10. Sun Ra And His ArkestraHorizon
There are not many Sun Ra albums that are complete works where they would go into a studio, record some music and then release it. These are live recordings from when he went to Egypt in 1971 and it’s on his own label, El Saturn. He was a complete pioneer of being an artist with your own label. The band would sell these albums, of which I’ve got quite a few, at shows. They would maybe have an intermission, and then a few of the members would come out in their space costumes, selling albums for 10 quid or whatever. Now they’re worth hundreds. That was always an exciting moment when you would go to a Sun Ra concert: are they going to have some albums to sell? I probably discovered Sun Ra when I was 18 or 19 and I always had the idea that maybe I would have a record label. If Sun Ra can do it, why couldn’t I?
You would go to a concert, and half of it would appear to be improvisation, or improvisation around certain structures that he drills to his bands through their 29-hour rehearsals in the house where they all live in Philadelphia. It was probably my introduction to improvised music and the idea that you can be in a room with other people reacting to what they play, and not necessarily having to settle into a conventional form of a song or a piece of music. He just broadened my horizons.
