The Arkestra, Ra's poetry,
The Arkestra, Ra's poetry,
Saturnians and Saturnites,
I had a conversation with James Jacson last night.
1) If you're planning a Ra tribute, Jacson asks, please invite the Arkestra! The Arkestra has no gigs at present, and they think they've earned a place at Ra tributes.
I think we can agree with them on this.
Jacson says that the reason Marshall has turned down some offers recently is that he doesn't consider himself to be a star, he thinks of himself as part of the Arkestra.
2) The Arkestra has incorporated as the Sun Ra Arkestra Foundation. They're negotiating with Ra's relatives so that the Arkestra can derive income from playing Ra's music while assuring the relatives a share. The main impediment to an agreement is not the family, but Alton Abraham, who continues to press a claim over the Arkestra. We can only hope they'll work something out; the legal system can't be counted on to do anything but keep grinding.
3) Much of Sun Ra's music was actually given by him to individual musicians. "This is your music. Take good care of it. You're the only one who has the parts." Jacson says that pieces that Ra rehearsed but didn't call on the bandstand were often given away in this fashion.
4) Poetry collections. Jacson says that Ra "wrote more poetry than music" in the early New York days. When the band lived on 82nd Street, before the move to the Sun Studios, Ra noticed that Jacson was an avid (book) reader and would ask him to do research on words or comment on the poems. Marshall Allen says that Ra was also very active with poetry during the Montreal stay. Jacson knows that Ra also wrote poetry in Chicago, but is annoyed because Alton Abraham has claimed a major role in the poetry even though much of it was written when he was no longer around.
Jacson says that there were no Ra poetry collections issued while the band was in New York. After the move to Philly, Ra spent less time writing and more time compiling. The two volumes of the Immeasurable Equation from 1972 are indeed the first collected publication (as opposed to poems that were used in pamphlets or on album covers). From Jacson's description of the subsequent editions of IE it seems that Chris and Hartmut have compiled a complete list or close to it.
4) We've heard that the Fletcher Henderson arrangements were originally put together in 1966-1967 for performance at Slug's (even though the recorded examples are much later). Jacson says that Ellington's "Lightnin'", Lunceford's "Frisco Fog" and the Dameron/Miles Davis compilation, "Lady Bird/ Half Nelson" also date from this period. "Sunny would tell us at rehearsal, 'You'll be playing this in about five years.'" Are there unrecorded swing numbers from this period? Michael Shore once requested "Shanghai Shuffle" (around 1979) and the band played it, but Shore never heard them do it again (and I know of no recordings). Jacson says that Sunny arranged "Tidal Wave" ("that was a killer arrangment, a terrible number") but the Arkestra played it very rarely. "Sunny called it twice when we were in Europe and then he never called it again." By the way, Jacson says Sunny "updated" some of the harmonies in his Henderson arrangements ("I want you to play an A where they have a Bb"); they are not literal transcriptions, despite the repertory solos.
5) Jacson was very pleased with the Library of Congress event in which two films of Ra were shown and he was asked to give commentary. (Take a bow, Pat Padua and Tom Stanley...) He's hoping more of these kinds of things will be going on (with appearances by the Arkestra).
6) John G's health is about the same. Tom Stanley says he has fairly active days and others when he's not able to do much. John actually described his problem as emphysema in a recent conversation. Meanwhile, if you know any dentists who would like to help out, Marshall is in need of dental work.
Keep traveling the Spaceways,
rlc