The Cosmos

Danny Davis (alto sax, flute), Marshall Allen (alto sax, piccolo, bells, spiral cymbal), John Gilmore (tenor sax, timpani), Pat Patrick (baritone sax, timpani), Chris Capers (trumpet), Teddy Nance (trombone), Bernard Pettaway (bass trombone), Robert Cummings (bass clarinet, woodblocks), Sun Ra (piano, bass marimba, electric celeste, timpani), Ronnie Boykins (bass) and Jimhmi Johnson (drums, percussion, timpani). From the album The Heliocentric Worlds of Sun Ra, Volume One (1965).

The Sun Ra Arkestra’s live performances included percussive whirlpools, frightening electronic effects, unrelated echoes of rhythm and blues, elements of Asian and African music, dissonances and atonality. Starting in March 1966, and for a year and a half, the group played every Monday night at Slug’s Saloon jazz club, which increased their fans among the beatniks, early psychedelia followers and musical critics. Although there were opposed opinions about his music, he was praised for Thelonious Monk and Dizzy Gillespie.

In 1968 the building they rented went on sale and they left for Philadelphia. There Sun Ra bought a house that became the band’s home until his death. That same year the Sun Ra Arkestra made their first tour of the west coast of the United States, showing their elaborated interpretations to hippies and Deadheads. In 1969, Ra appeared on the cover of Rolling Stone magazine, which increased his popularity. In 1970, the group toured the United Kingdom, Germany and France, and continued to play in Europe for many years.

Ra plays a note with the electric celeste and then Boykins makes an anguished and anxious solo with the double bass with bow until Ra and Allen join him. Next, Allen plays a passage that begins being to be melodious, but ends up unstructured. Afterwards the three of them stop and Johnson enters using various percussion instruments. Then it’s Ra’s turn with the electric celeste performing an original and inventive speech, although something strange. Later Boykins returns, still as nervous as before, accompanied by Patrick with the timpani. All of a sudden the whole group enters with Ra playing the piano and fades out to leave Johnson alone for a while, but later returns with renewed strength. Then Ra is left alone again, but this time with the piano delivering a complex and accelerated melodic line. At the end, the group comes back as unbridled as ever to conclude the composition.