May 27: A. Spencer Barefield - Detroit
And a note about the Sun Ra birthday omission (May 22). And the Samm du Jour brings you back to New Orleans
Composer-guitarist A. Spencer Barefield appeared at two early NMA festivals: at the original one he performed a work with the cheekish title Monsoonyur Pienot Noear, as well as performing a set at one of the late night gatherings at the Ear Inn.
About the set at the Ear Inn:
By eight o’clock the people were gathering to find out what is happening first hand, from the composers. Spencer Barefield performed an extended jazz solo on guitar, without a band. It reminded me of all Liszt’s grace notes strung together – without the tune etc. The changes in timbre suggested various string instruments from all around the world, but at the end of his alotted time, he made a graceful little cadence and stopped.
- Beth Anderson, “Report from the Front”
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He also took part at the closing weekend at the Cal Arts for the 1985 New Music America Los Angeles festival. This is all I’ve got (at the moment) about that performance:
He seems to have done well for himself over the ensuing decades, as documented at his own website: spencerbarefield.com
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He appeared once and the story of that day (opening day at New Music America 1984) can be found here.
But I was paying attention to Marshall Allen’s 100th birthday on the 25th and didn’t note that Sun Ra himself was brought to Birmingham, Alabama, from Saturn on May 22, 1914. I’m sure I’ll be able to find other ways to have him connect to New Music America in the future, but for now, let the Saturn rings keep revolving!
Undated from a 2016 compilation, but a good bet on what year it was made:
In 1984 he came out with the album Nuclear War:
And this live concert recording would have been four months before his appearance at NMA Hartford:
Actually there are over 260 listings for releases by Sun Ra and the Arkestra (the Wikipedia entry notes there are over a thousand in all), and this one was also dated 1984, to give you a more clear picture of the concert I’ll forever remember as one of the best ones I missed out on! (Came too late…)
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SAMM DU JOUR: From 2007, the second oldest video Samm Bennett posted on his Polarity Records site is technically the oldest solo presentation, a nod and a bookend to Randy Newman’s Louisiana 1927, and a troubadour’s accounting of the story of Katrina in his New Orleans 2005.
Original audio and 2014 version here with the lyrics: