Dreaming of the Masters

Last week, we initiated the Sun Ra posts of our DOTM series with an extended live version of Rocket Number Nine that eventually evolved into a gospel-like chant of "You gotta face the music" amid other improvisations.  

Here's another recording of Rocket Number Nine, this time from the seminal 1973 LP Space Is The Place.  We believe this is the earliest studio version of the song, although it may also appear on earlier bootlegs of live shows.  Whatever the case, several of the elements that appeared in subsequent versions can be heard here, including the rapid-fire, bebop opening lines (the rest before the word and the way they sing "Venus" makes us think of Dizzy's Salt Peanuts). The urgent opening quickly morphs into some ensemble singing in the round, and then gradually evolves into free jazz.  But before that gets too tiring or disorienting, the piece moves onto various outer-space sound effects and then concludes with some space organ from Sun Ra himself.  Good stuff.  Also, the images for the  "North American Solar System" remind us of some of the landscapes in the video game No Man's Sky.

Rocket Number Nine is somewhat unique to the Sun Ra discography as of all his compositions, it's probably the closest he's written to a pop song, emphasizing vocals over instrumentation as it does and clocking in under a mere three minutes.  Of course, no one's exactly going to mistake it for Lady Gaga, either.