David Dalle
Thursday July 8th, 2021 with David Dalle
Sun Ra "In Some Far Place" part II; Farafina and Jon Hassell; Frederic Rzewski.

We continue my full-play , one side at a time, of Sun Ra's "In Some Far Place", a live recording from 1977 of Sun Ra in a rare, intimate trio. This recording was unreleased until 2016, when it was released as a special Record Store Day edition by Strut Records. The concert, in Rome, featured Sun Ra on the piano and occasionally organ or synthesizer, with Luqman Ali on drums and Thomas Thaddeus vocals. Only a few pieces have vocals and the drums are not always present so the emphasis is really on Sun Ra's underrated pianism. Surprisingly, I was not familiar with Jon Hassell (despite his appearing on a number of albums in my library), and unfortunately I did not learn about him until after his death on June 26th (thanks to Tony Daye who brought him to my attention). He was a composer and trumpeter who pursued a "Fourth World" of mixing electronics and music from around the world. His collaboration with the stellar Burkinabé group Farafina is a great showcase for his musical ideas. We will hear several pieces from this album as well as from other Farafina albums. Lastly, we will hear the grand masterpiece "Variations on 'The People United Will Never Be Defeated!'" by the volcanic pianist-composer Frederic Rzewski. Sadly, Rzewski also died on June 26th (Hassell and Rzewski were born just a year apart, in 1937 and 1938 respectively). Rzewski was always a radical, politically minded artist. In the 60's he formed a group which improvised on homemade electronic instruments. In the 70's his music took a more political turn, with works such as the 1971 "Coming Together" based on writings from Samuel Melville, one of the leaders of the Attica Prison Uprising, and his 1976 "Variations on 'The People United Will Never Be Defeated!'". This hour long masterpiece is based on the extremely catchy anthem by Sergio Ortega and uses an enormous range of piano techniques, as well as the pianist shouting and whistling. This work stands shoulder-to-shoulder with Bach's "Goldberg Variations" and Beethoven's "Diabelli Variations". Of the several recordings of this work in my collection we will hear my favourite, Rzewski's own (recorded sometime between 1998 and 2001).