musical collective Sun Ra Arkestra. Although he didn’t meet much success, Sun Ra has one of the most extensive discographies in the history of music and performed regularly live. As a child he began to play the piano on his own and by the age of 12 he was able to compose and read music at first sight.

At first some rattles are heard and then successively Boykins with the double bass, Cummings with the bass clarinet and Capers with the mute enter presenting a weighty and gloomy discourse. They are then replaced by Ra playing the marimba randomly and Patrick beating the timpani, to which Boykins later joins back. The rattles sounds a second time, followed by the marimba and finally the timpani. After that, Davis arrives playing alone funny and jumping phrases with the flute. Next the whole group begins to play gradually as if it was stretching, but soon wakes up completely and makes a big fuss. At last, Ra and Johnson are left on their own again and finish the performance.