October, 1978
Sun Ra & His Arkestra
Live At Montreux (Inner Cit\
If you happened to tune in to Sun Ra’s ap
pearance on Saturday Night Live and had him
pegged as some trendy jazzman who picked
up on Star Wars/Close Encounters fever and
figured to cash in big, you’re wrong. Sun Ra
and various editions of the Arkestra have
been patrolling the outer reaches of the mus
ical cosmos since the pre-Sputnik era. Hell,
when the space people want to communicate
with us, they’ll probably use Sun Ra as their
emissary. If they haven’t already, that
is—the melody to “Lights on a Satellite”
(first recorded in 1959) ain’t exactly light
years'removed from the “Close Encounters”
theme, you know.
Sun Ra and his twenty strong Arkestra
are an avant garde big band that touches a
, staggering number of bases. The music is
often .atonal, frequently swelling from a
single instrumental solo to a full Arkestral
exercise in controlled chaos that is invari
ably fascinating. This is hardly easy listen
ing music but well worth the effort de
manded.
Talking Heads
More Songs About Buildings and Food
(Sire)
Talking Heads are caught between two
poles: too wedded to song structures to qual;
ify as part of the experimental rock axis, yet
acasablanca^filmworksPoxiucfion'o? An ALAN PARKER Film MIDNIGHT EXPRESS Executive Producer PETER GUBER
Screenplay by OLIVER STONE Produced by ALAN MARSHALL and DAVID PUTTNAM Directed by ALAN PARKER
n Music Created by GIORGIO MORODER Based on the true Story of Billy Hayes from the book" Midnight Express
by BILLY HAYES and WILLIAM HOFFER
Read the Fawcett Paperback
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too unorthodox to be truly accessible on a
pop level. This paradoxical situation can
lead to some strange combinations of
elements —witness “The Good Thing,”
where a marvelous hook is matched with
lyrics that describe passion in the technocra
tic terms of a computer read-out. This is the
modern world, I guess.
Produced by Brian Eno (virtually a fifth
member of the band here), this second
Heads album sounds much more 'like the
band docs in live performance. All the
trademark elements are here —David
Byrne’s half-strangled yelps and neurotic
lyrics, the textured repetitious melodic rids
and a rhythm sectiorj firmly grounded in the
Memphis soul school. There’s something in
teresting in virtually every song—“ Thank
You for Scnding Me an Angel,” “The Good
Thing,” “The Girls Want to Be with the
Girls” and a cover of Ah Green’s “Take Me
to the River” arc particularly good—but
nothing that grabs you with the power of
“Psychokiller.” The Heads intrigue but
rarely captivate. I like this album but cer
tainly don’t go around humming the songs.
Youngblood (United Artists)
Lee Oskar
. Before the Rain (Elektra)
Very rarely does a member of a popular
group record an album that surpasses the
Original Soundtrack Album available from Casablanca Record and Film Works
COMING SOON TO A THEATRE NEAR YOU.
IKK, MEW YORK
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name group’s latest work, but in the case of
War and their harpist supreme Lee Oskar,
Lee’s second solo elTort upsets the norm.
Oskar’s career is an odd one. A 30-year
old Jewish Dane from Copenhagen, Lee has
been playing harmonica for War since their
Eric Burdon blues days eight years ago. As
the white kid in the soul band, he took an
unenviable role and turned it around. Oskar
added a presence to the War sound that was
distinctive. Whether he doubled with a sax
or keyboard rifT or hung in the background
with the rhythm section, his harp always
stood out'and gave the arrangement an
extra bite.
Though most of the rhythm backing on
Oskar’s album resembles War’s syncopated
street pulse, Lee has managed to free his
harmonica to finer solo effect than the War
ensemble allows. As a result, Oskar’s LP is a
step out of the stiff mold War has become
trapped in.
Before the Rain is, for the most part, an
instrumental album with sound effects
thrown in to illustrate the musical theme (a
rain shower ends “Before the Rain,” street
car bells open Francisco Bay”). Lee
sings some rather idiotic* lyrics on “San
Francisco Bay,” and leads the chants on
“Feelin’ Happy” and “Haunted House,”
buf the real reason to buy this album is the
harp work: the chordal phrasing on the title
cut, the haunting high squeals on “Sing
Song,” and the bluesy feel of “Steppin.”’
Walk into the incredible true
experience of Billy Hayes...
And bring all the courage
you can.
Oskar is one of the most original harp
players ever to pick up a Hohner. Though
there arc brief moments that drag in a som
nambulistic groove, the overall clTect is a
strong, varied set of tasty blowing.
War’s Youngblood is another story. The
album is a soundtrack for the feature film
currently in release. The title track has the
patented War street beat, but unfortunately,
the rest of the LP is strictly Somincx. Aim
less funk grooves and jazz rifling may seem
powerful behind some screen action, but it
doesn’t hold up on the home stereo.
At least two tracks are marred by movie
dialogue spoken over instrumentals which
aren’t, even that interesting to begin with.
Others are potentially hot* grooves that
aren’t developed and thus bog into endless
rifling of the obvious “soundtrack” school.
The one exception is “Flying High (The
Chase,”) a tasty jazz number that tran
scends the soundtrack flaccidity by showing
War’s fusion sound in full meltdown. "
War jnay have been feeding old rifls and
Geritol rhythms to their old record company
in the form of this soundtrack. Whatever the
reason, it wasn’t a very smart or creative
one, especially since their last album,
Galaxy, was a step forward and a strong
seller. War may be down for the count, but
they’re not out yet. Oskar, meanwhile, is a
talent worth watching, and if Before the Rain
is any indication, he may eclipse his fellow
soul mates.
c 1976 Columbia P<iu<e» Induiine* Inc PidaiM
Tom Vickers