Music and Words

(Walter Davis, Jr. 1932 - 1990)
"Wherever he is, something very hip is happening! Hey, Me-aaann . . ."  Amiri Baraka, Eulogies

Friday, 17 February 2012. The sun shown today. It must be (or must have been - speed of light constraint) a message from Sun Ra (or a message from Ra transmitted through Amiri Baraka). Anyway it's been a day filled with music - Charles Mingus: The Clown, Jazz Experiments & Pithecanthropus Erectus; Thelonious Monk: Live at the Jazz Workshop; Teddy Charles Dancing with Bulls & The Teddy Charles Tentet; Schubert Lied; Haydn: The Seasons. Gary Giddins' & Scott DeVeaux's very exciting book (700+ pages plus 4 CDs), Jazz.
   Also enjoyed a fine lunch at the Bamboo Café - one of the few fine restaurants in the Capital City and the only restaurant that I know of that provides very hip music overhead (Miles, Trane, Patricia Barber...).
   So, let the music take you.

Planet D Nonet & Honk, Wail, and Moan - Sun(s) of Ra

Planet D Nonet 

Honk, Wail and Moan

On February 4, 2012, a Sun Ra Celebration happened at the Peggy R. McConnell Arts Center of Worthington (Ohio). This wonderful celestial- music event was channelled by Sun Ra through Detroit's Planet D Nonet - R. J. Spangler and James O'Donnell, co-leaders and Columbus's Honk, Wail, and Moan. The music of Sun Ra and others was performed with joyful precise abandon. The evening ended with both bands performing together.

   The McConnell Arts Center's auditorium is a delightful intimate space in which to enjoy music. We hope that the energy demonstrated by the Center continues. With a greater emphasis on marketing, it could be an oasis for creative music - creative chamber music sent to us by Sun(s) of Ra, by Sun(s) of Bach, Haydn, and Beethoven, by Sun(s) of Schoenberg.