Sun Ra - It's After The End Of The World (1970)

 
Recorded live at the Donaueschingen Music and Berlin Festivals in 1970, this gem ideally captures Sun Ra and His Intergalactic (Research) Arkestra at its most otherworldly self. Individual and collective sounds reach for ears at times beyond human comprehension. The 21-member Arkestra is anchored by its leader captaining keyboards of various frequencies of inter-planetary communication and fresh audible sensations—from his Farfisa organ, “roc-si-chord,” “spacemaster,” Mini- Moog synthesizer, Hohner clavinet and electra, to acoustic piano. Soundscapes vary from Twilight Zone-ish scores (the Moog-heavy “Out in Space”) to African ritualistic percussive escapades (“Watusi”).

Ceremoniously opening with June Tyson’s heavily breathed words spoken as if serenaded from a tropical bird—“dream,” “blackness,” and lastly “a world” swirl into the rumbling and gathering of percussion, brass, and reeds. Flutes, oboe, and a modified bassoon (with a French horn mouthpiece!) performed by Leroy Taylor (aka Elo Omoe) create a modern classical orchestral atmosphere before the swinging beats of drums and trumpet-like scorching alto sax lines carry the momentum elsewhere.

A bass-driven piano introduces dozens of different meters performed on drums and percussion instruments of all shapes and sizes over the Egyptian march of “Watusi.” A near twenty-minute suite culminates in the closing “Duos,” featuring the avant alto sax vocabulary of Marshall Allen and Danny Davis followed by the burly baritone dialogue of Pat Patrick and Danny Thompson. One of the singular and unfortunate drawbacks are several abridged versions either subtly fading into segments or, as with “Duos,” more abruptly. Nonetheless, such a recording as this offers the next best thing to but a sampling of what it must have been like to experience the path that Ra offered his listeners in a live concert, perhaps the most uninhibited platform for his musical message.
from All About Jazz

172. [153]  Sun Ra and his Intergalactic Research Arkestra

It's After the End of the World / Black Myth / Out in Space

Sun Ra (Farfisa org, Hohner Clavinet, p, Rocksichord, Spacemaster org, Mini-Moog syn, Hohner Electra, voc); Kwame Hadi [Lamont F. McClamb] (tp, perc); Akh Tal Ebah [Douglas E. Williams] (tp, sp-mell); Marshall Allen (as, fl, ob, picc, perc); Danny Davis (as, fl, acl, perc); John Gilmore (ts, perc, voc); Absholom Ben Shlomo [Virgil C. Pumphrey] (as, cl, fl); Danny Ray Thompson (as, bars, libf, fl, perc); Pat Patrick (bars, ts, as, cl, bcl, fl, eb, perc); Augustus Browning Jr. [Al Batin Nur] (Eng hn); Alan Silva (vln, vla, clo, b); Alejandro Blake Fearon [Alex Blake] (b); Lex Humphries (d); James Jacson (large drum, perc, ob, fl); Nimrod Hunt (hand drums); Roger Aralamon Hazoumé (dance, fire eating, balafon, African perc); Math Samba (dance, perc); Gloristeena Knight [Ife Tayo] (dance, perc); June Tyson (voc, dance); Richard Wilkinson (light show). 

This performance was part of the Donaueschingen Tage für Neue Musik.  The concert reportedly lasted three hours; 47 minutes were broadcast over the SWF radio network in West Germany, and only these items survive.  Some tracks then appeared in 1971 on German MPS 2120748, It's After the End of the World.  This LP was also issued on MPS CRM 748, CTM 748, 654482, and in the United States on MPS BASF 21589.  Excerpts also on the second album of Monkey MY 40014.

In September 1998 all surviving material was released on the first CD of a two-CD set on Motor Music 557 656, under the title Black Myth / Out in Space.  "Black Forest Myth" and "Friendly Galaxy No. 2" are separately titled on Motor Music, instead of being conflated into one title as they were on the MPS LP.

What Hartumut Geerken (in the Motor Music notes) calls "Journey Through the Outer Darkness" was edited down to the opening five minutes (duos by Allen and Davis and by Patrick and Thompson) for the MPS release; the excerpt was titled "Duos."

What is called "Strange Worlds" on the Motor Music CD is divided into two tracks called "Strange Dreams" and "Strange Worlds" on the MPS LP.  Around 30 seconds of dialogue were edited out of the MPS issues.

Personnel from the MPS album jacket, supplemented by Victor Schonfield's program book for the London concert on the same tour.  The Neptunian libflecto is referred to in the semi-English-language MPS album notes as a "fagot" (German for bassoon), and Danny Thompson is not credited with playing it; instead, Eloe Omoe is credited with playing oboe and bassoon.  Omoe can be seen playing the libflecto Cent And du Jazz.  It appears that both he and Thompson played the libflecto on this tour.  (Thompson's baritone sax was not mentioned by MPS despite his participation in the second of the two "Duos.")  Thanks to Julian Vein and Hartmut Geerken for information about the radio broadcast.



174. [154]  Sun Ra and his Intergalactic Research Arkestra

It's After the End of the World /
Black Myth / Out in Space

same personnel.

The Arkestra's appearance was part of the Berlin Jazz Festival, and a radio broadcast was done at the time.  Some tracks were subsequently issued in 1971 on German MPS 2120748, It's After the End of the World -- which also appeared (depending on the country) as MPS CRM 748, MPS CTM 748, MPA 654482, and (in the United States) on MPS BASF 21589.

All that remains from the concert (nearly 80 minutes out of two hours) was issued in September 1998 on the second CD of Motor Music 557 656, a two-CD set titled Black Myth / Out in Space.  (See the notes from the Motor Music set by Hartmut Geerken.)

Despite its resemblance to slow, somber, through-composed numbers like "Discipline 15," the unidentified Ra composition from this concert cannot actually be from the Discipline series; according to James Jacson and Tommy  Hunter, Ra didn't start writing the Discipline pieces until early 1971.

Editing on the German radio broadcast, and even more elaborate editing on the MPS issue, makes comparisons with the Motor Music release tougher than they should be.  ("Watusi, Egyptian March" was included on the MPS LP and the Motor Music CD, but not used on the broadcast.)

Part of "Out in Space" was broadcast on German radio, about 25 minutes in all; the uncut Motor Music CD edition runs to 37:45.  The broadcast version omits everything before June Tyson's vocal and edits out various sections of Omoe's solo, some ensembles, and the closing piano improvisation.  To confuse matters, excerpts from "Out in Space" were incorporated in the MPS LP version of "Myth vs. Reality."

The MPS LP includes three items bundled together into a suite: "The Myth Science Approach: Myth vs. Reality / Angelic Proclamation / Out in Space."  The entire LP tracks lasts 18:22.  It consists of an edited first section of the Motor Music CD version of "Myth vs. Reality," with about 14 minutes of the middle section of "Out in Space" spliced onto the end of it!  The Motor Music CD contains the most complete, unedited "Myth vs. Reality," lasting 14:33.

Geerken lists each planet mentioned in "Why Go to the Moon?" as though it were the topic of a separate chant (then "Saturn" is mistakenly equated with the 1956 composition!).  But "Why Go to the Moon?" normally mentioned all of these other planets, concluding with "Why not go to Pluto, too?"  So the superfluous titles that appear in the notes to the Motor Music release are omitted here.

At this time, James Jacson was playing a single-headed drum made from an Indian double-headed drum shell.  The Motor Music notes incorrectly identify this as the "Lightning drum" (in its full nominal splendor, the Ancient Egyptian Infinity Lightning with Thunder Drum), which Jacson would not build for another few months.

from Campbell / Trent  The Earthly Recordings 2nd ed.

Sun Ra and his Intergalactic Research Arkestra

It's After The End Of The World - Live at The Donaueschingen and Berlin Festivals

MPS BASF Stereo 20748 (1972)
Universe UV 070 (2003 reissue)

1. Strange Dreams / Strange Worlds / Black Myth / It's After The End Of The World   14:29
2. Black Forest Myth   9:15
3. Watusi, egyptian march   2:41
4. Myth Versus Reality (The Myth-Science Approach) / Angelic Proclamation / Out in Space   18:07
5. Duos   4:35

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If you are interested in the expanded release Black Myth /Out in Space,  check the comments in this 2011 post for new links. I would also encourage you to read the insightful reviews of Black Myth and Out in Space on the always fantastic Sun Ra Sundays.