Sonny Sharrock - Ask the Ages [1991]

Here's some real classic Sharrock skronk for those of you who were intrigued by the Space Ghost soundtrack.  

Ask the Ages is the last thing released while Sonny was alive. It's got all range of sounds and feelings, rooted in the jazz idiom but journeying far beyond it. The session here is totally stacked, with the masterful drumming of Elvin Jones, Pharaoh Sanders tearing up the sax parts and mind-expanding bass playing by Charnett Moffett. Sonny produced the disk with Bill Laswell, after that guy spent a decade recording the likes of Mick Jagger, PiL, Motörhead, The Ramones, Iggy Pop and Yoko Ono (thanks Wikipedia for that list of names). Anyway everyone on here is doing great things, and people who know this album could probably tell you better than me that this is something to be treasured.

The double bass particularly stands out to me every time I listen to this album, because the playing is so beyond perfect. Just listen to when the sound drops low on "Promises Kept," leaving the drums and bass to conjure up ancient magics out of the thin air of folk history. Equally so on the bass solos in "Who Does She Hope to Be," which might be my favorite song on the whole record.

There is such warmth in the chords of that ballad, and the way Sonny inflects songs with his singular blend of sorrowful jubilance affects my mood for the better in all circumstances. "Little Rock" shines with hope and optimism, and the chorus in "As We Used to Sing" sounds about as triumphant as I could imagine music being, as it slips seamlessly into the nine and a half minute tour de force of "Many Mansions," a space jam if I have ever heard one.

I'm probably belaboring the point, but this is one of my favorite albums of all time and I can guarantee you not a note is wasted during these 46 minutes.

Get a used CD copy of Ask the Ages (pretty expensive, though)

Once Upon a Time in 1991

Sonny Sharrock - Space Ghost Coast to Coast [1994]

Sonny Sharrock is easily one of the coolest guitarists ever, and he stayed good to the very end. This, in fact, is what I believe to be his last recording. That's right, Sharrock fans, Sonny did the Space Ghost soundtrack, and Space Ghost fans, this is the name of the guy who plays your favorite theme song. Of course, some of you already knew this from episode 26, on which they played a bunch of these tunes:

Very loosely based on the original Hanna-Barbera Space Ghost series, Coast to Coast was aired in the early 90s as a light-hearted manifesto of post cold-war dadacidal humor, and could be seen as Cartoon Network's attempt to tap into the then emerging "alternative" nation of America. Anodinous, hilarious or plain weird, Coast to Coast reinvented the honorable fake-interview tradition by having pre-recorded conversations with "celebrities" and people like us rearranged by the nonchalant and ego-maniacal Space Ghost. In this very special episode, Thurston Moore incarnates one Fred Cracklin in a brief nonsensical cameo which is but a pretext to pay homage to the great avant-noise-jazz-blues guitar player Sonny Sharrock, who had recently expired. If the Coast to Coast series is bizarre for any standards of good TV conduct, the Sharrock episode is particularly strange in that its plot is a lame excuse to pay tribute to the musician and listen to several minutes of his ethereal noise-jazz guitar, thinly framed by some silly jokes between the Ghost and his adorable sidekicks.

There's plenty of free-kout to go around here, with some vamping on the main theme as well as forays into other sonic dimensions. If it seems like a novelty, it's really not, but as a 15-minute EP it makes for a great punk record. All I know is that Sonny Sharrock makes some of the most joyous and chaotic music I've ever heard, and that you should have this. Space Ghost, while being a brilliantly subversive kids' show in its own right, not to mention endlessly entertaining to re-view as an older child, is also responsible for planting Sonny in my six-year-old head (and, perhaps, many of yours).

WFMU blog entry on the Sharrock episode
And now, Zorak and the Original Way-outs (not to be confused with Chicago's Wayouts)