Now playing Sun Ra (and Tyler Mitchell)

This Tuesday, February 24th, 600-plus people danced on Granville Street to "Angels and Demons at Play" and more music from the Sun Ra Arkestra at the Pearl, presented by Infidels Jazz.

Saxophonist Knoel Scott, the band's de facto leader for the show, bantered between songs about how the late Sun Ra himself was "here 36 years ago, across the street". Almost 37 years ago in fact, Ra and the Arkestra played the Commodore at the 1989 jazzfest (with French saxophonist Doudou Gouirand opening, apparently).

The wisened bandmates sang plenty of entertaining vocals on Tuesday night. They also sang songs with ever-present political themes, like "Nuclear War".

Those are the title tracks of two Ra albums. However, what stuck with me from Tuesday night is the accessibility of the group's swinging repertoire. The name Sun Ra evokes avant-garde, out there. Yet tunes like "Lullaby for Realville", composed by bassist Richard Evans on Ra's debut album Jazz By Sun Ra, are positively hard bop.

They didn't play that one at the show, but they did play the swing-era "Big John's Special" by Horace Henderson. The arranger and Horace's brother, Fletcher Henderson, was "one of Sun Ra's mentors," Scott told us from the stage.

That track is from the Arkestra's latest studio album Lights on a Satellite, which got a Grammy nomination.

Another moment from Tuesday that I have to mention for the record: baritone saxophonist Patience Higgins had his instrument damaged in transit to Vancouver. To help Higgins out with mid-set technical issues, local saxophonist Ma'afu Keteca dashed across the front row to offer his own bari sax mid-set. I asked around for how that came together. I heard that the Arkestra had already asked Tim Reinert if sourcing an additional bari was possible; before the show started, Keteca got the call to bring one when he came down; and they didn't expect Higgins would need to make the instrument swap during the show, but it came in handy.

Thanks to the coordination of Feven Kidane, word spread about the bari situation, which got the band extra help in the next couple tour stops including Portland.

Some more Ra-related things on the scene:

• A new documentary, Sun Ra: Do the Impossible, is available to stream on PBS (maybe depending on your region of internet access). It screened at last year's VIFF; in the Georgia Straight at the time, Dean Broughton interviewed the director Christine Turner. I haven't watched it yet. Have you?
• The Arkestra was a headliner at the 2023 jazzfest. A friend of Rhythm Changes, Jeff Brocklebank, wrote for the festival blog about his choices from Ra's discography: "Where to Start with Sun Ra". When I saw that post, I'd basically never listened to this music before (and admittely I haven't much since). Everyone needs somewhere to start.
• The Arkestra's current director, Marshall Allen (who is over 100 years old and wasn't at the show on Tuesday; Scott noted his absence off the top), released his own album called New Dawn last year. I checked it out with you here back then.
• The bass player on Tuesday night was Tyler Mitchell, a longtime Arkestra associate. Mitchell brought Sun Ra to the Cellar Music Group in 2023 with the release of Sun Ra's Journey Featuring Marshall Allen, by the Tyler Mitchell Octet. This album is part of Cellar's collaboration with Smalls; they recorded it at the club in 2021. "Discipline" opens with the same no-nonsense bass playing Mitchell brought to the show at the Pearl.

All the music I linked above is on a playlist I made here: Now Playing at Rhythm Changes.

What would you add to what we listened to today?