Sun Ra - Great Lost Sun Ra Albums: Cymbals & Crystal Spears

List Price: $29.98
Our Price: $22.94
You Save: $7.04 (23%)
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
Category: Music CD
See more CD details

CD Details

Music reviews of Great Lost Sun Ra Albums: Cymbals & Crystal Spears

Music Review: Avant-Space-Blues
Rating: 5 Stars

Crystal Spears is a pared down Arkestra album that resembles more of the groups 60's recording. It has the extended chamber jazz feel of albums like The Heliocentric Worlds of Sun Ra, but is more accessible. These pieces resemble shaman ceremonies...you get the sense that something deep and mysterious is going on.

All in all, these are great releases. They are a must for the Ra completist (though I doubt you'll ever own the complete Ra...new albums keep coming out all the time! Perhaps he's still recording in his new dimension of existence!) But I think these albums are also a great place to start an adventure into the music of Sun Ra. They are equal parts familiar and adventurous.

Description of Great Lost Sun Ra Albums: Cymbals & Crystal Spears

The second CD, Crystal Spears, uses the horns more extensively, along with a battery of percussionists. Drummer Clifford Jarvis and two conga players often build up extraordinary polyrhythms at slow and medium tempos, and there's a processional or ceremonial feel to much of the music. Sun Ra's use of the mini-Moog synthesizer is particularly creative on the album's original title track. "The Embassy of the Living God" matches his dirgelike organ with the horns' brilliantly chaotic collective improvisation. There are fine solos throughout by trumpeter Akh Tal Ebah and the trio of Gilmore, Danny Davis, and Marshall Allan on reeds. The original LPs were mixed in Quadraphonic Sound, and Cymbals, like many Sun Ra recordings, has muddy sound and considerable mike distortion on Sun Ra's keyboards and the horns. Evidence Music has done heroic work in cleaning up the sound to the extent that they have. --Stuart Broomer

General CDs

• Styles > Jazz
• Avant Garde & Free Jazz
• Swing Jazz > Contemporary Big Band
• Pop > General