Sun Ra: The Futuristic Sounds of Sun Ra [CRAFT]

Why you'll love it

This 60th anniversary edition is an all-analogue remaster by Kevin Gray, pressed on 180g vinyl at RTI. It was Sun Ra's one album for Savoy, and Irwin Chusid calls it the point where he reached total liftoff as an Afrofuturist.

This edition

• 60th anniversary edition
• 180g vinyl
• Remastered
• Pressed at RTI
• Stereo mix

About the album

Sun Ra moved from Chicago to Montreal and then to New York in 1961, and within months he had a record date. On October 10, 1961, the Arkestra went into Medallion Studios in Newark and cut all eleven tracks in a single day for producer Tom Wilson, who had also produced Ra's debut.

The band is a who's who of his longtime crew: Marshall Allen on alto and flute, John Gilmore on tenor and bass clarinet, Pat Patrick on baritone, Bernard McKinney on trombone and euphonium, Ronnie Boykins on bass and Willie Jones on drums, with conga, vocals and a cupboard's worth of bells, gongs, wood blocks and castanets. "Bassism" opens on a Latin lilt, "What's That?" breaks into a four-saxophone scramble, "China Gates" is the one tune Ra didn't write, and the ballad "Tapestry from an Asteroid" became one of his most-performed pieces.

Jazz historian Ben Young calls the tracks miniatures, live sets boiled down to their essence. Ra went on to make more than 100 albums, which is still fewer than the number of times we've been asked if he was really from Saturn.

Also at Kops: more Sun Ra on vinyl · browse Modern Jazz

Tracklist

Listen

On Craft Recordings / Savoy (cat# CR00532), a reissue of the 1962 album.