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Sun Ra Arkestra: Nothing Is... Completed & Revisited

By Chris May
March 31, 2022
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Sun Ra Arkestra: Nothing Is... Completed & Revisited

The 1966 concert recording which comprises this album—here in a new, audio-improved edition—has travelled the discographical spaceways in what, when it comes to

Sun Ra

piano
1914 - 1993

" data-original-title="" title="">Sun Ra, is properly circuitous and confusing fashion. Eight tracks from it were scheduled for release by ESP-Disk in 1967 or 1968 as The Heliocentric Worlds Of Sun Ra Volume III, complete with a catalogue number (ESP 1046), but the release never happened. The same tracks were then issued by ESP as the LP Nothing Is in 1969. In 2005, the label reissued the album on CD with four extra tracks and a rejigged track running order which the liner notes said was the actual performance order. Then in 2010, ESP reissued it once again as part of the double CD College Tour Volume One, with another track running order and the claim that together the two discs contained "the entire 70-minute first set...from which the original album was culled" plus a partial second set and soundcheck / rehearsal material. Since the early 1970s, a large number of reissues, mostly bootlegs, have appeared on cassette, 8-track, LP, CD and DAT.

To cut to the chase, Nothing Is...Completed & Revisited is the definitive edition. It is a reissue of the 2005 ESP release, but not as we know it, Jim. Like all the albums in ezz-thetics' Revisited strand it was been sonically transformed by one of the label's mastering jedis, in this case Michael Brandli (who earlier in 2022 also excelled himself with

John Coltrane

saxophone
1926 - 1967

" data-original-title="" title="">John Coltrane's Song Of Praise: New York 1965, a remastering of the 2005 Impulse release One Down, One Up: Live At The Half Note).

Recorded on May 18, 1966 at St Lawrence University, Potsdam, NY, Nothing Is...Completed & Revisited has Ra, who was at the time only just beginning to perform on the US college circuit, testing the water with a programme drawn from several stages of his work with the Arkestra. There are space chants ("Outer Spaceways Incorporated," "Next Stop Mars," "Second Stop Is Jupiter," "We Travel The Spaceways"), a salute to the swing era ("Velvet," from the 1959 Saturn masterpiece Jazz In Silhouette, a tip of the hat to Ra's onetime employer

Fletcher Henderson

arranger
1897 - 1952

" data-original-title="" title="">Fletcher Henderson), far-out material such as the sixteen minute version of "Outer Nothingness" from the 1965 ESP album The Heliocentric Worlds Of Sun Ra Vol. l, and trippy exotica such as reed player

Marshall Allen

saxophone, alto
b.1924

" data-original-title="" title="">Marshall Allen's oboe feature "Exotic Forest," here given its first airing on disc.

The twelve-piece band is killer, with Allen, tenor saxophonist

John Gilmore

saxophone, tenor
1931 - 1995

" data-original-title="" title="">John Gilmore, baritone saxophonist

Pat Patrick

saxophone
b.1929

" data-original-title="" title="">Pat Patrick and trombonists

Ali Hassan

trombone

" data-original-title="" title="">Ali Hassan and

Teddy Nance

trombone

" data-original-title="" title="">Teddy Nance propelled by the A-team anchors

Ronnie Boykins

bass, acoustic
b.1935

" data-original-title="" title="">Ronnie Boykins on bass and tuba and

Clifford Jarvis

drums
b.1941

" data-original-title="" title="">Clifford Jarvis on drums. Everyone, including Ra on clavioline and piano, is on top form. The sole nitpick with this otherwise peerless edition of the album concerns the personnel credits, which do not list all the instruments played by every musician. For those, see Additional Instrumentation below.

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Track Listing

Sun Ra and His Band from Outer Space; The Shadow World; Theme of the Stargazers; Outer Spaceways Incorporated; Next Stop Mars; Dancing Shadows; Imagination; Second Stop Is Jupiter; Exotic Forest; Velvet; Outer Nothingness; We Travel the Spaceways.

Personnel

Sun Ra

piano

Marshall Allen

saxophone, alto

John Gilmore

saxophone, tenor

Pat Patrick

saxophone

Robert Cummings

clarinet, bass

Ali Hassan

trombone

Teddy Nance

trombone

Carl Nimrod

percussion

Ronnie Boykins

bass, acoustic

James Jacson

bassoon

Clifford Jarvis

drums

Additional Instrumentation

Sun Ra: clavioline, piano; Teddy Nance: trombone; Ali Hassan: trombone; Marshall Allen: oboe, alto saxophone, flute, piccolo; John Gilmore: tenor saxophone; Pat Patrick: baritone saxophone; Robert Cummings: bass clarinet; James Jacson: lightning drum, flute; Ronnie Boykins: bass, tuba; Carl Nimrod: sun horn, gong; Clifford Jarvis: drums; Unknown: drums; Ensemble: vocals, percussion.

Album information

Title: Nothing Is... Completed & Revisited | Year Released: 2022 | Record Label: Ezz-thetics

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