Press
Saturn Never Sleeps Press Release – January 2010 [pdf]
Philadelphia Weekly – SNS Review
Urb – SNS Interview
“SNS is trans-forming; the sort of gatherings that’d make Sun Ra proud of the children he influenced and they scene they grew from his seed.”
- A.D. Amorosi, Philadelphia City Paper
“King Britt’s performance transported me to another galaxy. Sun Ra seems to do this and the visuals projected behind the ensemble helped amplify the journey through a bizarre world. This world was full of dark clouds and bright colors, tribal leaders and futuristic aliens. At times it felt like a Kenneth Anger movie but the darkness seemed to subside with a change in scenery and tone. The performance was effortless with a talented ensemble of musicians improvising to King Britt’s lead. I particularly enjoyed it when an older saxophone player took the stage and created a cacophony of train wreckage noise. Everyone else followed by speeding up the tempo and intensity. It ended with Sun Ra’s voiceover, ‘History repeats itself and my story is limitless, it never repeats itself.’ So very true.”
- Rush Doshi, audience review
“In the 90’s King Britt brought spacey jazz hop production to Digable Planets, earning critical acclaim for his reworking of classic Blue Notes samples. Digable Planets’ name and debut album cover featured references to the extra terrestrial, an implication that their music was otherworldly, innovative and revolutionary. Last night at the Winter Garden of the World Financial Center, Britt organized and played a tribute to legendary space cadet and kindred spirit Jazz Icon Sun-Ra (1914- 1993) in a concert that combined electronica, live instrumentation and visual effects. The performance was entitled Saturn Never Sleeps – the name refers to Sun-Ra’s obsession with the planet he considered his ancestral home. For the tribute, King Britt recruited an entourage of talented electronic and analog musicians including Rucyl Mills (vocals and sampling), Tim Motzer (guitartronics), Damon Bennett (keyboards and flute) and Jason Senk (visuals) The group took the stage as a five piece, Britt on turntables, along with a pianist, an electric guitarist, and a man and women behind laptops and mics all dressed in green t-shirts baring a Saturn logo. A projection screen behind the ensemble began with black and white static as the musicians created an atonal atmospheric fuzz. A sample of indecipherable talking commenced as a bizarre spaceship appeared on stage and Sun-Ra, clad in faux Egyptian pharaoh futuristic garb, exited the vehicle. Britt began spinning breakbeats as a video of sticks hitting a drum played on the projector, the piano player switched to flute and wove a subtle melody in an out of the wall of sonic dissonance. The video vacillated between shots of Sun-Ra performing, a point of view shot of flying over a bizarre planet, Sun-Ra walking in ceremonial Egyptian clothing and abstract images as the music went from cacophonous and abrasive to a finely tuned improvisational free jazz session. While a video of Thelonius Monk danced on screen, Britt’s piano player broke into a skillful solo behind the backing of a deft rhythm section consisting of Britt and his guitarist. After the solo climaxed, a portly white saxophone player with long hair and a beret confidently stepped to center stage. The band built intensity around a memorable bebop sax solo, as images of a man in an Egyptian bird mask lit up the screen. As a point of view shot from a distant world (with Saturn on the horizon) covered the screen, Sun-Ra’s voice intoned: ‘History repeats itself and my story is limitless, it never repeats itself.’
- Nick Haycock, audience review
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