Sun Ra
Of all the jazz musicians, Sun Ra was probably the most controversial. He did not make it easy for people to take him seriously, for he surrounded his adventurous music with costumes and mythology that both looked backward toward ancient Egypt and forward into science fiction. But despite all of the trappings, Sun Ra was a major innovator, starting off playing advanced bop, but early on was open to the influences of other cultures, experimenting with primitive electric keyboards, and playing free long before the avant-garde got established.
Of all the jazz musicians, Sun Ra was probably the most controversial. He did not make it easy for people to take him seriously, for he surrounded his adventurous music with costumes and mythology that both looked backward toward ancient Egypt and forward into science fiction. But despite all of the trappings, Sun Ra was a major innovator, starting off playing advanced bop, but early on was open to the influences of other cultures, experimenting with primitive electric keyboards, and playing free long before the avant-garde got established.
Sunrise In Different Dimensions
This CD features a live concert by Sun Ra & the Arkestra in Switzerland. The only fault to the set is that the two drummers (Chris Henderson and Eric Walker) fail to swing and often sound wooden on the vintage standards, which might be due to the lac…
Live In Cleveland
A fascinating live document that captures Sun Ra & his Arkestra performing an eclectic set for a Cleveland audience in 1975. Though the recording quality leaves something to be desired, this remains an inspired performance and includes a chaotic take…
Calling Planet Earth
The Paris concert was supposed to be the last of this ill-fated tour -- but at the last minute, Sun Ra decided to go to Egypt. Someone had tipped him off to cheap airfare from Copenhagen to Cairo and a handful of gigs in Denmark were cobbled together…
Friendly Galaxy
A very "jazzy" performance of uninterrupted Sun Ra's standards diluted with "Prelude to a kiss" by Duke Ellington and "Blue Lou". An excursion into the history of jazz encouraged by an ecstatic crowd.
The Nubians of Plutonia
In the late '50s, Sun Ra emerged from big band to modern/progressive big band status, began to employ electronics, and used a more Afro-Centric percussive focus. This recording perfecly demonstrates those qualities, and more. There are several def…
The Other Side Of The Sun
The Sun Ra Arkestra looks both forwards and backwards in time on this obscure small label LP. Ten years earlier, one could not have imagined Ra and his men romping through "On the Sunny Side of the Street" or reinventing "Flamingo." However, those ve…
Interplanetary Melodies
More stuff from Sun Ra's archives, this time focusing on his work with doo wop groups. Sun Ra had a home tape recorder early on, and most of these are previously unissued home rehearsals. The sound is generally excellent given that these are '50s hom…
Fate In A Pleasant Mood
Fate in a Pleasant Mood, recorded in 1960, finds the Arkestra at the very end of their Chicago days. The tunes still have that '50s Arkestra sound (great horn arrangements, prominent tympani), although there is an increasing use of dissonance and the…
Live In Nickelsdorf 1984
The interplanetary jazz travelers of Sun Ra's Arkestra reached transcendent heights over the many decades their free music spanned. Live in Nickelsdorf 1984 finds a particularly spirited lineup of the Arkestra simmering through an almost three-hour s…
Art forms of dimensions tomorrow
Recorded in New York in 1962, this out-there disc sees Sun Ra and drummer / recording engineer Tommy Hunter experimenting to the max with wild use of home-made tape-loop echoes on the percussion pieces "Cluster Of Galaxies" and "Solar Drums". Also in…
The soul vibrations of man
Saturn Research has just reissued one of the more harder to find LP’s in the massive Sun Ra catalogue that is pilling from reissue labels all over the world. With Saturn being the first label and Ra’s personal imprint, whenever a title gets pulled fr…
Bad & Beautiful
2014 reissue. Of the Ra albums I've heard, this is by far the easiest to get into, and the only one I can recommend unreservedly. Attrition had brought the Arkestra down to a sextet, leaving more room for Ra's piano (the driving "Ankh") and the three…
Other Strange Worlds
Never-heard studio music from the legendary Sun Ra – material recorded right around the same time as the unique Strange Strings session – and which really stands as a "part 2" to that amazing record! The sound is very loose and open, but quite spir…
The Heliocentric Worlds Of Sun Ra
2010 edition. Finally available again, an essential document from Sun Ra's mid sixties peak period for ESP during the free-jazz revolution his music transcended the realm of jazz or for that matter any other definition. The Heliocentric Worlds is Sun…
Monorails and Satellites
180 gram vinyl version. Tracklisting: Space Towers, Cogitation, Skylight, The Alter Destiny, Easy Street, Blue Differentials, Monorails and Satellites, The Galaxy Way. Recorded at Sun Studios, New York 1966 (a home recording).
Lanquidity
Recorded in New York in the Summer of 1978 for Philly Jazz (who attempted to form the Ra-legion Cosmo-Fan Club!), this legendary (and ultra-rare) LP is maybe the closest Sunny ever got to a crossover album! That's not to say that the out-of-this-w…
Continuation
Recorded in the 1960s with Marshall Allen featured on Jupiterian flute and Danny Thompson on Neptunian libflecto. The original LP was pressed in very small numbers at the end of the 60′s, with purposely mislabeled details in the liner notes in typic…
A Space Odyssey: From Birmingham To The Big Apple - The Quest Be
**Tri-fold digicase with 20-page booklet of liner-notes and photos** Kris Needs repositions the roots of Sonny Blount aka Sun Ra on three discs (60 tracks) spanning his earliest 1933 recordings of big band jazz and be-bop, thru the birth of Sun Ra…
Cosmo Earth Fantasy: Sub Underground Series Vol. 1 and 2
A Saturn release from the 1960's featuring a wide-range of pieces from studio recordings, rehearsals, and live concerts that are all heart-felt and made in the traditional Sun Ra style, starting with eight delirious minutes of kora and piano frame -…
Piano Recital (Teatro La Fenice In Venice)
Sun Ra was an extremely prolific artist and while hundreds of recordings exist of Sun Ra, there are only a handful where he can be heard playing solo. This amazing and rare solo performance recorded live in 1977 at the world-famous La Fenice opera…