Sun Ra – Lanquidity

Strut

The prolific catalogue of venerable jazz legend and cosmic child Sun Ra is such that there are always new discoveries to be made. His output is so voluminous that one might struggle to find a place to start. The flipside of this is that new cabochons are being discovered under the floorboards all the time.

Here is yet another facet to the collection. The reissue of 1978’s Lanquidity, recorded in an overnight session at Bob Bank’s Blank Tapes, sees Sun Ra and The Solar Arkestra try their hand at funk, galactic style.

Ra (born Herman Blount) has become the stuff of legend for his cryptic persona and cosmically soused philosophy. Drawing on symbols of the occult that ranged from Egyptian mysticism (he fashioned himself after the sun god) to the Rosicrucian order, he spread messages that were passed down from him on his alleged trip to Saturn, with the conviction that this journey to the outer planets was just as plausible as a morning stroll in your local park.

The fact that he would hardly ever reveal any of these teachings or any details about himself in a straightforward manner just made the mythology all the more enticing. His 1974 film Space Is The Place’ (which can be found in full online via several noted video hosting platforms) was hailed by commenters as being “better than LSD”.

This devotion to Afro-futurism is reflected in an equally cryptic musical body; hence the concept of a fusion-funk album from an outfit skirting along the fringes of jazz seems a little alien at first, if you’ll excuse the dreadful wordplay. Fortunately, it was not an unwelcome surprise — Sun Ra bends the fabric of funk entirely to his own will.

Kicking off with the title track “Lanquidity”, the album establishes exactly what it’s going to be from the word go. The horns glide in with a slothful yet infectious motif around which the other instruments will spin their grooves. The jam is lazy and spaced-out, surprisingly mellow and approachable for Ra. Intermittent psychedelic wobbles and the methodical thump of the percussion / bass helps the listener to see all the colours of a nebula. The piece culminates into a meltdown of pure metallic fluidity.

“Where Pathways Meet” ups the groovy ante, with the horn section headed by Eddie Gale continuing to put in one hell of a shift until the razor-sharp jazz guitar cuts in like a swarm of sedately funkified bees. After a while it jives in and out with the piano, a demonstration of effortless coolness. “That’s How I Feel” sees soloist and current Arkestra bandleader Marshall Allen strut his stuff. He weaves a complex tapestry with the oboe, leaving plenty of room for the sax and a bassline that wouldn’t sound out of place on Gary Numan’s I, Assassin.

Exuding a sense of mournful reflectivity, “That’s How I Feel” clears the mind and the senses. “Twin Stars Of Thence” is another success for bassist Richard Williams — this one has all the swagger of a Komodo dragon on the prowl. Ra’s keys twinkle expertly. Saxophones swoop in.

Few songs have ever been better titled than “There are Other Worlds (They Have Not Told You Of)”. I suspected this track would be the most experimental in the Lanquidity arsenal, and I was right. It is certainly the truest to the spirit of Ra, who believed in a vast power that was keeping the keys to the vault of knowledge from the innocent and vulnerable humanity, eventually concluding it was this same all-pervading power that manipulated man to hate his fellow brother*. In this track, we are given a glimpse of the forbidden knowledge – an ethereal blast of whispers from Ra and June Tyson beneath an instrumental stretched to the point of spacetime expansion. Throw in some disjointed piano and you’ve got a recipe for success.

Fans are awed at Ra’s ability to transcend the limits of time and create a legacy of music that sits completely outside the canon. The new issue of Lanquidity holds its own, remaining fresh and exciting to the modern ear. Perhaps Sun Ra did get it all from outer space.

-Raul Solomons-

*Sometimes. He changed his beliefs every other Tuesday.