Sun Ra

LP version. The Night of the Purple Moon, recorded and released in 1970, has a vague flavor of psychedelia. Credit the presence of an electronic keyboard popular with late-1960s shaggy-haired acid-rock bands: the Rock-Si-Chord. It served as a louder stand-in for the ancient harpsichord, which couldn't compete against high-decibel electric guitars. On Purple Moon there's a sense that after a decade of experimentalism and genre-bending jazz-not-jazz, Sun Ra sought to produce an accessible pop album. The Arkestra here is minimal, with only three sidemen: saxophonist John Gilmore (oddly, mostly playing drums), bassist Stafford James (his sole recording with Ra), and Danny Davis (reeds and percussion).

Six bonus tracks are on this expanded edition, including "Stargazers Theme - Another Tomorrow" from a 1971 European TV concert, which presents Ra playing Rock-Si-Chord and Moog onstage; and a work with the assigned title "July 4, 1973," the date Ra played Rock-Si live at Flushing Meadow Park, Queens, New York, in a quartet setting (which includes drummer Beaver Harris in his only known appearance with Ra). 2xLP packaged in tip-on gatefold jacket with liner notes by Irwin Chusid and Brian Kehew.