JAZZ REVIEW : Sun Ra Is Out of This World

Midway through Sun Ra’s opening set at a jam-packed Palomino Friday, the venerable pianist-bandleader stepped to the mike and sang: “This place is not my home / This world is strange to me.” While those lines aptly summarized the “space is the place” ethos guiding Sun Ra and his 16-piece Cosmic Love Adventure Arkestra, the 90-minute performance leaned heavily on the very terrestrial early jazz styles that he cut his teeth on more than 40 years ago.

The turbulent forays that made Ra’s Arkestra avant-garde jazz originators were in short supply Friday, particularly once he began playing his electric keyboard. Sun Ra was content to offer his own twists on swing, stride, blues and big band sounds that evoked images of flappers dancing the Charleston or jitterbug. In keeping with standard big band practice, solos were initially supported only by a solidly swinging rhythm section before the full horn section gradually swelled up for the finale.

Alto saxophonist Marshall Allen injected some controlled shrieks during a dreamy ballad but his unaccompanied coda concluding the piece was a model of lush sweetness. A stomping roadhouse blues found two guitar solos--one psychedelic rock blues, one smooth jazz blues, both appropriate and both beautifully executed--preceding a romping boogie-woogie piano solo by Sun Ra.

The performance was equal parts music and spectacle--a dash of dance, a dollop of mime and the colorful, space cadet costumes worn by the Arkestra contributed to the abiding sense of fun. And if Sun Ra chooses to locate his make-believe ballroom somewhere around the outer rings of Saturn . . . well, ain’t nobody’s business but his own.