Sun Ra: Interview With Charlie Morrow New York, 1989

This remarkable LP, released in a limited edition of just 425 copies, is a must-hear for Sun Ra obsessives (of which there are many of us). As an artefact of desire, it is up there with Harmut Geerken's monumental large-format hardback tome, Omniverse Sun Ra (Waitawhile Books, 1994). Interview With Charlie Morrow New York, 1989 chronicles a meeting between two singular individuals: Ra and the then New York-based sound artist, composer, conceptualist, performer and occasional prankster, Charlie Morrow. On March 29, 1989, the pair got together in Morrow's Houston Street studio to discuss the Arkestra's upcoming appearance at the Morrow-organised annual Summer Solstice Celebration in Battery Park, near the sea wall of New York harbour. (In his liner notes Morrow tells us the Arkestra brought bathtubs along to the actual June performance).

Morrow relates that he asked Ra a few questions about the solstice and other solar-related topics, and these prompted Ra into delivering a stream-of-consciousness recitation of stories and ideas. As Ra got into his stride, Morrow pressed the "record" button on his tape machine and, after a while, started jamming with Ra on a conch horn, giving line-by-line affirmations to Ra's points. Ra's words, as always, produce more questions than answers, but in the most delightful way.

The album, co-produced by Morrow and fellow composer Sean McCann, comes with a handsome 24" x 18" colour poster of Ra, photographed at the June performance, and a full transcript of the 47:48 interview. The 12-page booklet containing the transcript also includes two more or less contemporary photos of Ra, previously unpublished. Morrow, too, is photographed, one assumes more or less contemporaneously, looking a little wild-eyed and wearing a deep-cover suit and tie. A recent octogenarian, Morrow today divides his time between Vermont and Finland.

So niche is this LP that it is impossible to give it a one-size-fits-all star rating. To Ra aficionados it will be worth a solid five stars. To disinterested observers, fewer. So we compromise at four.

P.S. No YouTube of the Summer Solstice event can be found, so below is another Ra performance from 1989.

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