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| Michael D. Anderson and Irwin Chusid, September 2013 |
Christopher Eddy from Sun Ra Arkive (CE): Irwin, thanks for taking time to speak with us—we’re honored.
As many Sun Ra fans know by now, you and Michael Anderson, in
cooperation with Sun Ra LLC (Sun Ra’s heirs), recently released the first batch
of over 20 Sun
Ra “Mastered for iTunes” reissues.
On behalf of Arkestra fans everywhere, I’d like
to thank you and the team for your excellent preservation work; not only giving
long-time fans what are in my opinion, the best sonic versions of these
releases to date, but working to raise Sun Ra’s public visibility and expose
the next generation to his band’s great legacy of music.
You have a long career as landmark preservationist, broadcaster, and champion of Outsider and lesser-known
artists, such as Jim
Flora, Raymond Scott, Esquivel, R. Stevie Moore,
The
Langley Schools Music Project, and Shooby
Taylor ("The Human Horn"). In the case of Esquivel, your
reissues were primarily responsible for exposing a new generation to his music
in a high-profile way. I’m thankful and excited that you’re on the Sun Ra case
now!
How did you come to Sun Ra’s music and partner
with Michael D. Anderson and Sun Ra LLC?
Irwin Chusid, Administrator for Sun Ra LLC
(IC): I had a casual familiarity with Sun Ra, but had never taken time to
fathom his variety and vastness. Like many latecomers, my awareness increased
with the ground-breaking Evidence reissues of the 1990s. I was struck by the
stylistic disconnect between accessible, if idiosyncratic finger-snapping jazz
and experimental works that could fracture granite. Sometimes on the same
album!
Michael and I have been buds for over 20 years,
but besides having him occasionally appear as a guest on my WFMU radio show,
I barely scratched the surface of his Sun Ra archiving. In fall 2013 he
lamented that he needed professional management—well, he wanted me to
manage—so I agreed, with little idea where it would lead or what I was getting
myself into. He put me in touch with Thomas Jenkins, Jr., managing director of
Sun Ra LLC—he’s the son of Herman Poole Blount’s (now deceased) sister Mary,
who lawfully inherited the estate. Jenkins has fed me a steady stream of
documents going back 23 years. The more I studied the business around Ra’s
music—specifically the commercial exploitation and legal squabbles—the more it
seemed a lawless frontier in need of a sheriff. We’re talking bootleggers, con
artists, bogus claimants, releases of dubious legitimacy, unpaid royalties,
expired or missing licenses, conflicting claims of ownership, and legal
chicanery. In some cases, one man seemed guilty on four counts, another on
three. Some of these disputes were settled in the 1990s, others remain unresolved.
Turf wars around the monuments of a genius.
Had I known this when I first offered to help
Michael, we wouldn’t be having this conversation. I’m not by nature drawn to
chaos. Anarchy applied to music can yield interesting art. Applied to the music
business, you get infringement, theft, bad faith, legal bills, and lost sleep.
Of course, there were fans, scholars, honest merchants, preservationists,
reputable indie labels, and collectors, all immersed in one man’s glorious
creative expression. But most did not know the full extent of the
unscrupulousness infecting the business side.
Eventually Jenkins and I came to terms and he
appointed me exclusive administrator to oversee the business. So—new sheriff in
town. My task list grows daily. With a legacy as sprawling as Sun Ra’s, there
are new complications at every turn. But there are benefits: part of my job is
to listen to Sun Ra music.
CE: From the
perspective of Outsider art, you really couldn’t have chosen a figure more
“outside” than Sun Ra. From your perspective as an expert on Outsider art,
where do think Sun Ra’s place and role is in that lineage?
IC: As with the most significant outsider artists,
Sun Ra is sui generis. He has the one quality you can’t fake: identity.
He didn’t blaze a path for other musicians, because no one could replicate his
intuitive gifts, his eccentricities, his style. There may be other artists
you’d “like” if you “like” Sun Ra, but there is no one LIKE Sun Ra. You,
Christopher, once referred to Sunny’s legacy as a “deep, creative well.”
Richard Segan said that “Sun Ra is the most advanced musician we have ever had
on this planet.” I can’t speak in absolutes, but his catalog spans the spectrum
and defies simple distillation. It’s challenging to absorb everything. I’ve
occasionally joked that “with Sun Ra’s music, there’s something for everyone to
hate.” In the whole of his recorded output, you get everything but consistency
and predictability. There’s sweet melodies you could play at wedding
receptions, and confrontational noise-art that could spark fisticuffs. He
covers Gershwin with panache, then brutally assaults his keyboard. No wonder
Terry Adams is a fan.
CE: The history of Sun
Ra, Alton Abraham and Saturn Research’s business dealings is a long a
convoluted one, with an endless trail of agreements, infringements, and
disarray. It appears that many of these problems persist. How do you intend to
“organize the organization”?
IC: I undertook
representation of Sun Ra LLC—the heirs who lawfully own the recordings and
publishing (Enterplanetary Koncepts, a BMI company)—in December 2013, but it
was not a management or administrative position per se. It provided me with
authority to make inquiries, request documents, and challenge alleged
malefactors. In late July 2014, we formalized the arrangement with a more
detailed agreement that expands my authorities and makes me the de facto
administrator.
One of the first things I did early on was to
forge an alliance between the LLC as rights owners and Michael, who has custody
of countless archival session tapes. The LLC owns the rights—I’ve conclusively
established chain-of-title from Sun Ra’s death thru several intra-family
transfers of his assets, but always with the same principals. There were legal,
financial, and geographic reasons why the assets went from conservatorship to
estate, to Alabama-based ‘S’ corporation, and finally to Georgia-based LLC.
There are no gaps.
Michael, who played drums for Sun Ra and lived
at Saturn House during the 1970s, was Sun Ra’s designated tape librarian.
Michael has devoted his life to the safekeeping of those reels and the historic
sounds embedded on magnetic plastic film. He’s compiled a meticulous database
of what’s on the tapes. He’s very protective of this collection and has a
spiritual connection to the music. He doesn’t have a “job”—he has a commitment.
There’s no way this material could be commercially developed without Michael’s
involvement. He is irreplaceable because he doesn’t just know the music and the
contents of tapes—he knows the history of Sun Ra and the various members of the
Arkestra. He can put everything in context, including people who have been
involved with the catalog over the years but aren’t directly connected to Sun
Ra or the Arkestra. Some of this history is documented on paper, some is in his
computers, and a lot of it is in his head. I love Michael for who he is and
what he does. But I worry about him—his health, his moodswings, his ability to
pay the rent. He has become extremely reclusive.
There has long been a tacit understanding
between the family and Michael, each acknowledging the other’s involvement and
role, neither interfering with the other, but with little communication and no
coordinated effort to run a business. It was obvious to me that these two sides
were dependent on each other, and each had an essential role. Business and art.
When ownership rights are disrespected or threatened from outside, both sides
need to cooperate to protect the realm. Hence, the new alliance. We now have a
team with coordinated goals.
And just to clarify one common
misunderstanding: there is no “Sun Ra estate.” There was, but it was closed in
1999 and the executrix, Marie Holston (a niece), was discharged. The estate was
replaced by Sun Ra, Inc., with Jenkins as managing director. That ‘S’
corporation was dissolved in 2005 and replaced by Sun Ra LLC, again with
Jenkins in charge. Same family principals in each case, with heirs replacing
decedents.
Alton Abraham tried twice in court during the
1990s to claim administrative rights over the estate. However, he couldn’t
produce a single document proving an active business partnership with Sun Ra at
the time of the latter’s death. Judicial decrees were issued denying his
claims. That said, anyone who knows the history of Sun Ra acknowledges that
without Alton Abraham, the world might never have known about Sun Ra, whose
career might not have progressed beyond the strip clubs of Calumet City. They,
too, were a team, dependent on each other, with complementary skills. But
strong personalities often clash. They went thru a nasty professional divorce,
and Sunny ended up owning the store. It was, after all, his music.
CE: The story of the
Sun Ra’s master tapes is almost mythological. They were recorded in a large
variety of manners—from professional studio dates to live and rehearsal
recordings. There are stories of master tapes and copies of tapes spread across
the world in chaos. Michael Anderson was Sun Ra’s self-appointed archivist
shortly after he joined the band in the late 1970s, and I know he has spent
years trying to bring order and honor to the chaos. What can you tell us about
the official archive and the physical state and breadth of the collection?
IC: With due deference
to Michael, the status of the tapes is a topic I would prefer that he address
publicly — if he’s inclined. I’d simply say that, considering the difficult
life circumstances and severe financial strain he faces on a daily basis,
Michael is doing the best he can. He works constantly. He needs an assistant,
but can’t afford to pay one. He has had offers from academic settings and
professional archives who are willing to accept custody of the tapes. But to
Michael, this is unacceptable because he would lose immediate access to the
reels and relinquish control of the collection. He has ambitious plans, but no
capital to pursue them.
We do have an agreement in place that if
anything happens to Michael, I can take legal possession of the tapes and hold
them for safekeeping. My impulse would be to get those tapes into a
professional, non-profit archive, knowing that the inherent rights in the
recordings and compositions would be retained by Sun Ra LLC.
CE: While working with
the master tapes for the 24-bit transfers made for the new Sun Ra Mastered
for iTunes (MFiT) Reissue Series, what can you tell us about the
tapes themselves? What is their physical condition, and did they need baking
before transfer? Are there any unique details about how the tapes are compiled,
edited, mastered, and labeled?
IC: Over the years
Michael has had to replace most of the original crumbling cardboard boxes and
cracked plastic reels, documenting whatever was written on the physical
artifacts. In general the collection looks clean and organized.
Again, for greater detail this is a question
that should be addressed to Michael. I don’t deal with the reels at all. When
I’m at his place, browsing the boxes on the shelves, I marvel at the names and
titles on the spines. There’s a lot more than Sun Ra in his archive.
I do know that Michael has never baked a tape.
But he makes a mean chicken stew.
CE: What is your
working process with Michael Anderson and how are you approaching the
remastering? What are each of your unique perspectives and roles in regards to
what you are listening for and trying to achieve sonically? Also what is your
signal chain? How are you transferring the tapes and what tools are you using?
IC: I can’t speak for Michael. I hope he consents
to being interviewed about the process.
Michael produces the transfers from source
tapes. He has a battery of vintage open-reel decks with various head
configurations and speeds, and he knows how to service them. I honestly don’t
know what adjustments he makes to the digital files. He works alone, he’s been
doing this for decades, and I’m not going to second-guess his methodology. He
sends me his processed wav files, and I undertake a meticulous restoration
pass. He focuses on macro, I delve into the micro. I remove transients,
occasionally boost midrange or high-end a smidge, reduce noise in selected
passages, shave hiss, squelch distortion, de-ess, correct momentary speed
irregularities, repair dropouts, balance volume disparities, and remove spikes
that will sound like vinyl clicks in the end product. This process can take
hours for one track because I’m a perfectionist—which with Sun Ra recordings is
a fool’s errand. They can’t be perfected. You don’t want them perfect. Making
them “perfect” would strip away layers of soul. You’ve heard of “garage rock”?
This is Garage Jazz.
I’ve been doing digital restoration for ten
years but confess that I don’t have sophisticated ears. I’ve never owned a
high-end audio system. I own cheap consumer speakers, which I rarely upgrade.
My bedroom has a pair of Lafayette speakers I purchased in 1969, just out of
high school. Lafayette went out of business in 1981. These speakers sound fine,
but I don’t crank them because it would disturb the neighbors. Connected to my
iMac, on which I do audio restoration in Adobe CS5.5, I have a pair of desktop
Bose Companion 2 Series II multimedia speakers. (I had to flip one over to find
the model. Fancy gear doesn’t interest me — I just want my toys to work.) I
have never taken an engineering course, don’t read audiophile magazines, don’t
follow trends in acoustic advances, have never attended an audio convention. As
Raymond Scott once claimed about himself, I have a degree in “primitive
engineering.” You could say there’s a component of voodoo in my approach, but
it seems to work for restoring Sun Ra’s recordings, and it’s worked for any
number of previous restoration projects, particularly a lot of vintage calypso.
This lack of technical expertise notwithstanding, I’m friends with numerous
engineers, and often turn to them for problem-solving. I’m the beneficiary of
their sound education.
I’m not trying to horrify prospective—and skeptical—buyers.
I labor exhaustively over these audio files. There’s much trial and error. Some
fixes sound fake. I reject those. There’s usually a trade-off: filter out one
flaw, you inadvertently filter out part of the signal you’d prefer to keep. It’s
a balancing act. But in some senses, the quality of my work is best judged by
what you don’t hear.
I have not used compression or reverb on any
track. I want something that to my ears sounds natural, that reflects the
soulful-but-not-always-optimum settings in which these performances were
captured. These recordings were not made in a Miles Davis studio with a Dave
Brubeck budget.
My expectation is that I will please people
like me—ordinary Joes and Josies who just love the music—and disappoint audiophiles.
But that’s a small minority of Sun Ra fans, and pleasing the high-end crowd is
above my pay grade. If we do please them, I feel lucky—but that might have more
to do with Michael’s initial transfer process.
CE: Well Irwin, as one of
those picky audiophiles, who's never bought an album from iTunes because I want
the highest quality sound possible, I can tell you that your work holds up to
scrutiny and didn't disappoint me at all. I did extensive a-b testing between your new MFiT
remasters and all of the previous issues of the music—from Saturn,
Impulse!, Evidence, Scorpio LP reissues, etc.—and I can say the across the
board, your new remasters are the best quality versions of the music released
to date. There is a natural tone and acoustic realism to the new remasters that
has rarely been heard from previous Sun Ra releases, many of which utilized
multi-generation tapes, excessive EQ, or noise reduction to "clean
up" the recordings. The end product was music that sounded distant and
flat, while the new remasters sound almost three dimensional in comparison!
It's a pretty stunning difference for a fan like myself who has heard these
albums many, many times. I applaud you for the musical, tasteful choices you
and Michael made when approaching your remastering work. For anyone interested
in learning more about what Mastered For iTunes really means, here's a great primer.
Now that you and
Michael have partnered with Sun Ra’s legal heirs, Sun Ra LLC, what are your
goals moving forward?
IC: Here’s a short
task list, minus details because these are essentially speculative,
unconfirmed, subject to change, and contingent on the cooperation of other
people.
We’ve received a half-dozen offers from labels
eager to release Sun Ra on LP and CD. The best offer we received was from a reputable
distributor who proposes to help us set up our own label. The distro rep is a
longtime friend of mine and Michael, and he’s a Sun Ra fan. But so far, nothing
logistical has been finalized.
We’ll continue to fill out the Mastered for
iTunes catalog, which currently has 25 full-length releases, as well
as 9 samplers. We’ve also reissued a handful of albums from pristine vinyl
because we don’t have tapes. (The vinyl sourced-albums are not graded MFiT.) We
granted Apple limited exclusivity on the 2014 remasters because they initiated
the program and gave us terrific editorial support. On January 1, 2015, the
entire catalog will be released thru all other digital retailers, although they
will not feature Apple’s high quality AAC+ 24-bit format—they’ll be mp3s—and
they won’t have the downloadable pdf booklets.
I’m also striving to throw the bootleggers out
of the temple. Efforts ongoing, as well as cleaning up the foreign
sub-publishing, which is a mess thanks to … well, let’s just say someone not
connected to Sun Ra, to the family, or to Michael.
And finally, we plan the imminent launch of SunRa.com.
CE: There has never
been an official SunRa.com. How did that come about?
IC: The domain was
purchased by a fellow on the west coast in 1992. He’s a devoted fan of Sun Ra,
saw him perform in the 1970s, and he thought it would be a cool domain name to
own. This was in the early days of the web, when most people had no clue about
the value of domain names and they were relatively easy to acquire. This gent
had no intention of preventing its legitimate use by anyone connected to Sun Ra
and he didn’t buy it to sell it later at a profit. He intended to set up a Sun
Ra website, but never got around to it. I discovered his name and contact info
and reached out. When I explained we wanted it for the family business, he
immediately offered to transfer it—at no cost. That was an act of boundless
generosity. He is thanked on the website, we’re giving him a free ad for his Mac
business, and we’ve let him retain a half-dozen SunRa.com email
addresses. We also gave him free downloads of the entire Mastered for iTunes
series, and he’s going to get free Sun Ra merchandise—whatever we produce—for
life.
CE: There have been
many issues of this material over the years, from the original Saturn LP’s, ESP
Records, the ABC/Impulse reissues in the early 1970s, the music’s first
appearance on CD via Evidence Records in the early 1990s, to the endless
releases, both legit and bootleg, since Sun Ra’s earthly departure—most
notably, El Ra Records, Art Yard and Atavistic (legit) to Scorpio’s 180 gram
LPs, Transparency, and Universe (grey or black market releases).
What is your team’s unique aesthetic approach
to remastering these tapes and what kind of sonic qualities are you hoping to
achieve from an audio perspective? From working with Michael and the tapes, do
you think Sun Ra had a clear sonic aesthetic as to what he wanted his records
to sound like as a body of work? I’m especially curious about your approach to
the remasters in regard to current mastering trends—known as “The Loudness
Wars”—where hard limiting and excessive compression are utilized to make the
loudest files, which as a result are often harsh and fatiguing to listen to.
IC: As to whether Sun
Ra had a clear sonic aesthetic about his records, it would be presumptuous of
me to hazard a guess. As I said before, with Sun Ra you get everything but
consistency and predictability. Clearly he was curious about technological
advances in sound generation and recording, but his approach seems intuitive,
not technical. I’d imagine he was the sort of guy who’d buy a new piece of
equipment, open the box, ignore the instruction manual, and just start
messing around. Or perhaps I’m projecting.
Sonically his records are a colossal
crap-shoot, especially pre-1975 releases. Some sound great. Everything he did
with Tom
Wilson for Transition and Savoy is crisp, full of dimension. On the
other hand, parts of Universe in Blue sound like a 3rd-gen
Velvet Underground audience cassette. The Choreographer’s Workshop recordings
are raw, flawed, gritty—but they work if you don’t mind low-fi. I grew up
listening to 45 rpm singles in the ‘60s, and many of the coolest were mixed
down to the point where nuance was minimal, but still they made your ears
tingle. Some had a massive wall of sound, others just a flimsy barrier of
sheetrock. The CW tracks have that quality, like they were using Joe
Meek’s soundboard. I assume they had few mics at Choreographer’s
Workshop—perhaps just two—which creates a natural compression. For that reason
alone, you don’t need to add compression. The room took care of that.
Regarding the Loudness Wars, I do the Sun Ra
restorations at low to moderate volume. If necessary I go under headphones to
detect and remove buried transients. Volume is overrated. We’ve all been to
clubs where the decibels are pumped during DJ sets and it all sounds like shit.
I guess these DJs don’t really care about music because they assume louder is
better. I’ve analyzed the waveforms of contemporary commercial recordings and
I’m shocked at the lack of headroom, the extreme saturation of the spectrum.
It’s the musical equivalent of fast food—packed with sugar, processed starch,
and saturated fat. Everyone wants to outgun the Foo Fighters.
That can’t work for Sun Ra. It shouldn’t work
for most music, period. But it’s a noisy world and labels compete for attention
by trying to be heard above the din. A lot of recording artists could establish
a more intimate connection with their fans by turning it down a notch. I
remember first hearing Norah Jones and getting it immediately: she’s the
anti-diva—all restraint, nothing forced, no need to shout. And she got heard.
Raymond Scott once said that he preferred to
mix at low volume. In the late ‘70s I lived in a house with friends who went to
bed earlier than I did. At the time I was a big fan of Never Mind the
Bollocks, Here’s the Sex Pistols, and discovered that late at night I could
play the LP at low volume and the sound was almost tactile. My assumption is
that most consumers who listen to Sun Ra don’t crank it to Spinal Tap
magnitude. I want it to sound good at comfortable volume, not breaching the
Richter scale. Anyone who jams a Choreographer’s Workshop recording to 11 is
likely to be disappointed.
CE: From the initial
batch of Sun
Ra reissues that are available from the iTunes Store, what are the
top five that you would suggest to newcomers, or a classic jazz aficionado that
hasn’t explored his music yet? On the flip side, what are the five titles you
would suggest to a seasoned expert, as far a sound quality improvements, new
mixes and rarities?
IC: Bear in mind that
we’ve only restored selected albums between 1956 and 1972, so any
recommendations from our catalog are older releases.
For jazz buffs, these are essential:
Jazz in Silhouette (with previous unreleased
stereo mixes)
For seasoned fans:
Continuation Vol. 2: All
tracks had first been released a few years ago on a limited run CD by Corbett
vs. Dempsey, but the tracks on the CD contained numerous flaws, which have been
fixed on the digital release.
Monorails and Satellites, Vol. 2:
Very rare 1966 solo piano LP, which has not been previously reissued in any
format.
Secrets of the Sun: Several bonus
tracks and a significant sound upgrade from the Atavistic CD. We omitted the
17-minute Atavistic bonus track, “Flight to Mars,” because the tape wavers
throughout the entire performance and cannot be repaired. I have no idea why
anyone would release this track before a miracle plug-in is introduced which
can normalize wavering pitch.
Universe in Blue: Another very rare
live LP ca. 1970 which had not previously been reissued in any format.
And though it’s not a Mastered for
iTunes reissue, I highly recommend The Other Side of the Sun. Recorded in
1978-79, it reminds me of a slightly higher fidelity Choreographer’s Workshop
session. It’s accessible and soulful.
CE: On behalf of us
Sun Ra fans everywhere, I’d like to thank you and your team again for your
excellent and admirable work. We look forward to hearing and enjoying the
fruits of your labor in the future, wish you the greatest success, and look
forward to talking to you again.
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