Since its origins in 1989, the Red Hot Organization has created benefit compilations, enlisting famous performers, usually from the pop ranks, to sing standards from the Great American Songbook. Red Hot and Ra: Nuclear War LP has a different brief. Free jazz and adjacent artists use Sun Ra’s iconic riff on “Nuclear War” (“It’s a m—er f—er, don’t you know, If you push that button your a– gonna go!”) to engage politically and urge de-escalation.
Sun Ra was living near the Three Mile Island disaster site, and this is what spurred him to write “Nuclear War” in 1981. Those of us who came of age during or after the end of the Cold War thought that the fear of mutually assured destruction might be able to be successfully contained; even, eventually, abolished. As the recent invasion of Ukraine by Russia demonstrates, the specter of WMD, and concerns for the security of nuclear power plants, have returned to the forefront of our awareness.
Georgia Anne Muldrow, joined by trumpeter Josef Leimberg, begins the recording with a blues-inflected song that, while referencing the original, provides additional lyrics and loose-limbed riffing. It is a nice touch that the first track isn’t merely a straight cover of the original. In fact, all of the subsequent artists mine the source material for inspiration, but take the music in expansive, often surprising, directions.
Angel Bat Dawid contributes a three-movement, half-hour long suite that features her group the Cosmic Ensemble, a small instrumental cohort and a group of backing vocalists (“The Cosmic Choir”). While she also sings and plays keyboard, Dawid’s clarinet playing often takes center stage, with bent notes, sustained passages, and fluent soloing all performed with considerable facility. The Cosmic Choir appears in movements one and three, but it is in movement two, “Nuclear War!,” the most referential to the original, that their full-throated cries first rise to the fore. The final movement, “Kiss your a_ Goodbye”, continues to have the chorus chant unison melodies, only to break into harmony with a bright soprano solo. Dawid is at the piano, playing a soulful riff that urges on both vocalists and instrumentalists. Partway through, the texture returns to a cappella chorus, with one-on-a-part overlapping phrases. The ambience is mournful and ominous to the end, which seems altogether appropriate.
Malcolm Jiyane’s Tree-O, joined by Grandmaster CAP, performs “We’re Not Buying It.” The lyrics include the title as a call and response refrain, with verses about the oppressive nature of warfare and the dangers of WMD. There is strong support from the rhythm section, but plenty of room is left for Jiyane’s funk-tinged piano soloing and flute from Tubatsi Moloi.
To conclude the LP, Irreversible Entanglements, one of the best free jazz groups around, perform an extended version of the original. Camae Aweya (Moor Mother) provides intense vocals, saxophonist Keir Neuringer and trumpeter Aquiles Navarro play aggressive, angular solos, bassist Luke Stewart uses bow pressure to create scratchy melodies and drummer Tscheser Holmes supplies polyrhythms and muscular fills. The piece builds to a gale storm of activity, including trippy electronics, one worthy of the Arkestra yet in its own distinctive orbit. The group pulls back near the close, building up from forceful rhythm section playing to modal melodies in saxophone and trumpet. It seems to be a postcard from the maelstrom with which Irreversible Entanglements send off the music.
Over the next two years, Red Hot plans to release two more LPs related to Sun Ra. The multiverse awaits.
