Sun Ra - Solo Piano at WKCR 1977 (2019)

This set of Sun Ra solo piano works was performed and broadcast at WKCR Radio, on July 8, 1977. WKCR, the largely student-run station of Columbia University, has a decades-long tradition of fine jazz programming. During Sun Ra's career, he made so many appearances at the station that he probably had a front door key. Sometimes he performed (with or without members of the Arkestra), other times he would present rare and unreleased recordings. This solo piano set was rebroadcast several times over the years, and is documented in The Earthly Recordings of Sun Ra (Robert L. Campbell and Christopher Trent, 2nd ed., 2000), entry #252.

The nine tracks feature three standards, two titled Ra originals, and four impromptu untitled pieces. To distinguish the unnamed works from countless other untitled Ra performance works (and for purposes of publishing registration), we have assigned titles based on Rodger Coleman's 2013 review of this set in his comprehensive Sun Ra Sundays blog series. The unnamed works are now designated "Bluesy Improvisation," "Another Improv Blues," "Agitated Ostinato in Seven," and "Two-Chord Vamp."

There were very few solo piano albums issued by Ra during his lifetime. On his own Saturn label, there were two volumes entitled Monorails and Satellites issued in the late 1960s (a third volume was posthumously discovered and issued with a 2019 reissue of volumes 1 and 2). Aurora Borealis, recorded in 1980, was issued in 1981. Two solo piano albums (one studio, one live) were issued on Paul Bley's Improvising Artists label in 1977-78.

There is a historic trajectory. In the mid-1960s Ra had begun playing more electronic keyboards in concerts, on club dates, and in the studio. For a decade his work was dominated by Minimoog, Rocksichord, Crumar Mainman, Clavioline, Farfisa, Hohner Clavinet, and other electronic instruments—with a de-emphasis on piano. In fact, after Ra moved from New York to Philadelphia around 1968, he no longer had a piano in his house.

However, in addition to Aurora Borealis and the two Improvising Artists releases, a number of recordings of late 1970s solo piano gigs have posthumously emerged, reflecting a return by Ra in this period to acoustic piano (his original instrument). There's a date recorded in Venice in 1977 (issued on CD on the Leo imprint and reissued digitally on our Enterplanetary Koncepts label), and a set of undetermined origin recorded at a Minnesota club around 1978 (slated for digital release). Adding this WKCR session to the catalog reinforces the impression that during the late 1970s, Ra occasionally seemed inclined to take a break from performing and recording with the Arkestra to go it alone, often on acoustic piano.

That said, Arkestra mainstays John Gilmore and June Tyson join in (somewhat off-mic) accompanying Ra on vocals on track #8, "Trying to Put the Blame On Me" (a.k.a. "Blame Shame").

This session has been circulating for years among Ra collectors, with varying fidelity and altered track sequences. The audio is far from ideal. Coleman laments "the hiss and crackle inevitably associated with low-watt radio broadcasts of the era." Yet for an ad hoc Sun Ra capture—especially compared to dozens of unauthorized low-grade Ra bootlegs—it's quite good (Coleman agrees). This digital release offers a modest upgrade, as artifacts have been removed, dropouts repaired, distortion lessened, hiss reduced, and other flaws fixed or minimized. There's some residual hiss, as befits a 1970s analog recording, and some ghostly high-end sonic artifacts which could not be completely removed without loss of brightness.

The final track, "Quest," was issued in 1982 on a 7" single (Saturn Gemini 1982Z), strangely credited to "Sun Ra & His Outer Space Arkestra." It was twice reissued: on Sun Ra — the Singles (Evidence, 1996) and Sun Ra Singles: The Definitive Collection (Strut, 2016). In all three cases, the audio was marred by tape flutter and wavering pitch. For this digital set, we obtained a superior transfer of "Quest" which tracks relatively in pitch.