Sun Ra - Live at Slug's Saloon

Staggering six CD, six hour collection of the Sun Ra Arkestra's residency at the infamous Slug's Saloon club in 1972. The recording quality is very muddy, but sensational moments abound from not only a group but possibly an entire art form in its creative prime. James Gavin writes of the venue:

"Past Avenue B, at 242 East 3rd Street, stood a bar whose hanging wooden sign read 'Slugs'.' According to Sounds & Fury, a jazz magazine of the day, the windows were 'usually dirty,' the front door 'hard to open.' It had two eye-level grates, out of which spilled tough-sounding jazz. According to author Paul Pines—who later opened another neighborhood jazz club, the Tin Palace—'you knew you were at the gates of the underworld.'

"Slugs' Saloon was the ultimate jazz dive: bare brick walls; hanging globe light fixtures that barely lit up the dark; pushers hovering near the men’s room; sawdust, mixed with peanut shells, on the floor. 'If someone threw up you’d just cover it up,' says saxophonist Gary Bartz, who played there often. A bar ran along the left; beat-up tables and chairs filled out the room. Slugs' was crowded with jazzmen and hardcore fans, who focused on a stage in the back." (From his Jazz Times article. See here.)

If we take this (plausibly hyperbolic) description of this infamous venue, the fervent, manic psychedelic energy of the music really takes hold and we can begin to comprehend what seeing a giant like Ra in New York in 1972 may really have been like. Released on American archival label Transparency in 2008.

1.1. Untitled (Cello, Oboe, Long Percussion Section)

1.2. Discipline #?

1.3. Instrumental Theme (Mid-Tempo Theme, Plus 7/4 Vamp Section)

1.4. They'll Come Back

1.5. Scene N Take N

1.6. Calling Planet Earth

1.7. Untitled (Trumpet Solo)

1.8. Theme Of The Stargazers

1.9. Discipline 11/Discipline #?

2.1. Unidentified (Alto Solo, Riff Theme, Ensembles And Solos)

2.2. Enlightenment

2.3. Love In Outer Space

2.4. Discipline #?/The Shadow World/Discipline #? (Organ Prelude, Theme, Alto, Applause)

2.5. Unidentified (Organ Chords, Percussion Solos, Different Theme)

3.1. Angels And Demons At Play/Watusi

3.2. Unidentified (Ra Solo)

3.3. Theme Of The Stargazers

3.4. Space Is The Place

4.1. Percussion Episode

4.2. Strange Worlds/At First There Was Nothing

4.3. Discipline/Discipline #?

4.4. Untitled Ra Solo

4.5. Calling Planet Earth

4.6. Angels And Demons At Play/Watusi

4.7. Outer Space (Is A Pleasant Place)

4.8. Discipline #27

4.9. I'll Wait For You

4.10. Untitled 9 - 10

5.1. Discipline 27-II

5.2. Theme Of The Stargazers

5.3. Space Is The Place

5.4. Untitled (Ra Solos And Ensemble Freakout)

5.5. Enlightenment

5.6. Love In Outer Space

5.7. Discipline 33

5.8. Untitled (Ra Solo)

6.1. Stardust From Tomorrow

6.2. The Shadow World

6.3. Why Go To The Moon?

mp3/320kbps