Sun Ra: Space Is The Place (Verve By Request series) [VERVE]

Why you'll love it

This Verve By Request reissue comes on 180g vinyl in a gatefold jacket. AllMusic calls the album an excellent introduction to Sun Ra's vast catalogue, and the BBC's Stevie Chick named the title track his ultimate anthem.

This edition

• Verve By Request series
• 180g vinyl
• Gatefold jacket
• Stereo mix

About the album

Sun Ra always maintained he came from Saturn, and on this record he makes a decent case. Space Is the Place first landed on Blue Thumb in 1973, a joyful, cosmic set with the Arkestra in full flight, mixing big-band swing, chant and free improvisation into a fusion of science fiction and ancient myth. Ra leads from the keyboards, while the Arkestra's horns and chanting voices carry his message of a better future among the stars.

The title track takes up the whole first side, a chanted, hypnotic procession that builds and builds while Ra works the Moog and his "space organ" over the band. Side B moves through "Images," "Discipline 33" and the swirling "Sea of Sounds" before "Rocket Number Nine" blasts off. Alton Abraham and Ed Michel produced the original sessions, and Ken Druker supervised this reissue. For all its cosmic ambition, a good deal of it swings.

Its pull reached well beyond jazz, drawing in rock's adventurers from the MC5 to Sonic Youth and Primal Scream. Ra's flight plan has never been fully published, but this album makes an excellent boarding pass.

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

Tracklist

Listen

On Blue Thumb / Verve (cat# B0037684-01), a reissue of the 1973 album.