Outer Nothingness

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).

As a teenager, Sun Ra attended big band concerts and then transcribed the songs by heart. He also began playing occasionally as a solo pianist or in rhythm and blues groups. In 1934, Ethel Harper, his high school biology teacher, offered him his first professional job in a band she had organized to start a career as a singer. When Harper quit the group in the middle of a tour, Ra took over and called it the Sonny Blount Orchestra. They resumed their tour for several months before disbanding because they were unaffordable.

He later found stable work at Birmingham’s nightclubs. Ra assured that in 1936 or 1937, in the middle of a deep spiritual experience, a bright light arose around him, he was teleported to Saturn and there some beings advised him to leave school and devote himself completely to music. He was in prison for refusing to do military service claiming to be a conscientious objector. When he left, he moved to Chicago, where in 1946 recorded with blues singer Wynonie Harris, in 1946 and 1947 he played and made arrangements for Fletcher Henderson, and in 1948 he gigged with Coleman Hawkins and Stuff Smith.

Patrick starts playing timpani, then Ra joins in with the marimba and then the rest of the group imitating the grunt of a badly wounded animal. Next, Allen enters making a solo with the alto sax using short phrases and different motifs, and later introduces squeals. Pettaway follows emitting the strange sound of his bass trombone. Then the group remains playing freely. Suddenly there’s a silence and Cummings arrives playing alone the bass clarinet with a choppy and restless speech, which is later accompanied by Ra with the marimba. The whole group comes back, but then Boykins is left alone using the bow and getting unusual sounds from the bass. Afterwards the group intervenes again to give way to Johnson, who makes a drum solo, and then Ra enters with his marimba displaying a melodic line based on unconnected notes. The group returns with their confusion and to close Boykins and Ra are left by themselves, Davis plays a phrase with the flute and Boykins and Ra end the composition.