Sun Ra

Original cosmonaut Sun Ra was one of the jazz world’s most individual and eccentric talents. Born Herman “Sonny” Blount in Alabama in 1914, he became Sun Ra during the 1950s, proclaiming that he was born on Saturn and focusing on outer space due to what he saw as the perpetual faults and failures of mankind on earth. Pursuing an unorthodox musical method which meant that no two recordings nor performances were ever alike, he persued various incarnations of his Arkestra throughout the decades. The live performance recorded at New York’s alternative art space, Soundscape, on November 11, 1979 features a stellar version of the Arkestra that includes singer / muse June Tyson, drummer Luqman Ali, percussionist Atakatune, vibraphonist Damon Choice, guitarist Skeeter McFarland, and Marshall Allen and John Gilmore among the many saxophonists. Features extended cuts of Astro Black, Discipline 27 and signature tune Space Is the Place, plus a rare cut of Pleiades.