The Universe as Glimpsed in a Hand Mirror – Summer Reup 3

Originally posted 20 August 2006

ROME AT TWILIGHT
MY FAVORITE THINGS
Sun Ra
New Steps
Horo : 1978

Ra, piano; John Gilmore, tenor sax; Michael Ray, trumpet; Luqman Ali, drums.

Sun Ra may not have come from Saturn, but his discography feels like a cosmos unto itself. Although Evidence has done a terrific job reissuing many of his key recordings, there are still plenty of black holes out there. New Steps fills one, emerging from a small cluster of out-of-print recordings from the late 1970s.

Esteemed Sun Ra biographer John F. Szwed (see: Space Is the Place) calls these recordings – and New Steps in particular â?? â??some of the most interesting and little known of the entire Sun Ra output.â? In January 1978, Ra took a quartet to Italy. He famously had misgivings about small groups, but the foursome recorded a number of albums during their stay. It’s a rare treat to hear this group in such a stripped-down setting and to witness Ra’s cosmic vision realized in miniature.

â??Rome at Twilightâ? starts with a relaxed vamp, then Gilmore enters playing a repetitive figure that the rest of the music begins to orbit. It anchors the tune, then releases the accumulated energy with a beautifully sustained and soulful solo in tandem with Ra. Throughout, Ali keeps the beat brewing â?? the sort of dry and persistently funky meter that wouldn’t sound out of place behind, say, Four Tet. Shades, too, of Tony Allen.

Coltrane studied with John Gilmore â?? not the other way around. He was a big influence on Traneâ??s playing and in helping him to realize the possibilities of playing free. So itâ??s especially interesting to hear Gilmore take a crack at â??My Favorite Things,â? the tune Coltrane introduced into the jazz lexicon back in the early 1960s.

This is a more low-key reading, but subtly eccentric. Breezy, with a vibe that owes something to Vince Guaraldi, of all people, which only makes the tune stranger. Gilmore sticks pretty close to the basic melody; for variety there is some modulated piano from Ra, alternating randomly between stutter steps and large strides, keeping the tune tottering just slightly off balance, keeping possibilities in play.

For a reminder of one of many possibilities, we bring back, for this post only, Alice Coltrane’s rendering of “My Favorite Things.” Compare and contrast.