Jazz & Improvisation / Sun Ra

* Pressed on a heavy weight single 70g magenta vinyl with a picture sleeve * A couple of magnificent Sun Ra gems on this heavyweight 7". Pressed at 33RPM on neon magenta vinyl. Side Epic - The Sun Ra Quartet, Dance of The Cosmo Aliens from Sun Ra's Disco 3000 album recorded in Milan Italy in January of 1978. featuring Sun Ra (keys), John Gilmore (tenor sax), Michael Ray (trumpet), and Luqman Ali (drums), with assistance from the Crumar Mainman synthesizer/rhythm box. running time: 8.30 cut at 33…

Absolutely Stellar jazz from Sun Ra alongside Luqman Ali (Drums) John Gilmore (Tenor Saxophone, Percussion) and Michael Ray (Trumpet, Percussion). This quartet version of the title song appeared on 1978's 'New Steps' LP. Over on the flip is the 'Alien vocal version' of Somewhere In Space, recorded in 1957.Two expertly plucked out (fully licensed) Sun Ra essentials, presented on a heavyweight (70gram) Art Yard styled 7". Don't be sleeping..!

The Respect Sextet, a young New York jazz group, plays music by Sun Ra and Karlheinz Stockhausen, drawing comparisons between the two composers and asking how the idea of space shaped their work.

* Pressed as a heavy weight single 70g with a picture sleeve. Edition of 750 * Angels and Demons at Play featuring Marshall Allen. Tracks include "Angels and Demons at Play" recorded in 1960, "Between Two Worlds" recorded in 1960. "Spontaneous Simplicity" recorded in 1966. Pressed as a heavy weight single 70g with a picture sleeve. The album Angels And Demons At Play was compiled from two different sessions, recorded four years apart (1956 and 1960), that reflect Sun Ra's evolution from hard Chi…

** Purple Vinyl ** Recorded in New York in 1979 and released that year on Sun Ra's Saturn label, this is a solid, overlooked set in the vast Ra canon. The tracks aren't so much compositions as excursions, pure jazz, lots of reflective piano in trio, quartet, and sextet settings. Features cover art interpreted from a favorite Arkestra hand drawn cover, and liner notes from Irwin Chusid.

Strut present the 4CD edition of Sun Ra's 'Egypt 1971' along with the original albums 'Dark Myth Equation Visitation', 'Nidhamu' and 'Horizon' released as individual LPs, documenting Sun Ra's first trip to Egypt with his Arkestra in December 1971. In the years leading up to 1971, Sun Ra wrote many compositions and poems specifically inspired by the ancient African Kingdoms and many others with associated mythological and heliocentric connotations. As such, a visit to Egypt and the opportunity fo…

* In process of stocking * This once-lost trove of photographs date from 1972, a pivotal year for Sun Ra. Half of the photos in this book are of interior murals made by Ra-colleague and musician Ayé Aton — spectacularly beautiful in their 1970s supersaturated color. From the same period, a cache of never-published photographs taken on location in Oakland for the film Space is the Place, features Ra in full regalia, wearing beautiful Egyptian costumes. Published by PictureBox, Inc. and Corbett vs…

We already passed one millennium, in fact, we passed the apocalypse: we are living in End Time, all right, but in the last daze. It’s after the end of the world. Don’t you know that yet?” - considered Sun Ra a few decades ago. We are clearly living in a borrowed time. In a time plunged in darkness and ignorance when we need at least a little light and love… and that can come with the cosmic music of Sun Ra, which is deconstructed by EABS on their third album. In October 2019, after more than 33 …

CD digipack. "My Brother The Wind, Vol. 1 captures Afrofuturist visionary Sun Ra's initial 1969 encounter with the Moog synthesizer. The album has been meticulously remastered from archival session tapes and includes rare and previously unreleased studio material. Recorded in 1969 and self-released by Sun Ra in 1970 on his independent Saturn label, My Brother The Wind is one of several albums that showcase Ra's initial reckonings with the then-recently introduced Moog synthesizer. Although the A…

CD dipack. "This landmark album, now being reissued in a definitive stereo edition, marks the debut of the new Cosmic Myth Records label. Cosmic Myth plans to reissue Sun Ra's Saturn Records catalog titles under official license from Sun Ra LLC, comprised of the heirs of Sun Ra. Sun Ra albums like The Magic City prove the categorical futility of 'File Under: Jazz.' When assessing the post-Chicago (1960-on) work of Ra, 'jazz' turns out to be less a genre than a journalistic and marketing convenie…

** Limited Edition 500 Copies Individually Numbered On Clear Vinyl! ** Despite the futurism that the title of the set might imply, the material on this LP is actually some of Sun Ra's earliest, and dates back to the years when the Arkestra was first beginning to make itself heard in Chicago. That doesn't stop the material from being amazing, though, as these prime early tracks really show how strong Ra's vision was, even when it was being applied to material that might look more simple on the su…

Live recordings from cosmic-jazz-grandmaster Sun Ra's Arkestra tour in Egypt during the 1970s. 'Dark Myth Equation Visitation', also known as 'Live In Egypt Vol. 1' or 'Nature’s God', was recorded in 1971. Side one of the LP features a recording of a TV performance, including an interview, and side two fronts tracks recorded during a concert in Heliopolis near Cairo. The impact and significance of these few weeks upon Sun Ra can be measured by the growth and development of his output over the ne…

CD Edition. "Considering the monumental depth of Sun Ra's recorded oeuvre, there are surprisingly few solo piano albums. Monorails & Satellites Volumes 1 and 2 were the first commercial LPs of the artist's solo keyboard excursions. Recorded in 1966 and released on his Saturn imprint in 1968, Volume 1 featured seven idiosyncratic originals and one standard ('Easy Street') delivered in Sunny's singular manner. Volume 2 was released the following year, and contains five compositions, all originals.…

Originally released on Saturn Records in 1979, both Sleeping Beauty and On Jupiter are studio recordings by the large Sun Ra ensemble (including electric guitar and electric bass) and, for the most part, feature the first recordings of the titles included on them (though most were played live a few months earlier). These two releases belong together, since they were recorded and released in close proximity and are both long, groove-based, pieces that range from proto-disco to relaxed groove-driv…

Long out of print, few copies available. Edition of 500. Includes photos, posters, in a hardboard flip top box containing 10 x 45s in their original artwork along with a bound 28pp booklet. The immense output of Sun Ra and his many backing bands, coupled with the limited production of many of his releases has long defied dedicated collectors. Parallel to a vast list of LP releases, Sun Ra released numerous 45 RPM singles; one-off meteorites from his prolific cosmic journey. Working closely with …

The planets align this October as the mighty Sun Ra Arkestra, under the direction of the maestro Marshall Allen, release their first studio album in over twenty years, ‘Swirling’. Recorded at Rittenhouse Soundworks in Philadelphia, the new recording represents the continuation of a heartfelt rebirth of the Arkestra under Allen’s guidance since Sun Ra left the planet in 1993, gaining new generations of followers from their regular touring across the globe. With a big band line-up featuring long-s…

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 in a sturdy box.Reflections in Blue“One of the finest Sun Ra recordings from his final years, this effort is particularly recommended due to the many Ra keyboard solos and John Gilmore features, the latter of which include a tenor showcase on "Opus In…

This is the 20th Sun Ra release from Transparency and possibly the very best. A complete 2 1/2-hour concert showcasing all dimensions of the group: free jazz, psychedelic, the beautiful vocals of June Tyson and a one-way ticket into space with several astounding Sun Ra synthesizer solos. The bonus DVD is a short interview with Sun Ra filmed the same day as the concert broadcast, aired only once on Finnish television and never seen since... until now. The concert and interview are licensed from Y…

Klondike's respectfully packaged edition of Sun Ra's legendary appearance at the Chicago Free Jazz Festival in 1988 pays homage to Ra's exuberant torment combined with the flamboyant weight of the Solar Arkestra and performing some of his most impressionist and avant-garde works

Herman Poole Blount, better known to the world as Sun Ra, lived more musical lives in his 79 years on this planet (and others) than seems possible. This collection compile singles of rare hard to find early Sun Ra productions and performances from Juanita Rogers, Yochanan, Little Mack, and Sun Ra and his Myth-Science Arkestra, from 1955-1961. A must have for all true Sun Ra collectors, this is an impressive retrospective on the early days of this legendary music guru.

A compilation of poems by the jazz musician and poet Sun Ra, in a bilingual edition (English / Spanish). The adventure began in a library that looks like a spaceship, next to a monument in the shape of a burned marshmallow that celebrates the first atomic reaction generated by humans. A plaque in the monument suggests that the powerful energy should be used for beneficial purposes. Inside this lunar library is the Special Collections Centre at the University of Chicago, that keeps the archive of…

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. Th…

**First ever CD reissue, containing three Pathways session recordings left off the original, one never before issued** Intrinsic energies of mythic worlds! Pathways was originally issued on LP in 1975 as part of Sun Ra’s ill-fated and short-lived ABC/Impulse! partnership. This Modern Harmonic edition has been exquisitely mastered from the four-track session reel. The Impulse! LP was formatted as “Quad Compatible”—short for “quadraphonic”—which you could enjoy if you had four speakers, a custom q…

**Completely sold-out at source, few copies avaialble** Cymbals has finally landed… and brought a 2nd saucer with it! Originally recorded for the Impulse! jazz label in ’73, Cymbals makes its first legitimate release on vinyl, paired with a second LP of unheard material from the same sessions. Hear Sun Ra’s Baroque soundscapes, electrolytic clusters and dithering Moogs catalyze images of monoliths, space stations, computers malfunctioning and galaxies imploding on pristine red and green vinyl wi…

"FPE Records is thrilled to release Intergalactic Beings, Nicole Mitchell's second avant-jazz suite based on the Xenogenesis novels of Octavia Butler, recorded live on April 30, 2010, at the Museum of Contemporary Art in Chicago. Black Earth Ensemble features a cast of Chicago's most respected players and improvisers. This is their eighth album, and their first to see release on vinyl."

The holy grail for Sun Ra collectors and fans, his original album previously released on Jackpot, with Tip-on Gatefold Jacketand Transparent Blue Colored Vinyl and an album that forever gave them a slogan to live by! The record's different than some of the other Arkestra work from the time – in that it's a bit tighter and more spiritual, more in keeping with the style of the Blue Thumb label, for which it was recorded – and soaring along on a wave of post-Coltrane spiritual jazz enthusiasm…

This essential title is also available under the moniker of Sun Song (1956). Regardless of its name, this long player contains some of Sun Ra's most complex but most accessible efforts. Ra had been an active performer since the late 1940s, recording with his various combos or "Arkestra(s)," as he dubbed them. Since this was the first widely distributed platter that the artist cut, it is often erroneously referred to as his debut. The tracks were documented by then-unknown Tom Wilson. If the name…

Billy Bang (violin) with Sun Ra (piano, synthesizer), John Ore (bass) and Andrew Cyrille (drums), recorded at Sear Sound, New York, on September 20-22, 1992. Stuff Smith originals and standards, in what the annotator calls Ra's last studio session.

Hugh Ragin Collective (Ragin, trumpet; Greg Carroll, vibraphone; Marc Sabatella, piano; Erik Turkman, bass; Scott Gordan, drums), recorded at Eye In The Sky Sound on August 10 and 11, 1993. Dedicated to Sun Ra.

The Sun Ra Arkestra, fourteen musicians including John Gilmore, Marshall Allen and Pat Patrick, recorded at Jingle Machine Studios, Milan, on December 18-19, 1986, the sessions that also gave Reflections In Blue. Black Saint, 1989.

When you wish upon a star… that turns out to be Saturn!

Our first issue of 2020 celebrates interstellar icon and generative force of nature: Sun Ra. Contributors on the topic include Taylor Ho Bynum, John Corbett, Naima Lowe, Luke Stewart, Thomas Stanley, and Ken Vandermark. The issue also features supplemental writing from Jessie Cox on Marshall Allen, Reg Bloor on Glenn Branca, Chris Pitsiokos on On The Corner, Peter Margasak on Derek Bailey's On The Edge series, and a conversation between Audra Wolowiec and Freya Powell. The issue closes with the …

2015 release. Strut follow up their hugely successful Marshall Allen - curated ‘In The Orbit Of Ra’ compilation with a newly curated set from the immense 125 LP back catalogue of jazz maverick, DIY philosopher and self-professed member of an “angel race”, Sun Ra. ‘To Those Of Earth… And Other Worlds’ is a hand-picked selection from BBC 6Music / Worldwide DJ Gilles Peterson, long-time champion of Ra’s music and the UK’s leading tastemaker for jazz-based sounds. It serves as perhaps the best intro…