Sun Ra Takes The A Train (Montreux 1976)
The 1976 European tour of Sun Ra and his Arkestra with concerts in Italy, France, Switzerland and the Netherlands did a lot for the popularity of that band from outer space among european jazz fans. One of the reasons for this besides the impressive show that Sun Ra and band delivered, was that several star owned European TV stations filmed the concerts (or at least parts thereof).
Here is some footage from the concert in Pescara, Italy (uploaded by youtube user chieflittlenuts):
Youtube user chieflittlenuts alo uploaded the first part of the surviving footage from the Montreux concert on July 9th
As I think there can never be enough good quality Sun Ra on youtube, I have uploaded the rest of the known footage from the Montreux concert: Twelve minutes of Sun Ra and his Arkestra playing Billy Strayhorn’s “Take The A Train”. It starts with a long solo introduction by Ra and also offers a classic John Gilmore solo and lots of drumming by Clifford Jarvis.
Enjoy!
November 11, 2012 at 11:45 am
Thanks for the “A” Train upload. Got tons of off-air recording of jazz on German TV networks (mostly from 80s and 90s) that need to be digitized.
November 11, 2012 at 4:26 pm
Same here! Tons and tons!