Sun Ra Strange Strings (Unheard Music Series/Atavistic)
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Of the three elements in Variations, the door was perhaps most unusual. Unlike the saw, it can’t be controlled enough to create a melody. It can, however, be used to produce a wide range of sounds, some of which resemble the sounds that traditional instruments make. Henry decontextualized the door, manipulating its creaks to such a degree that their source was rendered irrelevant, but two recent releases–a reissue of an obscure Sun Ra record and a new collaboration between Paris-based Spanish drummer Ramon Lopez and Finnish bassist Teppo Hauta-Aho–prominently feature it, free of processing, as an instrument of improvisation.
Recorded in 1966 and released the following year, Sun Ra’s Strange Strings rates as one of the most intuitive albums in the bandleader’s vast catalog. It opens with “Worlds Approaching,” a pure and simple free-jazz piece with little or no melodic theme. Ra (Wurlitzer), Marshall Allen (oboe), and John Gilmore (tenor sax) let loose with solos while flutist Pat Patrick and trombonist Ali Harsan add careful accents. Every now and then a pool of reverb will suddenly wash over everything: Tommy “Bugs” Hunter, a drummer in the Arkestra, discovered he could create the effect by switching cables on the back of the tape machine, making this one of the earliest jazz sessions to feature live dublike mixing. The band builds to an explosive climax and then drops out as an odd percussive pattern swirls and recedes.
