Beyond The Purple Star Zone

Beyond The Purple Star Zone is one of two Saturn LPs recorded during a week's residency by Sun Ra at the Detroit Jazz Center in the last week of 1980. Just about everything that the Arkestra played that week was captured on tape -- ending with a marathon series of three concerts on New Year's Eve 1980, when the music extended over nearly eight hours, and included over ninety identifiable compositions. There was scarcely any duplication of compositions throughout this marathon night, even though each concert was played before a different audience, the auditorium cleared between sets. The title track, 'Beyond The Purple Star Zone,' is extracted from the second of these three New Year's Eve concerts. In essence, it's a French horn trio, involving Sun Ra, Vincent Chancey and a percussionist. As well as featuring on this LP as the title track, it was used again by Sun Ra when in 1982 he issued another Saturn LP, Oblique Parallax, to release more material from these December 1980 concerts. On this second outing, 'Beyond The Purple Star Zone' was spliced together with music played on 30 December to form the piece known as 'Journey Stars Beyond.' 'Rocket Number Nine' also comes from the second of the three New Year's Eve concerts, and is a feature for Ra and the Arkestra's vocal dexterity, and in a quintessential Sun Ra touch melds other compositions in with this tune. There's a Sun Ra poem embedded -- 'The Space Age Is Here To Stay,' as well as fragments of a Gospel piece. There's also an early appearance of another Sun Ra composition, 'Face The Music,' which crops up occasionally in 1970s and 1980s concerts, before coming into its own around 1990, when, with a full instrumental arrangement, it was featured frequently. Considering the dozens of hours of surviving concert tape from this Detroit residency, it's significant that none of the recordings yet auditioned contain the material used on this album for 'Immortal Being,' 'Romance on a Satellite' or 'Planetary Search.' It is possible -- but uncertain -- that these are performances from this residency, the sonics are very close to those of the first two pieces from this album. At least one Detroit concert (plus one workshop) remain to be researched. However, the presence of an electric bass player and electric guitarist on 'Romance on a Satellite' suggests that these pieces may have a different origin. All are fine pieces, for the moment they keep their mysteries.