2003_12_01_archive

So I left the back office for a minute with Netscape Radio tuned to

the Avant Garde station and when I returned... there was no music, but

one very annoyed colleague who spat "I had to turn that noise off, it

was driving me insane!" Yes! My evil plan to control the mental state

of my co-workers is proceeding well... It appears that the culprit was

Anthony Braxton's "Composition No. 52" from the album Six

Compositions: Quartet. I am now on a quest - I must find this disc!

Send comments to: Tim

# posted by Tim Niland @ 3:38 PM

Speaking of the Moog, I'm not one who normally collects novelty items,

but I am currently coveting Thelonious Moog: Yes We Didn't.

Send comments to: Tim

# posted by Tim Niland @ 12:24 AM

Sun Ra - Night of the Purple Moon (Saturn, 1970)

Sun Ra plays lounge music! Have you ever heard any of those cheesy

"Space Age Bachelor Pad" compilations that were popular background

music during the 1960's? Now imagine this type of music played by a

man who claimed to be from the planet Saturn and who called his band

The Intergalactic Infinity Arkestra. Sun Ra's vast discography

contains many oddities, but this has to be one of the strangest and

most interesting.

On this record, Ra is playing two Moog synthesizers and something

called a "rcoksicord," while main foil John Gilmore is playing drums

in addition to his regular tenor saxophone duties. The album cover is

a classic, and has Sun Ra as the Moon itself, looking down on the

Great Pyramid and the Sphinx.

The music itself is quite calm considering that this period of Sun

Ra's career found him playing a lot of high-energy free improvisation.

"Sun-Earth Rock" and "Love in Outer Space" are moody, mellow and would

not sound out of place in the Rainbow Room of the Holiday Inn

Bayonne... The other shoe has to drop someplace of course and John

Gilmore clears the dance-floor in a hurry on "A Bird's Eye View of One

Man's World" with a paint peeling free jazz solo over Ra's bubbling

Moog.

This record is a blast... I don't think it's available on CD, but you

can get sealed vinyl copies in Princeton for $6.99, so somebody must

be cranking them out. Just think, if you like this you can move on to