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.
Planets Of Life Or Death: Amiens '73
In celebration of Record Store Day 2015, Strut and Art Yard join forces once more for the first release anywhere of a live Sun Ra performance from Amiens, France in 1973, Planets Of Life Or Death. Recorded direct from the soundboard and mastered fr…
Strange celestial road
2015 repress. Exact repro reissue on 180 gram vinyl. "The music on the record gives a strong indication of the willingness to experiment, the desire to take changes. You will hear young voices new to the test alongside the experience magnificence of …
College Tour Vol.1: The Complete Nothing Is...
In 1966 Bernard Stollman sent Sun Ra and his Arkestra, along with audio engineer David B. Jones on a tour of five New York Colleges. When they returned, just 39 minutes of music was chosen to be released as the original ESP 1045 "Nothing Is...". 44 y…
Sun Ra Featuring Pharoah Sanders and Black Harold
In 1964, Sun Ra asked the young tenor saxophonist Pharoah Sanders to join him, while Arkestra mainstay John Gilmore was busy working with Paul Bley, Andrew Hill and Art Blakey. Before the recording's original release in 1976, Sun Ra stated: 'It shoul…
The Heliocentric Worlds Vol.3
Heliocentric Worlds Volume 3 is the continuation of the Heliocentric Worlds Volume 2 session, recorded the same day and with the same personnel, that has been lost for nearly 40 years. Recently, the tapes were discovered, digitally remastered, and ar…
Concert for the Comet Kohoutek
Recorded on December 22, 1973 in New York City at the famous Town Hall, this eclectic ESPDisk-sponsored celebration of the Comet Kohoutek featured a fire eater, talking drums, and dancers in platform shoes, in addition to Sun Ra's Arkestra. After tak…
The Complete Remastered Recordings on Black Saint & Soul Note
Cam Jazz reissue the complete Black Saint and Soul Note works of Sun Ra in hisexemplary series of boxed sets dedicated to the catalogues of the legendary Italian labels. This set contains four albums in slipcases with original album artwork, housed i…
Sign of the Myth
"In 1972, Sun Ra inked a high-profile deal with ABC / Impulse, bringing his recorded work to the widest audience he’d had to date. A slew of Saturn back catalog titles and two newly-recorded albums (Astro Black, Pathways To Unknown Worlds) were i…
Music From Tomorrow's World
Music From Tomorrow's World is a fascinating document and a boon to Sun Ra collectors. It gathers previously unheard tapes from two sources: one from the Wonder Inn club and one from Majestic Hall, probably a rehearsal. Both were recorded in 1960, to…
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…