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SUN RA & HIS ARKESTRA – Secrets Of The Sun

Secrets of the Sun was a transitional album for Sun Ra and his Arkestra. It was recorded during 1962 at a time when the musicians were relocating from Chicago to New York. Perhaps because of this, the Arkestra isn’t at its full size, and the assembled performers toy with new ideas that would eventually feed into better known works like Out There A Minute. Older compositions are reworked here too: ‘Space Aura’ dates back to the Chicago period, but the slow, horn-heavy swing takes on a more cumbersome sound to the version that appeared on Interstellar Low Ways. Secrets Of The Sun is a satisfying and by no means impenetrable entry into Sun Ra’s catalogue, and is packaged with ‘Flight To Mars’ a seventeen-minute, highly experimental work from the same era, notable for opening with a pretty radical tape collage.

JOE MANIERI & PETER DOLGER – Peace Concert (1964)

The Peace Concert was recorded in 1964, and only resurfaces today thanks to Stu Vandermark’s (that’s Ken’s dad, by the way) salvaging. This twenty-five minute recording has never been released previously and is supported on this disc by a 2006 interview with Bostonian alto player Maneri conducted by Vandermark himself. There’s a composerly discipline to Maneri’s languid improvisations, exhibiting a greater concern for melodic and harmonic invention than showing off combustive technical prowess. Frummer Peter Dolger does a fine job of maintaining this air of seriousness and discipline, firmly retaining the brooding, moderate tempo during his solo spots. Peace Concert, for all its contorted interval leaps is an immensely listenable slice of free-jazz history, and a relevant document for any followers of those other iconic saxophonists Coltrane, Coleman and Ayler.

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