This is a rebroadcast of part one of the Sun Ra ESP Radio Tribute by “The Good Doctor” and Sun Ra archivist, Michael D. Anderson. This extensive six-part fourteen-hour career retrospective was produced for the Sun Ra centennial in May of 2014. Over the year I will periodically release all six episodes. It is an incredible series with lots of interviews and music spanning Sun Ra’s prolific career. Last month PHC highlighted what is going on lately with the recent massive upload of Sun Ra remasters by the newly formed label, Enterplanetary Koncepts.
Don’t forget to check out ESP-Disk, a record label that was reformed in the early 2000s. ESP-Disk nurtured many avant-garde artists in the 1960s and 70s. Now they are reissuing many classic releases from their back catalog, as well as new releases. Check out the recent book by Jason Weiss, Always in Trouble An Oral History of ESP-Disk: The Most Outrageous Record Label in America. The book is an extended interview with ESP-Disk founder Bernard Stollman on the rise, fall, and rebirth of the label. The story is complete with the assertion that the label was under surveillance by the CIA and was sabotaged when Stollman wouldn’t accept a buyout. The second half of the book interviews artists that were involved with the label including how The Good Doctor was appointed by Sun Ra as the official band historian.
Back in April of 1996 coming off the heels of the legendary Madison Square Garden New Years run, Trey Anastasio dove deep into the world of improv enlisting a who’s who of jamband musicians as well as members of Sun Ra’s Arkestra. The project was called Surrender to the Air. The group only played two shows on April 1 and April 2 at The Academy of Music in New York City. All of the music was improvised and allowed to go anywhere. Trey describes the project:
It was very loose. Everybody was just set up in the room, and you’d just come and go as you please. Sometimes it broke down to just two people. Most of the session was spent doing free stuff. [But, he adds,] The sound I wanted was free form and the structure I wanted was structure. It was basically a matter of figuring how to get both of those things. The problem that I don’t like about most free-form things is that it meanders. And to my ear, this doesn’t meander; it has direction all the time. It keeps going down a course.
The most interesting musician in these sessions is the incredible Marshall Allen. He is now the leader of Sun Ra’s Arkestra and has been in the band since 1958. Trumpeter Michael Ray and vibraphonist Damon Choice are also featured prominently in these sessions. The Arkestra of course are absolute masters of their craft performing art for art’s sake. Trey modeled this project after the Arkestra. Around this time Trey said of Sun Ra: “I think he was the pinnacle, he was as good as it got. His values remained pure for his entire life, and there's something to be said for that.”
This occasion wasn’t the first collaboration between Arkestra members. On December 2 1994 at UC Davis Michael Ray sat in amongst the Giant Country horns for the better part of the 2nd set. Gumbo, from A Live One is from this show. Marshall Allen sat in with Trey on August 2, 2001 on the tune Push On Til the Day. Caravan from the UC Davis show and Allen’s portion from the Trey show are enclosed on this podcast.
Also featured on this show is Phish’s only ever Sun Ra cover of Carefree from Purple Dragon studios in Atlanta on April 26, 1994. I also put a really weird Sun Ra version of Carefree. The Arkestra was always good at randomly playing weird versions of songs, which in the true jamband spirit makes the shows that circulate truly interesting.
The rest of the audience recordings are excerpts from the two nights. Don’t think Trey jams enough anymore? Check this out, it’s all they do. But of course there’s no ego and no one person dominating the improv, it is truly group improv and goes off in some really cool places. Listen for the space chords where it goes to group chaos and then on to the next idea. That was a common Arkestra tool.
