RAKE-STAR
Some RA (Spool)
Reviewed by John Sekerka

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Some like it hot and some like it cool. Me, I like it both ways. Enter Rake-star, a conglomerate not just high in the number but also the quality game. A colourful sixteentet (including a dancer with a mask fetish) who pay exceptional tribute to master jazz and funk wizard Sun Ra has managed to translate their vivid live shows on to an exclusively aural format. Mixing stellar Ra numbers with equally spacey originals, this orchestra concentrates on a bouncy horn versus percussion interplay, resulting in a record that sways, dips, teeters, crawls and jumps. The only thing missing, besides the late wizard himself, is the frivolous headgear that can only be glimpsed with the stage version.

[Pick this up at www.vergemusic.com.]

© 2004 - John Sekerka