The first volume of a new journey entitled The Sea, The Space, and Egypt brings a couple of 577 Records mainstays in the pianist Matthew Putman and the drummer Federico Ughi together with the trumpeter Michael Sarian – who previously collaborated with Putman on a couple of pandemic-era improvisational records which were followed by A Lifeboat parts one and two – and a newcomer in the form of the Cuban bassist Ledian Mola, who makes his debut on the label after being handpicked for this project from an SOF residency which 577 Records held in Italy during the fall of 2022.
The Sea, The Space, and Egypt, Vol. 1 is described as a heartfelt tribute to Sun Ra, with Putman managing to get his hands on a Rock-Si-Chord with its harpsichord voices, an instrument which was favoured during the seventies by the pianist, composer and Arkestra bandleader. The result manages to blend the celestial wanderings and psychedelic manifestations of albumsĀ like The Night of the Purple Moon and Cosmos, both of which featured the Rock-Si-Chord, with the more primitive or cave dwelling shadows of something like Strange Strings, which Sun Ra famously hailed as a ‘study in ignorance’.
Altogether the quartet of Sarian, Putman, Mola and Ughi manage to wrest some astonishing not to say unusual sounds out of their instruments, from the stunning opener ‘AquĆ EstĆ” Juan Calesero, El Que le LevantĆ³ la Mano a su Amo!’ where the desk-drumming reverberations of Ughi and the extraterrestrial squibs of Putman’s chosen keyboard underlie Mola’s ancestral vocals, which were inspired by Cuban folklore, in free strokes swiftly conjuring a ceremonial space or steeped rite which is deepened through his sonorous bass and the searching presence of Sarian’s ferromagnetic trumpet.
Carried by the inherent queasiness of the Rock-Si-Chord, the second track ‘Water and Fish’ has a whirligig quality whose themes might call to mind the image of a carousel ride floating inside of an aquarium. The trumpet is also a little more green around the gills, as Ughi delivers some stuttering and shrugging percussion and Mola plays a woozy, slowed-down bass, before the quartet find land and close the track upon a mellower fanfare.
Squealing sine tones and breathily sustained trumpet notes open ‘In India’, which airs out over a plummier bassline as Sarian’s horn, now more sylvan, takes a sputtering and furrowing course before abounding in trills as Ughi and Mola build the tempo. Suddenly the Rock-Si-Chord sets down like a spacecraft in a forest clearing, with those queasy keys somewhere to the left of a Wurlitzer organ soon tumbling down a ravine and then briefly coming to a halt as the trumpet tries its hand at a bit of helium-filled vocalese, before the keyboard sets off again, carrying along the drums like a bumping ball of twine as ‘In India’ is bookended by a screeching and rasping sine and trumpet.
The influence of Afro-Cuban forms imbues The Sea, The Space, and Egypt, Vol. 1 with a different flavour, yet like the cosmic pioneer Sun Ra this quartet manage to summon their own sense of ritual while marrying space explorations with bluesy romps and other hard bop or fusion textures. Ughi who divides his time between the Big Apple, Tangier and Rome draws equally from the New York avant-garde and Italian folk melodies, while Sarian was born in Toronto and raised in Buenos Aires and Putman adopts a kind of double persona, as an acclaimed musician who is perhaps better known for his career as a scientist, where he serves as the chief executive of Nanotronics and is a founding member of the Quantum Industry Coalition.
‘Being in the Music’ returns to the fabric of the opening track, with more caveman antics and some prehistoric birdcalls on the trumpet, while on ‘Beautiful Heart’ key clusters and a loping bassline stagger out astride a wayfaring horn as Ughi plays a series of rimshots, the tipsy clamour and sense of slight disarray again giving way to a fine jaunt in the closing moments. And the keys of the bluesy ‘I Want To Be With You Everyday’ rain down on their beloved like so many trinkets or tears, before a final percussive tour de force stretches out ‘We Are In The World’ as the remainder of the track provides The Sea, The Space, and Egypt, Vol. 1 with a kaleidoscopic and carnivalesque comedown.
