T h e
O t a c í l i o
M e l g a ç o
G e s a m t k u n s t w e r k e s t r a
presents
T h e
♄
C o n c e r t

(In Honor Of
S u n
R a)

[duration 01:14:42] all rights reserved

#

The artist Otacílio Melgaço has two official curators in the virtual world. A curator (from Latin: ´curare´, meaning ´to take care´) is a manager or overseer. Traditionally, keeper of a cultural heritage institution (e.g., gallery, museum, library or, as the present case: sound archive) is a content specialist charged with an institution's collections and, highlighting the context in force here, involved with the interpretation of personal (heritage) material. Both, Mr. Paz and Mr. Campbell, are, therefore, reviewers of the Melgacian works. To learn more about their missions, tasks, assignments and responsibilities by means of valuable informations regarding the compositional process, the performative rhizomes and other special features, just click the following link: otaciliomelgaco.wixsite.com/preamblebypsp
(O.M.Team; P r e l u d e)

+

"Due to the strength that some phenomena have, and which find in Art Works like ´The ♄ Concert´ yet another magmatic confirmation, with your courteous permission, I would like to start by bringing us a couple of truisms (statements that are obviously true and that do not say anything we don't already know ... therefore, they are a faithful mirror of the puissance that I mentioned initially):

i - Through countless and spontaneous manifestations of planetary citizens who got to know and experience this kind of Rite of Passage that is to admire-and-metabolize the Otacílio Melgaço´s Offsprings - and corroborating exactly what I will pronounce next -: seems to be a maximum common denominator infer [upon receiving so many testimonials in this regard; precious feedback that reaches the artist by emails, messages via social media, et cet.] how much absorbing the O.M.'s sound Creations, (they say) they will never listen to music the same way again or, to put it another manner, it is a ´trigger´ - inter alia, keeping our theme: a ´liftoff´ - for us, intimately and expansively, to be ´all Ears to all Sounds´!

[Having named his Orchestra
´G e s a m t k u n s t w e r k e s t r a´
is yet another indisputable indication of this, by the way];

ii - As much as this Brazilian multicultural originator launches himself in the directions (multi, poly) of so many possible compositional languages, be it avant-garde, modern classical, free jazz, art rock, fusion, electronic, noise, ´ethnic´ and so on, it is impracticable to confine it all under one [no matter how eclectic it is] label; the music that Otacílio brings to the Orb could only be called ´Melgacian´.

Both are, in short, two sides ...of the same coin. Or, in our context here, the light and dark side ...of the same natural satellite. Extending the metaphor, ...of a large, rounded astronomical body that is neither a star nor its remnant. In other wor(l)ds, ...of a planet.

Saturn is the sixth planet from the Sun and the second-largest in the Solar System, after Jupiter. It is a gas giant with an average radius of about nine-and-a-half times that of Earth. It has only one-eighth the average density of Earth, but is over 95 times more massive. Saturn's interior is thought to be composed of a rocky core, surrounded by a deep layer of metallic hydrogen, an intermediate layer of liquid hydrogen and liquid helium, and finally, a gaseous outer layer. Saturn has a pale yellow hue due to ammonia crystals in its upper atmosphere. An electrical current within the metallic hydrogen layer is thought to give rise to Saturn's planetary magnetic field, which is weaker than Earth's, but which has a magnetic moment 580 times that of Earth due to Saturn's larger size. Saturn's magnetic field strength is around one-twentieth of Jupiter's. The outer atmosphere is generally bland and lacking in contrast, although long-lived features can appear. Wind speeds on Saturn can reach 1,800 kilometres per hour (1,100 miles per hour). The planet has a prominent ring system, which is composed mainly of ice particles, with a smaller amount of rocky debris and dust. At least 146 moons are known to orbit the planet, of which 63 are officially named; this does not include the hundreds of moonlets in its rings. Titan, Saturn's largest moon and the second largest in the Solar System, is larger (while less massive) than the planet Mercury and is the only moon in the Solar System to have a substantial atmosphere. But there is one more piece of information about this planet that may not appear in the annals of astronomy: Sun Ra claims that's where he came from.

Saturn is named after the Roman god of wealth and agriculture and father of Jupiter. Its astronomical symbol

♄

has been traced back to the Greek Oxyrhynchus Papyri, where it can be seen to be a Greek kappa-rho ligature with a horizontal stroke, as an abbreviation for Κρονος (Cronus), the Greek name for the planet. It later came to look like a lower-case Greek eta, with the cross added at the top in the 16th century to Christianize this pagan symbol. It is worth saying that Otacílio, in defense of Paganism, maintained the Christianizing trait as an irony or a historical denunciation.

The expression Sun Ra can be understood as ´Ra, the Sun´, since this is the characterization of the Egyptian Ra. Claiming to be the ´Angel of Race´ not of Earth but of Saturn, Herman Poole Blount developed a complex personality. As an excerpt from a beautiful essay about such an unmistakable ´alien´, Stefany Anne Golberg wrote:

<<The birth of Herman Poole Blount on May 22, 1914 was, for him, the least significant of all his births. Blount begat Bhlount and Bhlount begat Ra and Herman begat Sonny and Sonny begat Sun. Sun Ra left Alabama for Chicago and Chicago for Saturn, until he never quite understood how he got to planet Earth in the first place. The name ‘Ra’ — the Egyptian god of the sun — brought him closer to the cosmos. Each rebirth erased the one before it, until Sun Ra’s past became a lost road that trailed off into nothingness. The past was passed, dead. History is his story, he said, it’s not my story. My story, said Sun Ra, is mystery. Sun Ra lived life between ancient time and the future, in something like the eternal now. He told people he had no family and lived on the other side of time. Rebirth might not be the right word for the journey that Sun Ra took. Awakening is more precise, like how the ancient Egyptians were awakened. As Jan Assaman wrote in Death and Salvation in Ancient Egypt, to be a person in ancient Egypt meant to exercise self-control. In sleep, a person is dissociated from the self. The sleeping person, then, is powerlessness, like a dead person. But the awakened one is a person risen.>>

It doesn't surprise me that Otacílio Melgaço dedicates ´The ♄ Concert´ to Sun Ra because their Art is synonymous with awakening, resurgence. We will have confirmation of this if we turn, for example, to mythology.

Saturn (Latin: Sāturnus) was a god in ancient Roman religion, and a character in Roman mythology. He was described as a god of time, generation, dissolution, abundance, wealth, agriculture, periodic renewal and liberation. Saturn's mythological reign was depicted as a Golden Age of abundance and peace. After the Roman conquest of Greece, he was conflated with the Greek Titan Cronus. Saturn's consort was his sister Ops, with whom he fathered Jupiter, Neptune, Pluto, Juno, Ceres and Vesta. Saturn was especially celebrated during the festival of Saturnalia each December, perhaps the most famous of the Roman festivals, a time of feasting, role reversals, free speech, gift-giving and revelry. The Temple of Saturn in the Roman Forum housed the state treasury and archives (aerarium) of the Roman Republic and the early Roman Empire.

The juice, sap, lushness: ´feasting, role reversals, free speech, gift-giving and revelry. Generation, dissolution, abundance, wealth, periodic renewal, liberation.´ Pax. Would there be a better way to translate the intersections that exist in the multiversal music of Otacílio Melgaço and Sun Ra?

Once, the [if we rely on dictionaries] ´anti-Saturnine´ honored figure foreshadowed:

´In some far off place
Many light years in space
I'll wait for you
Where human feet have never trod
Where human eyes have never seen
I'll build a world of abstract dreams
And wait for you.´

Such prophetic welcoming spells could very well be the inviting Epigraph of this rare spatial Gem provided by The exuberantly heliocentric Otacílio Melgaço Gesamtkunstwerkestra!" (Caio Campbell; Anglo-Brazilian semiologist and musician)

"The vast Melgacian Opera ... it is herculeously broad, but part of it belongs to the same lineage as Sun Ra.

Sun Ra's piano technique touched on many styles: his youthful fascination with boogie woogie, stride piano and blues, a sometimes refined touch reminiscent of Count Basie or Ahmad Jamal, and angular phrases in the style of Thelonious Monk or brutal, percussive attacks like Cecil Taylor. Often overlooked is the range of influences from classical music – Sun Ra cited Chopin, Rachmaninoff, Schoenberg and Shostakovich as his favorite composers for the piano.

Through this brief miscellany, the points of intersection between the Brazilian and the Saturnian artist become crystalline.

As a matter of fact, Le Sony'r Ra (born Herman Poole Blount, May 22, 1914 – May 30, 1993), better known as Sun Ra, was an American jazz composer, bandleader, piano and synthesizer player, and poet known for his experimental music, ´cosmic´ philosophy, prolific output, and theatrical performances. For much of his career, Ra led The Arkestra, an ensemble with an ever-changing name and flexible line-up.

Born and raised in Alabama, Blount became involved in the Chicago jazz scene during the late 1940s. He soon abandoned his birth name, taking the name Le Sony'r Ra, shortened to Sun Ra (after Ra, the Egyptian god of the Sun). Claiming to be an alien from Saturn on a mission to preach peace, he developed a mythical persona and an idiosyncratic credo that made him a pioneer of Afrofuturism. Throughout his life he denied ties to his prior identity saying, ´Any name that I use other than Ra is a pseudonym.´ His widely eclectic and avant-garde music echoed the entire history of jazz, from ragtime and early New Orleans hot jazz, to swing music, bebop, free jazz and fusion. His compositions ranged from keyboard solos to works for big bands of over 30 musicians, along with electronic excursions, songs, chants, percussion pieces, and anthems.

From the mid-1950s until his death, Ra led the musical collective The Arkestra, which featured artists such as Marshall Allen, John Gilmore and June Tyson throughout its various iterations. Its performances often included dancers and musicians dressed in elaborate, futuristic costumes inspired by ancient Egyptian attire and the Space Age. Following Ra's retirement in 1992 due to illness, the band remained active as The Sun Ra Arkestra, and, as of 2023, continues performing under the leadership of veteran Ra sideman Marshall Allen.

Though his mainstream success was limited, Ra was a fertile recording artist and frequent live performer, and remained influential throughout his life for his music and persona. He is now widely considered an innovator; among his distinctions are his pioneering work in free improvisation and modal jazz and his early use of electronic keyboards and synthesizers. Over his career, he recorded dozens of singles and over 100 full-length albums, comprising well over 1,000 songs, making him one of the most prolific recording artists of the 20th century.

Resuming parallels with Melgaço, the gift or vocation to be so prolific is another common point. Pioneering and innovation, ditto. Without even a shadow of a doubt, The incontournable Otacílio Melgaço Gesamtkunstwerkestra, formed by the (astral?) conjunction of members of several of his projects, is also a Tribute to the stupendous (already mentioned) Arkestra. Above all, between O.M. and S.R., there is such relationship so dedicated or devoted to everything that MUSIC means and can mean for Humanity. This reminds me of Friedrich Wilhelm Nietzsche when he stated that ´life without music is simply a mistake, a tiring task, an exile.´ Sun Ra, reverberating, tells us that ´the earth cannot move without music. The earth moves in a certain rhythm, a certain sound, a certain note. When the music stops the earth will stop and everything upon it will die.´ And, with his typical surrealistic humor, responding to a question I had about the context of ´The ♄ Concert´, as if to conclude in an already all-embracing (Milky & post) way, here's Otacílio's own affidavit: ´We could compositionally metaphorize the planets and, as points to be joined, pulchritudinous it is to imagine that each one would be like a whole note or semibreve (a stemless hollow oval), and so, under our transidereal inventiveness, a stemless hollow oval with one or two vertical lines on both sides would be a double whole note or brief; a stemmed hollow oval a half note or minimal; solid ovals would always use stems, and could indicate quarter notes (crotchets) or, with added beams or flags, smaller subdivisions. Wouldn't this be, under the sheltering Sun & s.t.a.r.ting from an Earth-Saturn (better said: probably the inverse) connection, the most reliable cosmogony to a so-called ´Music of the SpHEREs´?´

Yes,
yes
I said yes
we will Yes:

♄ere

we have it
phonoastronomically
[fasten your seat belts!]
deep-seated!" (Pablo S. Paz; Argentinean musicologist)

&

I - Paz´s A d d e n d u m

<<On the Quadraphonic (or Quadrophonic / Quadrasonic)

♄

A
C o n c e r t
in Honor of
S u n
R a

by

T h e
O t a c í l i o
M e l g a ç o
G e s a m t k u n s t w e r k e s t r a

It is a sonic Oeuvre that has existed for a long time. It is only now being released, at the beginning of the year 2024, in a celebratory sense. In terms of rare live performances & in line with his concept of ´A-p-p-a-r-i-t-i-o-n´, when precisely it was composed, munimented and where, ...informations that O.M. did not reveal to us, its curators. It was not originally made to be in album form. It would land in Otacílio’s private archives. What would have made its author change his mind? This is not the first time this has occurred and it is usually requests from people involved in the event and who would like to be once again witnesses of a (now) ´eternalized´ Art but under the open aegis of greater collectivization too - provided by the posting of such Opus on Bandcamp -. It seems important to me that it is a live sound engraving through the lovely paradox of being a ritualistic yet structurally accurate Concerto and, at the same time, having such ceremonial lucidity (plus lanquidity) doing justice to a figure as libertarian as that of Sun Ra. Libertarian with disciplined method, I must emphasize. Apropos, in thought-provoking ´jeu de miroir´, this demonstrates how Melgaço is, conceptually and empirically, doubly libertarian (or, if you prefer, iconoclastic).

Last but not least, there is a detail - that is definitely not a detail - that deserves to be highlighted:

Quadraphonic sound – equivalent to what is now called 4.0 surround sound – uses four audio channels in which speakers are positioned at the four corners of a listening space. The system allows for the reproduction of sound signals that are (wholly or in part) independent of one another. Four channel quadraphonic surround sound can be used to recreate the highly realistic effect of 3D. It can also be used, for example, to enhance the listener experience beyond the directional limitations of ordinary two channel stereo sound - at home -. Quadraphonic audio was the earliest consumer product in surround sound. Since it was introduced to the public in the early 1970s many thousands of quadraphonic recordings have been made. A quadraphonic system will reproduce right front, right rear, left front, and left rear audio signals in four separate speakers. The reproduction capability of the rear speakers should be of the same quality or almost the same quality as the front speakers; ideally, a quadraphonic system uses four identical speakers.

Seminally, the present Work, from the Melgacian conception, was presented under such enthralling conditions. I recommend listening to it through excellent headphones to capture a little (because entirely only by those who were on the night of the Presentation) the ´otherworldly´ simulacrum - that the technicians sought to underscore by means of the record itself - caused by this ´audible three-dimensionality´. Or could we talk about a fourth, fifth, sixth (remembering that Saturn is the sixth planet from the Sun)?>>;

II - The Romans named the seventh day of the week Saturday, Sāturni diēs ("Saturn's Day"), for the planet Saturn.

[Paz´s A d d e n d u m: <<The official launch of ´The ♄ Concert´ takes place on January 14th, a Sunday. I asked Melgaço why he didn't make it available on Saturday. Otacílio replied that, in solemn reverence, he set aside Saturn's Day to s-i-l-e-n-t-l-y dedicate it to Sun Ra and, from the first second of Sunday, would reveal, with mellifluous pleasure, his Tribute to us all.>>];

III - According to Varro, Saturn's name was derived from satus, meaning "sowing". Even though this etymology is problematic from the viewpoint of modern linguistics (for, while historically-motivated vowel length alternations do occur in Latin roots, the long ā in Sāturnus in particular remains unexplained with this etymology, and also because of the epigraphically attested form Saeturnus), nevertheless it does reflect an original feature of the god. Perhaps a more probable etymology connects the name with the Etruscan god Satre and placenames such as Satria, an ancient town of Latium, and Saturae palus, a marsh also in Latium. This root may be related to Latin phytonym satureia. (Like satus, however, satureia, Saturae palus, and probably also Satria, as indeed the apparently closely related Satricum, all also have a short a in the first syllable vs. the long ā of Sāturnus.)

Quintus Lucilius Balbus gives a separate etymology in Cicero's De Natura Deorum. In this interpretation, the agricultural aspect of Saturn would be secondary to his primary relation with time and seasons. Since 'Time consumes all things', Balbus asserts that the name Saturn comes from the Latin word satis; Saturn being an anthropomorphic representation of Time, which is filled, or satiated, by all things or all generations. Since farming is so closely linked to seasons and therefore an understanding of the cyclical passage of time, it follows that agriculture would then be associated with the deity Saturn;

IV - In 1936, Blount's being awarded a scholarship at Alabama Agricultural and Mechanical University. He was a music education major, studying composition, orchestration, and music theory. He dropped out after a year. Herman Poole left college because, he claimed, he had a visionary experience as a college student that had a major, long-term influence on him. In 1936 or 1937, in the midst of deep religious concentration, Sun Ra claimed that a bright light appeared around him, and, as he later said:

"My whole body changed into something else. I could see through myself. And I went up... I wasn't in human form... I landed on a planet that I identified as Saturn... they teleported me and I was down on [a] stage with them. They wanted to talk with me. They had one little antenna on each ear. A little antenna over each eye. They talked to me. They told me to stop [attending college] because there was going to be great trouble in schools... the world was going into complete chaos... I would speak [through music], and the world would listen. That's what they told me."

Blount claimed that this experience occurred in 1936 or 1937. According to Szwed, the musician's closest associates cannot date the story any earlier than 1952. (Blount also said that the incident happened when he was living in Chicago, where he did not settle until the late 1940s). Sun Ra discussed the vision, with no substantive variation, to the end of his life. His trip to Saturn allegedly occurred a full decade before flying saucers entered public consciousness with the 1947 encounter of Kenneth Arnold. It was earlier than other public accounts: about 15 years before George Adamski wrote about contact with benevolent beings; and almost 20 years before the 1961 case of Barney and Betty Hill, who recounted sinister UFO abductions. Szwed says that, "even if this story is revisionist autobiography... Sonny was pulling together several strains of his life. He was both prophesizing his future and explaining his past with a single act of personal mythology";

V - Sun Ra's world view was often described as a philosophy, but he rejected this term, describing his own manner as an "equation" and saying that while philosophy was based on theories and abstract reasoning, his method was based on logic and pragmatism. Many of the Arkestra cite Sun Ra's teachings as pivotal and for inspiring such long-term devotion to the music that they knew would never make them much money. His equation was rarely (if ever) explained as a whole; instead, it was related in bits and pieces over many years, leading some to doubt that he had a coherent message. However, Martinelli argues that, when considered as a whole, one can discern a unified world view that draws upon many sources, but is also unique to Sun Ra, writing:
Sun Ra presents a unified conception, incorporating music, myth, and performance into his multi-leveled equations. Every aspect of the Sun Ra experience, from business practices like Saturn Records to published collections of poetry to his 35-year career in music, is a manifestation of his equations. Sun Ra seeks to elevate humanity beyond their current earthbound state, tied to outmoded conceptions of life and death when the potential future of immortality awaits them. As Hall has put it, 'In this era of 'practical' things men ridicule even the existence of God. They scoff at goodness while they ponder with befuddled minds the phantasmagoria of materiality. They have forgotten the path which leads beyond the stars.'

He drew on sources as diverse as the Kabbalah, Rosicrucianism, channeling, numerology, Freemasonry, Ancient Egyptian Mysticism, and Black nationalism. Sun Ra's system had distinct Gnostic leanings, arguing that the god of most monotheistic religions was not the creator god, not the ultimate god, but a lesser, evil being. Sun Ra was wary of the Bible, knowing that it had been used to justify slavery. He often re-arranged and re-worded Biblical passages (and re-worked many other words, names, or phrases) in an attempt to uncover "hidden" meanings. The most obvious evidence of this system was Ra's practice of renaming many of the musicians who played with him.

Bassoonist/multireedist James Jacson had studied Zen Buddhism before joining Sun Ra and identified strong similarities between Zen teachings and practices (particularly Zen koans) and Ra's use of non sequiturs and seemingly absurd replies to questions. Drummer Art Jenkins admitted that Sun Ra's "nonsense" sometimes troubled his thoughts for days until inspiring a sort of paradigm shift, or profound change in outlook. Drummer Andrew Cyrille said Sun Ra's comments were "very interesting stuff... whether you believed it or not. And a lot of times it was humorous, and a lot of times it was ridiculous, and a lot of times it was right on the money."

Sun Ra's philosophy can be further understood in viewing his film Space is the Place. The film opens with Sun Ra on a distant planet, where the music and vibrations are much different from Earth where the air is filled with the sounds of “guns, anger and frustration.” A colony is erected on this planet specifically for black people because only on a distant planet will the black race be free to return to their natural vibrations and live in harmony. This will give rise to an “altered destiny.” The film also discloses Sun Ra's ideas on how to get his people to another planet. This can be accomplished through, “isotopic teleportation, trans-molecularization, or better still – teleport the whole planet here through music”;

VI - According to John F. Szwed, Sun Ra's view of his relationship to black people and black cultures "changed drastically" over time. Initially, Sun Ra identified closely with broader struggles for black power, black political influence, and black identity, and saw his own music as a key element in educating and liberating blacks. But by the heyday of Black Power radicalism in the 1960s, Sun Ra was expressing disillusionment with these aims. He denied feeling closely connected to any race. In 1970 he said:

I couldn't approach black people with the truth because they like lies. They live lies... At one time I felt that white people were to blame for everything, but then I found out that they were just puppets and pawns of some greater force, which has been using them... Some force is having a good time [manipulating black and white people] and looking, enjoying itself up in a reserved seat, wondering, "I wonder when they're going to wake up."

Afrofuturism

Sun Ra is considered to be an early pioneer of the Afrofuturism movement due to his music, writings and other works.

The influence of Sun Ra can be seen throughout many aspects of black music. He grounded his practice of Afrofuturism in a musical tradition of performing blackness that remains relevant today. Sun Ra lived out his beliefs of Afrofuturism in his daily life by embodying the movement not only in his music, but also in his clothes and actions. This embodiment of the narrative allowed him to demonstrate black nationalism as a counternarrative to the present culture.

It was in Chicago, as well, in the mid-fifties, that Ra began experimenting with extraterrestriality in his stage show, sometimes playing regular cocktail lounges dressed in space suits and ancient Egyptian regalia. By placing his band and performances in space and extraterrestrial environments Sun Ra built a world that was his own view of how the African diaspora connected;

VII - Dozens of musicians—perhaps hundreds—passed through Sun Ra's bands over the years. Some stayed with him for decades, while others played on only a few recordings or performances.

Sun Ra was personally responsible for the vast majority of the constant changes in the Arkestra's lineup. According to contrabassist Jiunie Booth, a member of the Arkestra, Sun Ra did not confront any musician whose performance he was unsatisfied with. Instead, he would simply gather the entire Arkestra minus the offending musician, and skip town—leaving the fired musician stranded. The following is a partial list of musical collaborators, and the eras when they played with Sun Ra or the Arkestra:

Yahya Abdul-Majid, tenor saxophone (1980–2020)
Fred Adams, trumpet (1981–?)
Luqman Ali (Edward Skinner), drums (1960, 1977–?)
Marshall Allen, alto saxophone, flute, oboe (1957–present)
Atakatune (Stanley Morgan), percussion (1972–1992)
Ayé Aton (Robert Underwood), drums and percussion (1972–1976)
Robert Barry, drums (1955–1968, 1979)
Ronnie Boykins, double bass (1957–1974)
Arthur "Jiunie" Booth, double bass
Darryl Brown, drums (1970–1972)
Owen "Fiidla" Brown, violin, dance, vocals (1987–1990s and later appearances)
Tony Bunn, electric bass (1976)
Francisco Mora Catlett, drums (1973–1980)
Samarai Celestial (Eric Walker), drums (1979–1997)
Don Cherry, pocket trumpet (1983–1990)
Vincent Chancey, French horn (1976–1995)
Damon Choice, vibraphone (1974–?)
Phil Cohran, trumpet (1959–1961)
India Cooke, violin (1990–1995)
Danny Davis, alto saxophone, flute (1962–1977, 1985)
Dave Davis, trombone (1997–present)
Joey DeStefano, alto saxophone (1968–1969)
Arthur Doyle, saxophone (1968, 1989)
Bruce Edwards. guitar (1983–1993)
Eddie Gale, trumpet (1960s)
Richard Evans, bass (1950s)
John Gilmore, tenor saxophone, bass clarinet (1954–1964, 1965–1995)
Kwame Hadi (Lamont McClamb), trumpet, conga, vibraphone (1969–1996)
Billy Higgins, drums, (1989)
Tyrone Hill, trombone (1979–present)
Tommy "Bugs" Hunter, drums, sound engineer (1951–1990)
Ahmed Abdullah, trumpet, (1976–1993)
James Jacson, bassoon, oboe, flute, Ancient Egyptian infinity drum (1963–1997)
Clifford Jarvis, drums, (1961–1976, 1983)
Donald Jones, drums (1973–1974)
Dr. VonFiend (musician), various instruments, effects (2006–2009)
Wayne Kramer, guitar (2006)
Elson Nascimento, percussion, vocals (1987–present)
Bob Northern, french horn
Eloe Omoe, bass clarinet, oboe
John Ore, double bass
Taylor Richardson, guitar (1979–1983)
Pat Patrick, baritone saxophone, alto saxophone, clarinet, flute (1950–1959, 1961–1977, 1985–1988)
Julian Priester, trombone (1955–1956, 1980s–1990s)
Rollo Radford, bass
Knoel Scott, alto saxophone, tenor saxophone, baritone saxophone, singer and dancer (1979–present)
Buster Smith, drums
Marvin "Bugalu" Smith, drums
James Spaulding, alto sax, flute (1959)
Michael Ray, trumpet (1978–present)
Pharoah Sanders, saxophone (1964–1965)
Bill Sebastian, outerspace visual communicator (1978–1980)
Talvin Singh, tablas
Alan Silva, double bass, cello, violin (early 1970s)
Tani Tabbal, drums
Clifford Thornton, trombone
June Tyson, singer, violin;

VIII - Campbell's A d d e n d u m:

<<This pop S t a r recently turned 80 years old and that propelled me to a note here. A mere curiosity, still in the musical field. There are some mysteries surrounding the history of the legendary English rock band Led Zeppelin. Mainly regarding guitarist Jimmy Page's involvement with the Occultism. In the 1970s, symbols representing the 4 members of the group were adopted. The most enigmatic, as it could not be otherwise, is that of Mr. Page. For those who don't know what it is, it's not a word but it appears to spell out "Zoso". Some point to it being used since the 16th century in representing S a t u r n.>>;

IX - “I am strange, my mind is tinted with the colors of madness, they fight in silent furor in their effort to possess each other, I am strange.

I have approached a degree of love that is so unwise, In one world that it is wisdom in another, I am strange, I no longer have respect for hate, I'm stronger than hate.

I'm contemptuous of both those who hate and those who destroy, I'm not a part of the world which hates and the world which destroys, I want a better world and not only do I want a better world, I seek to live a better life, that I might have a right to be a part of a better world, if I hate and destroy I have no right to speak of love, love is greater than hate, and I have chosen love above all else in the world.

I am strange, I know a secret truth, I have a secret rendesvouz, and the wind touches against my window pane, come with me! it says, come with me, I am a force, you are a force. We are brothers.

Though I am invisible, I cover the leaf when I unravel, no wall can hold me, nothing can withstand my will. What is your god? What is your desire?

Come my brother, you are dear to me, I cannot come to you in full force, for you are too weak to contain me, I might lift you from the ground and frighten you, at this careless moment, I might drop you in my jaw that you want me to come to you, I cannot approach you in your weakness, I am too strong, come to me! as cautious as you will, I will accept you, for the spirit of man is more like myself than anything on earth.

All the most I think I am the power for the spirit of man, for the spirit of man is strong, no power on earth is greater and no world can contain it, it will cover the breadth and the width of earth, for like I, the wind, an aroused spirit is greatly to be feared, but weapons of that you will cast invisible, only fools seek to harm the wind, only fools seek to harm the brother of the wind.

Come spirit of man, I will take you to new worlds, I will take you to inner unseen worlds, greater in splendors than anything life contains, if you are fearful, you will die in your fear, but if you become as I you will be strong and do as I, I the wind come and go as I choose, and none can stop me.”
― Sun Ra

...for purposes of pragmatism and clear exegesis,
quotes have Wikipedia as a source...

\|/

Between two parentheses...
(Atonalism, Twelve-Tone, Serialism, Musique Concrète... Acousmatic. Eletroacoustic. Magnetic Tape. Expressionism, New Objectivity, Hyperrealism, Abstractionism, Neoclassicism, Neobarbarism, Futurism, Mythic Method. Electronic...Computer Music, Spectral, Polystylism, Neoromanticism, Minimalism and Post-Minimalism...are addressed by Melgaço. Paradoxically New Simplicity and New Complexity also.
Art Rock, Free Jazz, Ethnic Dialects, Street Sounds are occasional syntax elements.
All the possibilities mentioned above and others that were not mentioned are the usual accoutrements of the composer/instrumentalist to establish his ´babelic´ glossary. We can prove this in a short passage of a single composition up along the entirety of a conceptual phonograph album. All distributed over a career and idiosyncratic records. Have we a universe before us and I propose to see it through a telescope, not a microscope.
I propose not handle very specialized topics here. Otherwise would be, with the exception of musicians and scholars, all hostages of a hermetic jargon. Because more important is to present Otacílio Melgaço to the general public and not to a segment of specialists. Faction of experts not need presentations, depart for the enjoyment beforehand. For this reason there is no niche here for intellectual onanism and encrypted musical terminology. The reason for these parentheses is to establish such elucidation. The non-adoption of technicalities leads to more panoramic, amplifier reviews. Are You always welcome. Those who do not dominate contemporary music and are introduced to the world of ubiquitous O.M. [autodidact and independent artist who, being more specific, does not belong to schools or doctrines; artist who makes Music and that´s enough; music devoid of labels or stylistic, chronological, historical paradigms or trends] and Those who belong to the métier and turn to enjoy propositions they know and also delving into advanced Melgacian sound cosmogonies...
I conclude poetically. ´Certeza/Certainty´ by Octavio Paz. ´Si es real la luz blanca De esta lámpara, real La mano que escribe, ¿son reales
Los ojos que miran lo escrito? De una palabra a la otra Lo que digo se desvanece. Yo sé que estoy vivo Entre dos paréntesis.´ If it is real the white light from this lamp, real the writing hand, are they real, the eyes looking at what I write? From one word to the other what I say vanishes. I know that I am alive between two parentheses.
We´re all more and more a-l-i-v-e now.)
- P.S.P.