{"id":13208,"date":"2016-02-25T01:42:45","date_gmt":"2016-02-25T06:42:45","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/kqek.com\/mobile\/?p=13208"},"modified":"2016-02-25T03:27:54","modified_gmt":"2016-02-25T08:27:54","slug":"br-sun-ra-a-joyful-noise-1980","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/kqek.com\/mobile\/?p=13208","title":{"rendered":"BR: Sun Ra – A Joyful Noise (1980)"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"SunRaJoyfulNoise_BR\"Film<\/strong>:\u00a0Very Good<\/p>\n

Transfer<\/strong>: \u00a0Excellent<\/p>\n

Extras<\/strong>:\u00a0Good<\/p>\n

Label:\u00a0<\/strong>MVD Visual<\/a><\/p>\n

Region:<\/strong>\u00a0A, B, C<\/p>\n

Released:<\/strong>\u00a0December 11, 2015<\/p>\n

Genre:<\/strong>\u00a0\u00a0Documentary \/ Jazz<\/p>\n

Synopsis:<\/strong>\u00a0Classic documentary of iconic and eccentric jazz musician, composer, poet, and cosmic Egyptian Sun Ra and his Arkestra, directed by Robert Mugge.<\/p>\n

Special Features:<\/strong>\u00a0<\/span>Audio Gallery of extended film performances.<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\n

 <\/p>\n

Review:<\/strong><\/p>\n

Robert Mugge\u2019s debut as a documentarian was this auspicious hour-long piece on the inimitable Sun Ra<\/a>, capturing the eccentric jazz man past his mid-sixties, still very active with his large band comprised of long-time regulars and newcomers \u2018passing through\u2019 for certain gigs, tours, and recordings \u2013 a process not different from Art Blakey<\/a>, the hard bebop drummer who kept his house sound for decades while mentoring a wealth of new talent.<\/p>\n

Born Herman Poole, Sun Ra changed his name in 1952 and pushed music that made use of a large jazz orchestra, diverse instruments, and a philosophy that embraced the Egyptian mythos, a flamboyant theatrical style, and exotic showmanship \u2013 the latter perhaps the most influential in terms of separating Sun Ra from his peers and colleagues.<\/p>\n

Mugge\u2019s doc begins with the pianist \/ keyboardist composer with his Arkestra on the roof of the Philadelphia International Center, engaged in performance art with the city below as an audience of unseen millions, and the roof as the band\u2019s temple from which they makes musical offerings to the space gods.<\/p>\n

Sun Ra\u2019s philosophy melds a whole kettle of ideas that include a belief in aliens, and while he does sound and look a little loony, he\u2019s still a band leader whose goal is to communicate using music, and mentor younger artists in believing they\u2019re not cosmic Egyptians, but musicians who need to be pushed to the extremes of experimental music as well as traditional jazz styles; an intensive process of self-discovery which some of the interviewed musicians detail with immense respect for their mentor.<\/p>\n

Although lauded by some critics as one of the best jazz docs of all time, it\u2019s a very specific film on a precise time of an artist after he\u2019d already broken many rules as far back as the forties and fifties, easing into a style that ensured he remained distinct but arguably marginalized by the mainstream labels and press because his persona and cosmic beliefs are so eccentric. Disinterested in being packaged by a major label, Sun Ra\u2019s his own man, and that confidence is seen in the live performances covered by multiple cameramen who weave in and out, around, and on stage with the band as they perform vocal, all-instrument, free-form, and organized chaos.<\/p>\n

Larry McConkey\u2019s camerawork is first-rate, never missing a beat in catching small details in clean focus. Although better known as an ace Steadicam operator, McConkey also filmed Donald Cammell\u2019s eerie serial killer desert thriller White of the Eye<\/strong> (1987).<\/p>\n

What\u2019s perhaps not fully resonant in the doc \u2013 no fault of Mugge \u2013 is the mass of knowledge and craftsmanship within Sun Ra; for better or worse, the pageantry is always up from, except in a handful of rare moments when the mentor is writing a piece and later shapes it with his assembled musicians, some of whom reside in the same house.<\/p>\n

Mugge also intercuts performances and interviews with an amusing series of on-camera monologues where Sun Ra, garbed in a cosmic Egyptian costume, poetically describes his spacey philosophy beside massive carved statues in a museum\u2019s ancient Egyptian collection.<\/p>\n

The film\u2019s title stems from a moment when Sun Ra describes the music he\u2019s rehearsing with his Arkestra at home as \u2018a joyful noise,\u2019 sounds that aren\u2019t going down well with his attached neighbours. A bit of an anarchist and eccentric artist, it\u2019s a title that suits Sun Ra\u2019s persona and immutable love of music.<\/p>\n

As an intro to his canon, Mugge\u2019s film may impress those with a palette for organized anarchy and performance art rather than straight jazz fans, but there\u2019s more than a few samplings of his skills that should push a few viewers to exploring his massive discography.<\/p>\n

MVD Visual\u2019s HD transfer from the original 16mm elements is very sharp, and features a decent mono mix of the soundtrack. New digital titles replace older film titles (seen in prior releases), and there\u2019s a separate music gallery of extended extracts from the performances.<\/p>\n

Pity there\u2019s no omnibus collection of Sun Ra on film, as there\u2019s some rare material deserving proper HD remastering for home video. Among his appearances on film are The Magic Sun <\/strong>(1966), Space is the Place<\/strong> (1974), Sun Ra: A Joyful Noise<\/strong> (1980), and Mystery Mister Ra<\/strong> (1984). He\u2019s also credited as co-scoring the doc The Cry of Jazz <\/strong>(1959).<\/p>\n

Among the most intriguing performance videos floating online \/ via YouTube is a set using a highly complex video synthesizer, the OVC, of which more info on the device is archived at its creator\u2019s site, Bill Sebastian\u2019s www.visualmusicsystems.com<\/a>, as well as this lengthy Video Circuits entry<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Robert Mugge<\/a>\u2019s long filmography includes a wealth of music docs, such as Black Wax <\/strong>(1983), The Gospel According to Al Green<\/strong> (1984), Price and Joy: The Story of Alligator Records<\/strong> (1992), The Kingdom of Zydeco<\/strong> (1994), Saxophone Colossus <\/strong>(1998), and Blues Divas<\/strong> (2005).<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a9 2016 Mark R. Hasan<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\n

 <\/p>\n

External References:<\/strong>
\nEditor’s Blog<\/a> — IMDB<\/a> \u00a0— Composer Filmography<\/a>
\n\u00a0<\/span>
\nVendor Search Links:<\/strong>
\nAmazon.ca<\/a>\"\" \"\" —\u00a0<\/span> Amazon.com<\/a>\"\" \"\" —\u00a0<\/span> Amazon.co.uk<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Robert Mugge\u2019s debut as a documentarian was this auspicious hour-long piece on the inimitable Sun Ra, capturing the eccentric jazz man past his mid-sixties, still very active with his large band comprised of long-time regulars and newcomers \u2018passing through\u2019 for certain gigs, tours, and recordings…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"spay_email":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_is_tweetstorm":false},"categories":[18],"tags":[4284,4285,4283],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p8nuyW-3r2","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/kqek.com\/mobile\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13208"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/kqek.com\/mobile\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/kqek.com\/mobile\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kqek.com\/mobile\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kqek.com\/mobile\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=13208"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/kqek.com\/mobile\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13208\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":13230,"href":"https:\/\/kqek.com\/mobile\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13208\/revisions\/13230"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/kqek.com\/mobile\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=13208"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kqek.com\/mobile\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=13208"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kqek.com\/mobile\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=13208"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}