The Sun Ra Discography.
More mad Sun Ra, with this limited edition CD arriving in the post last week. Recorded back in 63' in New York and released on 1970, this apparently was one of the rarest of a discography full of hard to find recordings. It is a credit to the independant music industry that so much of his output is now available to purchase compared to how things were while Ra was still on this Earthly Plain. The first CD is made up of the original release and kicks of with a slow blues with some nice brass. The next two tracks get pretty weird and I struggle to stay with them but there are some interesting sounds coming from Sun Ra's space organ, there is a lot of percussion and echo effects, its' all quite experimental and good to remember that this weirdness was recorded so long ago. I like "New Planet" with Ra's piano refrain underpinning some cool flute and sax noodlings and more interesting echo effects, very spacy. Disc one finishes with a 20 minute jam that covers quite a bit of territory, kicking off with some impressive Sun Ra piano soloing which I always enjoy. As usual, it all sounds quite loose and chaotic on the surface but more impressive if you can listen more deeply and appreciate Ra's unique compositional style.
The second CD is a real bonus for Sun Ra fans, nine previously unknown recordings from the same session, released for the very first time.
The second disc kicks off with another slow blues and actually sounds quite conventional. A nice little track, followed buy a nice echo drenched atmospheric number thats quite impressive. The sound quality of these new tracks is quite impressive for a Ra recording and I enjoyed the chaotic soloing throughout. A difficult listen but still a worthwhile reissue. Get it while it is still available.Rating 3/5.
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