Aarburg, Switzerland, the Moonwalker club, 29 March 1992. Sun Ra had had a stroke; he was in a wheelchair, playing synthesizer and some piano, and John Gilmore was absent. The band was still ten strong: Marshall Allen on alto, Michael Ray and Ahmed Abdullah on trumpets, Tyrone Hill on trombone, Jothan Callins, James Jacson, Bruce Edwards on guitar, Earl "Buster" Smith on drums, Elson Nascimento on percussion. Enja released it the same year as Destination Unknown; Ra died in May 1993.
Ten pieces, fifty-six minutes. Repertoire rather than exploration: Interstellar Low Ways, Prelude to a Kiss, the standards with the band's vocalists, the groove numbers. The Perfect Sound Forever guide describes Ra's contributions as sparse but spectrally present in the big band's bombast. An Amazon listener finds the focus on the groove rather than improvisation, and Ra feeding off the crowd while setting his health aside.
This is one of the last full Arkestra concerts on record. Not the place to start with Sun Ra; for the people who already have the rest, it is the sound of the band carrying him.
Japanese CD edition from Solid's Enja Real Jazz Classics series.
