FEBRUARY 2006

"All That Free Jazz
Juini Booth follows the Sun"
Phoenix New Times
by Steve Jansen

Juini Booth always smiles when thinking about a taxi ride he took with the cult figure Sun Ra -- "The Man From Outer Space" who revolutionized jazz with his signature cosmic cacophonies. "He spurted out that he was glad he told people he was from Saturn," Booth says. "Being silly, I said to him, 'Oh my, you're not really from Saturn? You misled me!' He looked at me in disbelief and said, 'Juini, please.' He was shocked that I was actually questioning his birthplace of Saturn."

Though Sun Ra left planet Earth in 1993, his music has lived on through players like Booth, who has been a touring member of the Sun Ra Arkestra since 1989. Booth began playing at an early age when Paul Chambers, one of John Coltrane's first regular bass players, tired of playing and started giving his gigs to Booth. Since then, Booth has performed with many heavy hitters of straight-ahead and free jazz, including McCoy Tyner, Albert Ayler, Abdullah Ibrahim, and Tony Williams' Lifetime.

On Thursday, Booth performs solo contrabass in an ambient style that hints at traditional jazz without sounding preprogrammed. "The music that I grew up on and have played has a strong identity; you know who it is right away after two or three notes," he says. "Mainstream jazz has become homogenized and processed, like smooth jazz, oh my God!"