Sun Ra

College Tour Volume One: The Complete Nothing Is...


In 1966 Bernard Stollman put together a multi-artist tour of five New York colleges and sent audio engineer David B. Jones on the road with it. When they returned, just 39 minutes of music was chosen to be released as the original Sun Ra LP Nothing Is... (ESP1045). Forty-four years later, after extensive research, Sun Ra archivist Michael D. Anderson pieced together some missing parts of the New York College Tour. Recorded on May 18th 1966 at St. Lawrence University in Potsdam, NY, this illuminating document represents the full 70-minute first set, from which Nothing Is... was taken, including an introduction by ESP artist Burton Greene. In addition, Anderson uncovered a partial second set from the same evening and some rare rehearsal footage recorded during a sound check before the concert. With over 90 minutes of additional material, this two-disc set allows a close-up look at the band's repertoire and sound over an entire evening, including the rarely performed "State Street" and alternate versions of "Theme of the Stargazers" and "The Second Stop Is Jupiter." Remastered from the original tapes and presented in superb quality, College Tour Volume One is a vivid snapshot of the mid-Sixties Ra and his intergalactic band.


Personnel

Sun Ra: piano
John Gilmore: tenor sax
Marshall Allen: alto sax
Pat Patrick: baritone sax
Robert Cummings: baritone clarinet
Teddy Nance: trombone
Ali Hassan: trombone
Clifford Jarvis: drums
Ronnie Boykins: bass, tuba
James Jackson: log drum, flute
Carl Nimrod: sun horn, gong


Track Listing

Disk One1.Burton Green Introduction
2.Sun Ra And His Band From Outer Space
3.The Shadow World
 4.Interpolation
 5.The Satellites Are Spinning
 6.Advice to Medics
 7.Velvet
 8.Space Aura
 9.The Exotic Forest
 10.Theme of the Star Gazers
 11.Outer Space Ways Incorporated
 12.Dancing Shadows
 13.Imagination
 14.The Second Stop Is Jupiter
 15.The Next Stop Mars

 Disk Two
1.The Satellites Are Spinning
 2.Velvet
 3.Interplanetary Chaos
 4.Theme of the Star Gazers #2
 5.The Second Stop Is Jupiter #2
 6.We Travel the Spaceways
 7.Nothing Is
 8.Is Is Eternal
 9.State Street
 10.The Exotic Forest #2 


Press Quotes

"The vitality that made this music invigorating and challenging is as palpable today as it was almost forty years ago." - Jerry D'Souza, All About Jazz

"...the band takes its bouncy postwar songbook and transforms it with a fierce and expansive concentration...." - Richard Brody, The New Yorker

"The closing moments of CD 2 are given to a breathtaking version of 'The Exotic Forest,' which smoulders quietly as it breathes like fire and song all rolled into one. Although the song never veers too far from the Pan-Africanism that Ra also stood for, it swings seductively and is almost like a dirge like chant (although no voices are heard).... It also bears out pianist Thelonious Monk's classic defence of Ra music, when it was chided for being too far out: 'Yeah,' said Monk, 'but it swings.'" - Raul d'Gama Rose, All About Jazz





Musicians: Sun Ra / John Gilmore / Marshall Allen / Pat Patrick / Robert Cummings / Teddy Nance / Ali Hassan / Clifford Jarvis / Ronnie Boykins / James Jackson / Carl Nimrod

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PURCHASE OPTIONS
Digital download Choice of WAVs or MP3s
Compact Disk @ CDs in digipak with liner notes With previously unreleased material
  • Product Code: ESP4060
  • Availability: In Stock
  • CD $15.98
  • WAV Download $8.99
  • MP3 Download $8.99

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