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Artist: RAGAB AND THE CAIRO JAZZ BAND, SALAH Title: Present Egyptian Jazz: Ramadan In Space Time Format: CD Label: Art Yard Country: UK Price: $21.00 |
| "Salah Ragab formed the first jazz big band in Egypt (The Cairo Jazz Band) in 1968, he was also the leader of the Military Music Departments in Heliopolis. Some of the best musicians in Egypt of that time were members of the band such as Zaki Osman (trumpet), Saied Salama (tenor sax), Khamis El -Kholy (piano), Ala Mostafa (piano). On this recording, The Band consists of five saxophones, four trumpets, four trombones, piano, bass, drums and percussion. This record represents The Cairo Jazz Band responding to the American jazz scene of the 60s and 70s with influences from Mongo Santamaria to Randy Weston and Sun Ra. These tracks were first presented by The Ministry Of Culture in Cairo as a Prism Music Production and released with an additional disk by the composer Soliman Gamil. This release marks the first time Salah Ragab and The Cairo Jazz Bands definitive works are presented to the West." - Art Yard. |
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Artist: SUN RA & HIS INTERGALACTIC MYTH SCIENCE SOLAR ARKESTRA Title: On Jupiter Format: CD Label: Art Yard Country: UK Price: $17.00 |
| "On Jupiter uses more than the usual amount of post recording processing and mixing, nudging up to the jazz-rock/disco music of its time, but not getting too close. These are still eccentric, expanded, lurching musical beasts. And its nice to hear the oboe and bassoon -- so often lost on the live concert mixes -- so prominent here. The playing is great, as ever. This release along with Sleeping Beauty are two of the more accessible Ra releases and mark a rare experiment in quasi popularity by the band. They are both also, at present, collectors items." - Art Yard. |
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Artist: SUN RA & HIS INTERGALACTIC MYTH SCIENCE SOLAR ARKESTRA Title: Sleeping Beauty Format: CD Label: Art Yard Country: UK Price: $17.00 |
| "Originally released on Saturn Records in 1979, both Sleeping Beauty and On Jupiter are studio recordings by the large Ra ensemble (including electric guitar and electric bass) and, for the most part, feature the first recordings of the titles included on them (though most were played live a few months earlier). These two releases belong together, since they were recorded and released in close proximity and are both long, groove-based, pieces that range from proto-disco to relaxed groove-driven pieces in which electric piano, guitar and bass function as a ground on which a parade of events drift in and out; Sleeping Beauty is a chaotic, swirling masterpiece with lots of effects added to the instruments and an interesting mix." - Art Yard. |
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Artist: SUN RA & HIS OMNIVERSE JET-SET ARKESTRA Title: Beyond the Purple Star Zone Format: LP Label: Art Yard Country: UK Price: $26.00 |
| "Beyond The Purple Star Zone is one of two Saturn LPs recorded during a weeks residency by Sun Ra at the Detroit Jazz Center in the last week of 1980. Just about everything that the Arkestra played that week was captured on tape -- ending with a marathon series of three concerts on New Years Eve 1980, when the music extended over nearly eight hours, and included over ninety identifiable compositions. There was scarcely any duplication of compositions throughout this marathon night, even though each concert was played before a different audience, the auditorium cleared between sets. The title track, Beyond The Purple Star Zone, is extracted from the second of these three New Years Eve concerts. In essence, its a French horn trio, involving Sun Ra, Vincent Chancey and a percussionist. As well as featuring on this LP as the title track, it was used again by Sun Ra when in 1982 he issued another Saturn LP, Oblique Parallax, to release more material from these December 1980 concerts. On this second outing, Beyond The Purple Star Zone was spliced together with music played on 30 December to form the piece known as Journey Stars Beyond. Rocket Number Nine also comes from the second of the three New Years Eve concerts, and is a feature for Ra and the Arkestras vocal dexterity, and in a quintessential Sun Ra touch melds other compositions in with this tune. Theres a Sun Ra poem embedded -- The Space Age Is Here To Stay, as well as fragments of a Gospel piece. Theres also an early appearance of another Sun Ra composition, Face The Music, which crops up occasionally in 1970s and 1980s concerts, before coming into its own around 1990, when, with a full instrumental arrangement, it was featured frequently. Considering the dozens of hours of surviving concert tape from this Detroit residency, its significant that none of the recordings yet auditioned contain the material used on this album for Immortal Being, Romance on a Satellite or Planetary Search. It is possible -- but uncertain -- that these are performances from this residency, the sonics are very close to those of the first two pieces from this album. At least one Detroit concert (plus one workshop) remain to be researched. However, the presence of an electric bass player and electric guitarist on Romance on a Satellite suggests that these pieces may have a different origin. All are fine pieces, for the moment they keep their mysteries." - Chris Trent. |
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Artist: SUN RA ALL STARS BAND, THE Title: Hiroshima/Stars That Shine Darkly Format: LP Label: Art Yard Country: UK Price: $24.00 |
| "Beautifully packaged LP-only reissue of these 1983 recordings; "Hiroshima" is a side long solo piece for pipe organ! "I was about seven years old when on August 6, 1945 Hiroshima was the first city in the history of mankind to be struck by an atomic bomb -- dropped by the United States Air Force. In our days the only so-called democratic government which applied this mass-destruction weapon for the first time and would not hesitate to use it again, asks other countries to stop the development of nuclear power. What a miserable Christian hypocrisy. Why did Sun Ra title his only acoustic document performed on a church organ Hiroshima? Despite my young age in 1945 I can very clearly remember the gloomy atmosphere in bombed-out Stuttgart with my family sitting around my uncles place in Schwaebisch Gmnd during the twilight hour and talking about this unbelievable criminal act against Hiroshima. Beside the depressed mood of the talk I only remember the (surely false) fact, that Little Boy, as the United States offendingly called their bomb, was only as small as a tennis-ball. Beside the well-known political call and response ritual, Nuclear War, Hiroshima, has a pipe organ solo by Sun Ra, recorded in a theatre in Atlanta, Georgia. By attentive listening, one can discover some other instruments too. One can hear a triangle, a bird whistle, a slap-stick or castanets, a tambourine ring, cymbals, and most likely, different drums. The record was released in 1985 on one of Sun Ras Saturn long playing records with the number 11-83. The flip side of this record is titled Stars That Shine Darkly... Recorded live at Montreux, Switzerland during the tour of The Sun Ra All Stars, early November 1983." -Hartmut Geerken |