Sun Ra & His Arkestra: Supersonic Jazz (2LP, 21st Century expanded edition) [COSMIC MYTH RECORDS]

Why you'll love it

This expanded 2LP set adds 14 alternate versions and studio takes, restored by Irwin Chusid, in a tip-on gatefold with photos of the Arkestra in 1955 and an insert reproducing the 1957 cover. Super-Sonic Jazz was the first album on Sun Ra's own Saturn label.

This edition

• 2LP set
• 21st Century expanded edition
• 14 alternate versions and studio takes
• Tip-on gatefold jacket
• Remastered
• Mono
• Insert reproducing the 1957 cover

About the album

Long before the Egyptian robes and the trips to Saturn, Sun Ra was a Chicago bandleader with a very practical idea. He and business partner Alton Abraham started their own label, El Saturn, and this was the first album they put out, pressed in an edition of 500 copies in March 1957 and sold by mail, in local shops and from the bandstand.

The Arkestra recorded it at RCA Studios in Chicago in 1956, and the band is already formidable: John Gilmore on tenor, Pat Patrick on alto, Charles Davis on baritone and Art Hoyle on trumpet, with Jim Herndon on timpani. "India" and "Sunology" swing into exotic territory, "El Is a Sound of Joy" glows, and "Springtime in Chicago" and "Super Blonde" feature Julian Priester's trombone and Wilburn Green on electric bass, a rare sound in jazz at the time. Sun Ra himself plays piano, electric piano and something listed as a space gong.

Impulse! gave it a new name in 1974, and it has been a cornerstone of Ra's catalogue ever since. The extra sides here prove he had plenty of ideas left on the studio floor, and all of them were, in their own way, from another planet.

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

Tracklist

Listen

On Cosmic Myth Records (cat# CMR-009), a reissue of the 1957 album.