Blue Delight | ||||
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Studio album by | ||||
Released | 1989 | |||
Recorded | December 5, 1988 | |||
Genre | Free jazz | |||
Length | 65:51 | |||
Label | A&M | |||
Producer | John Snyder | |||
Sun Ra chronology | ||||
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Blue Delight is a jazz album by free jazz pioneer Sun Ra.
The album was the first in a short-term recording deal with major label A&M Records on their "Modern Masters Jazz Series" imprint.
The album was recorded at Variety Recording Studios, New York on December 5, 1988 featuring a 19-piece group that included several Arkestra members or veterans.
Eight tracks were used for the Blue Delight album. Other recordings from this session were released three years later by Rounder Records on the album Somewhere Else , released shortly before Sun Ra's death. The Blue Delight album is available on iTunes and other digital outlets, and the copyright on the original album was passed on by A&M's current owner, Universal Music, to Sun Ra’s estate’s holding company, Sun Ra LLC, in 2016.
The Allmusic review by Sean Westergaard awarded the album 4½ stars stating "Blue Delight is a great late-period Arkestra recording, notable for several reasons: 1. This is a very large, impeccably recorded Arkestra featuring special guests Tommy Turrentine and Don Cherry [1] AND a number of Arkestra alumni returning for the date. 2. Although synthesizers are present, the majority of Ra's solos are on piano. 3. John Gilmore solos on nearly every cut. 4. The band swings mightily from start to finish. Blue Delight also features a program of a handful of standards mixed with Ra originals that don't head too far into outer space. Although this recording is out of print, it is well-worth seeking out.". [2]
Review scores | |
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Source | Rating |
Allmusic | [2] |
Atlantis is an album by American jazz musician Sun Ra and his Astro-Infinity Arkestra, released in 1969 by El Saturn Records.
Lanquidity is a 1978 studio album by American jazz musician Sun Ra.
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Space is the Place is an album by Sun Ra and His Intergalactic Solar Arkestra. The music was recorded in early 1972 in San Francisco, California for the film Space Is the Place. However, the music remained unreleased until Evidence Music issued a compact disc in 1993.
Art Forms of Dimensions Tomorrow is an album by the American jazz musician Sun Ra and his Solar Arkestra. Often considered the first of Ra's 'outside' recordings, the album was the first to make extensive use of a discovery by the Arkestra's drummer and engineer Tommy Hunter:
'Art Forms of Dimensions Tomorrow.... contained "Cluster of Galaxies" and "Solar Drums", two rhythm section exercises with the sound treated with such strange reverberations that they threatened to obliterate the instruments' identity and turn the music into low-budget musique concrète. While testing the tape recorder when the musicians were tuning up one day, Hunter had discovered that if he recorded with the earphones on, he could run a cable from the output jack back into the input on the recorder and produce massive reverberation:
"I wasn't sure what Sun Ra would think of it... I thought he might be mad - but he loved it. It blew his mind! By working the volume of the output on the playback I could control the effect, make it fast or slow, drop it out, or whatever." [Tommy Hunter]
'By the 1950s commercial recording companies had developed a classical style of recording which assured that the recording process itself would be invisible... but Sun Ra began to regularly violate this convention on the Saturn releases by recording live at strange sites, by using feedback, distortion, high delay or reverb, unusual microphone placement, abrupt fades or edits, and any number of other effects or noises which called attention to the recording process. On some recordings you could hear a phone ringing, or someone walking near the microphone. It was a rough style of production, an antistyle, a self-reflexive approach which anticipates both free jazz recording conventions and punk production to come.' John F Szwed
Secrets of the Sun is an album by the American Jazz musician Sun Ra and his Solar Arkestra. The album is considered one of the more accessible recordings from his 'Solar' period. Originally released on Ra's own Saturn label in 1965, the record was unavailable for many years before being reissued on compact disc by Atavistic in 2008.
'Marking a transition in its development between the advanced swing of the early Chicago-era recordings and the increased free-form experimentation of its New York tenure, this album also reveals the first recorded versions of two Ra standards, "Friendly Galaxy" and "Love in Outer Space." Accessible, yet segueing into vanguard territory, this album highlights a fertile period in the Arkestra's history. Looser and more aggressive than its Chicago recordings, these pieces find the Arkestra pushing at the limits of harmony and tonality.' Troy Collins
For the song by Harold Arden and Ted Koehler, see When the Sun Comes Out
A Bluish Bag is an album by jazz saxophonist Stanley Turrentine consisting of two sessions recorded for the Blue Note label in 1967 and arranged by Duke Pearson, the first featuring Donald Byrd and the second McCoy Tyner, among others.
Reflections in Blue is an album by American composer, bandleader and keyboardist Sun Ra recorded in 1986 in Italy and released on the Black Saint label in 1987.
Hours After is an album by American composer, bandleader and keyboardist Sun Ra recorded in 1986 in Italy and released on the Black Saint label in 1989. The album was recorded at the same sessions the produced Reflections in Blue which was released in 1987.
Somewhere Else is a 1993 album by free jazz composer, bandleader and keyboardist Sun Ra released on the Rounder label. The album consists of tracks recorded in late 1989, at the same sessions which produced the albums Blue Delight and Purple Night, but it was not released until shortly before Sun Ra's death, over three years later.
Cosmo Omnibus Imagiable Illusion is a live album by jazz composer, bandleader and keyboardist Sun Ra and his Arkestra recorded in Tokyo in 1988 and released on the Japanese DIW label.
Some Blues But Not the Kind That's Blue is an album by American jazz composer, bandleader and keyboardist Sun Ra and his Arkestra recorded in 1977, originally released on Ra's Saturn label in 1977, and rereleased on CD on Atavistic's Unheard Music Series in 2008.
Unity is a live double album by jazz composer, bandleader and keyboardist Sun Ra and his Arkestra recorded in 1977 and originally released on the Italian Horo label.
Sleeping Beauty is an album by jazz composer, bandleader and keyboardist Sun Ra and his Intergalactic Myth Science Solar Arkestra recorded in 1979 and originally released on Ra's Saturn label and rereleased on CD on Art Yard in 2008.
Strange Celestial Road is an album by jazz composer, bandleader and keyboardist Sun Ra and his Arkestra, recorded in New York in 1979 and originally released on the Rounder label.
It's After the End of the World is a live album by American composer, bandleader and keyboardist Sun Ra recorded in 1970 in Donaueschingen and Berlin and released on the MPS label in 1970. The complete concerts were released in 1998 as a 2-CD set entitled Black Myth/Out in Space.
Thunder of the Gods is an album by Sun Ra and His Arkestra featuring unreleased live and studio recordings which was issued in April 2017 on the Modern Harmonic label.
I, Pharaoh is a live album by composer, bandleader and keyboardist Sun Ra and his Arkestra recorded around 1979 and released on his El Saturn label.
Of Mythic Worlds is an album by composer, bandleader and keyboardist Sun Ra and his Arkestra, recorded in 1978 or 1979 and released on the Philly Jazz label.