LINE
23
rake-star
Some Ra
rake-star:
David Broscoe,
alto, baritone sax, bassoon,clarinet
Petr Cancura,
tenor sax, clarinet
Rob Frayne, tenor sax, flute, clarinet
John
Geggie, double bass
Jennifer Giles, button accordion
Jamie Gullikson,
drums, suitcase
John Higney, guitar, lap steel
Rory Magill, trombone,
drums
Pierre-Yves
Martel, double bass
Mark Molnar, cello, violin,
Martin Newman, double bass
Gaby Warren, voice
Shara Weaver, dance
Linsey Wellman, alto sax, flute
Produced
by Ross Murray and Rory Magill
Recorded live at the Bayou Blues & Jazz Club,
Ottawa, April 2003
What the critics are saying;
Rake-Star nails the Ra mantra-approach
with their huge sound. The band is heavy on the bottom end and the
reeds suggest floating in a zone removed from earth's gravitational pull.
Even though the listener can't see the dancer, this live recording is reminiscent
of a Sun Ra performance filled with theatrical and musical spectacle.
Replication is an artistic no-no when
playing the compositions of departed masters. The key is to invigorate
the music with integrity. Rake-star demonstrate that they can take the
music of a shining star like Sun Ra, apply their own artistic acumen, and
come up with...aesthetically high caliber music.
Were he still a resident of this plane of existence, the former Mr. Blount would likely be pleased by the rampant adulation on display in these consistently entertaining sounds.
Some like it hot and some like it cool. Me, I like it both ways. Enter Rake-star, a local sixteentet who pay tribute to master jazz and funk wizard Sun Ra and have manages to translate their vivid live shows onto an exclusively aural format. Mixing stellar Ra numbers with equally spacey originals, this orchestra concentrates on a bouncy horn versus percussion interplay, resulting in a record that sways, dips, teeters, crawls and jumps. 4.5 stars.
So this CD, Some Ra, was a nice surprise for this writer: a very good album, it was recorded live in Ottawa, at the Bayou Blues And Jazz Club, on April 6, 2003. Given the excellent quality of the arrangements and the musicians' extended familiarity with the compositions by Sun Ra, I have to stress the limpid sense of proportions that makes it possible for the ensemble to avoid a sense of overcrowding. We always get a clear sense of the relationship between the soloist and the collective, the opening up of the winds' arpeggios, those atmospheres that sound so traditional and yet so daring. Choosing favourite moments in this (more than one-hour long) CD is quite difficult. There's the nice opening of Space Is Still The Place, Pt. III, the nice ensemble and solos (trumpet and tenor sax) of Somewhere In Space/Angels And Demons At Play; also noteworthy are the baritone sax and the basses on Spectrum, the Cobalt/Satellites Are Spinning medley, the whole group on Discipline 33, the closing medley of Don't Do (by trombone player Rory Magill, who reveals himself to be a very good composer) and We Travel The Spaceways.
For an interview with Rory Magill, go to Beppe Colli's great website, www.CloudsandClocks.net.
For an interview and show review check
out this from the Ottawa Citizen.