Sun Ra

5 STARS PENGUIN GUIDE TO JAZZ

The current release contains one of Sun Ra’s most exceptional and highly regarded albums of the 1950s: "Jazz in Silhouette". The Penguin Guide to Jazz would give "Jazz in Silhouette" the prestigious four stars accompanied by a crown, which is its highest rating. According to them, “The closing ‘Blues at Midnight’ is sheer excitement. The baritone solo on the short ‘Saturn’, most probably Patrick, is an extension of Sun Ra’s brilliantly individual voicings. The great surprise of this recording (though presumably no surprise to those who have taken the Saturnian aesthetic fully on board) is its timelessness. Listening to ‘Enlightenment’, given an uncharacteristically straightforward reading, it’s very difficult to guess a date for the performance. Only the long drum passage on ‘Ancient Aiethopia’ and the astonishing Dotson solo and chants that follow sound unequivocally ‘modern’. Inevitably, the next track, ‘Hours After’, is orthodox swinging.”