Schuur sparkles, Sun Ra amuses,

i am not quite sure what the reviewer means to say, but it sounds like it was one a heck of a gig! full article via link, arkestra excerpt below

I-) ihor

Schuur sparkles, Sun Ra amuses, =C4=B0stanbul State Opera kicks off season

http://www.todayszaman.com/tz-web/news-223555-110-schuur-sparkles-sun-ra-am= uses-istanbul-state-opera-kicks-off-season.html

Sun Ra=E2=80=99s ribald originality

From the first raucous chord blasts that resembled a chorus of vociferous burps, I almost reached for my earplugs and thought, =E2=80=9CHo= w will I make it through two hours of this?=E2=80=9D I needn=E2=80=99t have w= orried. By the end of Sun Ra=E2=80=99s unbelievably wild party on the stage of CRR on Oct. 1, I was laughing and dancing in the aisles with everyone else.

Sun Ra is the name of a prolific jazz composer and pianist, poet and philosopher (born Herman Blount), who adopted another identity based on his =E2=80=9Ccosmic philosophy=E2=80=9D garnered from a self-professed t= rip to the planet Saturn in 1937. That experience -- in which he was told by the inhabitants that =E2=80=9Cthe world was going into complete chaos. =E2=80= =A6 I would speak [through music], and the world would listen=E2=80=9D -- resulted in unorthodox compositions and lifestyle, and earned him plenty of juicy quotes in the annals of jazz journalism. =E2=80=9COf all the jazz musicians= ,=E2=80=9D wrote critic Scott Yanow, =E2=80=9CSun Ra is the most controversial.=E2=80= =9D From the 1950s until his death in 1993, he led his =E2=80=9CSun Ra Arkestra=E2=80=9D= in his iconoclastic music, with all the musicians clad in attire that combined the fantasy costumes of ancient Egypt and science fiction.

So the present-day Sun Ra, an ensemble of 12 men conducted by the 86-year-old Marshall Allen, performed their tongue-in-cheek music mayhem, which almost revives the mid-century Beatnik zeitgeist of provocative gross-out mixed with soulful poetry. The amazing thing is, this music, which seems so haphazard, is actually written out on paper. They also included classic Lindy Hop arrangements from the 1940s, a creative arrangement of a Chopin Waltz (which actually wasn=E2=80= =99t a waltz because they changed the 3/4 rhythm to 4/4), and hard-stomping blues. Then: =E2=80=9CLook out! It=E2=80=99s comin=E2=80=99 this way. It=E2= =80=99s out of this world!=E2=80=9D whispered one musician, before they all launched into a call-and-answer chorus, =C3=A1 la James Brown. One saxophonist got up and did acrobatics across the stage front as a prelude to an African-inspired accompaniment as members of the band chanted =E2=80=9CSun Ra=E2=80=99s in Outer Space.=E2=80=9D Though they=E2=80=99ve created high k= itsch by breaking all the rules, their ribald music and stage antics still contain the power of artistic originality. (For more Akbank Jazz Festival, see www.akbanksanat.com)