Blu-Ray Review - Sun Ra: A Joyful Noise (1980)

Sun Ra for the uninitiated was a jazz musician, band leader, poet and philosopher who also claimed to be an alien from outer space. His music spanned from the ’40s to the ’90s and was everything from big band swing to the most avant-garde free jazz to psychedelia to funk and often within the same tune. A Joyful Noise is a snapshot of the later “Philadelphia phase” where his music at times went towards a more electronic and funk approach even though the big band stuff he started is still prevalent.

Robert Mugge directed the film and he is a noted director of music films including many on the blues. This is one of his earlier films and his later films include ones about Gil Scott-Heron, Al Green and Sonny Rollins to name just a few of his later subjects. A Joyful Noise was certainly a low-budget almost student film which is mostly performances of Sun Ra’s Arkestra intercut with interviews with the otherworldly man himself who muses his philosophy.

The performances include many of Sun Ra’s own compositions such as “We Travel the Spaceways” and “Astro Black”. One of the film’s highlights however is a performance of the jazz standard “‘Round Midnight” which was written by one of Sun Ra’s few influences Thelonious Monk. The live footage is shot everywhere from Baltimore ballroom to the rooftop of the Philadelphia International Center.

Sun Ra: A Joyful Noise is a fascinating insightful into one of the most innovative, daring and experimental musicians of the 20th century. Sun Ra’s music as “far-out” as it gets is one of the few jazz musicians who reached and inspired many non-jazz musicians such as MC5, Spacemen 3, Sonic Youth etc. and to some extent is fairly accessible. To find a spot to delve deep into Sun Ra’s 100 plus albums is hard but this documentary is good as any other to be fair. The disc is fairly barebones but includes extended audio pefrormances.