David Dalle
Thursday July 22nd, 2021 with David Dalle
Egypt. Sun Ra in Egypt 1971. Sheikh Yasin Al-Tuhami.

This summer is becoming the summer of Sun Ra! Listening to another excellent Strut Records reissue of Sun Ra "Egypt 1971", featuring the original 1972 release with many additional unreleased tracks from Sun Ra's Egyptian sojourn in December of 1971. Sun Ra, not surprisingly, had been fascinated by Ancient Egypt since he was a child, spending hours reading about Egypt in a library. This trip was very special to him, and it came as an unexpected ending to a European tour when he found inexpensive flights from Europe to Cairo. Sun Ra and his Arkestra spent several weeks in Egypt where they performed several impromptu concerts and made a television appearance. Many Egyptians did not know what to make of this extravagant group and their radical music. One of these concerts was at the Cairo home of Hartmut Geerken, a German musician, writer, and journalist who worked for the Goethe Institute and lived in Cairo from 1966-1972. Geerken was also a big fan of Sun Ra. He had no idea Sun Ra was in Cairo and happened to pick up a hitchhiker who looked American. This turned out to be John Gilmore, one of the Arekstra's saxophonists. After meeting with Sun Ra, Geerken booked him to perform a private concert at his home in the Cairo neighbourhood of Heliopolis (site of one of the oldest cities of ancient Egypt). Sun Ra's Arkestra did not have their instruments and they made use of Geerken's large collection of percussion, and gongs from around the world, as well as brass lent to them by the Egyptian military. Sun Ra played an out of tune piano and a rented electric organ. They performed for three hours to a packed house while roaming all over the house and playing whatever makeshift instruments they could grab. We will hear a selection of the pieces recorded at this house concert.