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Le Sony'r Ra, better known as Sun Ra, was an American jazz composer, bandleader, piano and synthesizer player, and poet known for his experimental music, "cosmic" philosophy, prolific output, and theatrical performances. For much of his career, Ra led "The Arkestra", an ensemble with an ever-changing name and flexible line-up.
The Sun Ra discography is one of the largest discographies in music history. Jazz keyboardist, bandleader and composer Sun Ra recorded dozens of singles and over one hundred full-length albums, comprising well over 1,000 songs, and making him one of the most prolific recording artists of the 20th century.
Atlantis is an album by American jazz musician Sun Ra and his Astro-Infinity Arkestra, released in 1969 by El Saturn Records.
Live at Montreux is an album by Sun Ra recorded in the summer of 1976 at the Montreux Jazz Festival in Switzerland under the billing Sun Ra and his Intergalactic Cosmo Arkestra. It was originally issued in 1977 on the Saturn label, with hand-drawn covers and reissued in 1978 on the Inner City label, with new artwork and song titles and musicians credited. It was first issued on CD by Universe Records in Italy, with poor sound quality and the track "On Sound Infinity Spheres" faded out early by about six minutes. The later Japanese P-Vine and US Inner City CDs both use earlier source tapes and are complete and unedited. A segment of the same Montreux concert appears on the 'Solo Piano & Montreux And Lugano' DVD on Transparency Records.
Jazz in Silhouette is the third studio album by pianist-composer Sun Ra and His Arkestra. It was recorded on March 6, 1959, and released in May of the same year. The album was recorded in Chicago during a session that also included the whole of the albums Sound Sun Pleasure!! and "Interstellar Low Ways" from the album of the same name.
Super-Sonic Jazz is the second studio album by Sun Ra, recorded in 1956 at RCA Studios, Chicago. Super-Sonic Jazz was the first album to be released on Saturn Records, the label run by Sun Ra and Alton Abraham, and was one of only three albums by Sun Ra to have been available in the 1950s.
Featuring Pharoah Sanders and Black Harold is a jazz album by Sun Ra, recorded live on December 31, 1964, but not released until 1976, on Ra and Alton Abraham's El Saturn label. An expanded version of the album was reissued in 2009 by ESP-Disk, and again in 2017 by Superior Viaduct. A complete version of Sun Ra's performances on December 30 and 31, 1964 were released in 2012 on the Pharoah Sanders album In The Beginning 1963-1964.
This is a timeline documenting events of jazz in the year 1961.
Sound Sun Pleasure!! is an album by the American Jazz musician Sun Ra and his Astro Infinity Arkestra. Recorded March 6, 1959, it remained unreleased until 1970 when it was issued on the Saturn label. Recorded at the same time and with the same personnel as Jazz in Silhouette, the album is unusual amongst early Ra albums for predominantly featuring jazz standards.
Sun Ra and his Solar Arkestra Visits Planet Earth is a jazz album by the American musician Sun Ra and his Solar Arkestra. Recorded between late 1956 and 1958, the album was originally released on Ra's own Saturn label in 1966, and was reissued on CD by Evidence in 1992. In keeping with many Saturn releases, one side features cuts from the arkestra c.1958, whilst the other side comes from the 1956 sessions originally intended for Sound of Joy but still unreleased in 1966.
Interstellar Low Ways is an album recorded by the American jazz musician Sun Ra and his Myth Science Arkestra, mostly recorded in Chicago, 1960, and released in 1967 on his own El Saturn label. Originally titled Rocket Number Nine, the album had acquired its present name, and the red-on-white sleeve by Claude Dangerfield, by 1969. The album is known particularly for the two songs featuring chants, "Interplanetary Music" and "Rocket Number Nine Take off for the Planet Venus". These would stay in the Arkestra's repertoire for many years:
Rocket Number Nine points toward the music that the Arkestra would be playing on the lower East Side of New York City. The tenor sax solo isn't the work of John Coltrane in 1962, but of John Gilmore in 1960. And not even Ornette Coleman's bassists were playing like Ronnie Boykins at this date.
Fate in a Pleasant Mood is an album by the American jazz musician Sun Ra and his Myth Science Arkestra recorded in Chicago, mid 1960 and originally released on his own Saturn label in 1965. The album was reissued by Impulse! in 1974, and by Evidence in 1993. For the latter reissue, the record was included as the first half of a CD that also featured the whole of When Sun Comes Out, an album recorded by the Arkestra in New York, 1963.
We Travel the Space Ways is an album by the American jazz musician Sun Ra and his Myth Science Arkestra. Recorded mostly in 1960, the album was released in 1967, on Sun Ra's own label Saturn. The album brings together a number of eras and personnel of the Arkestra, and was probably mostly recorded by Ra himself during rehearsals.
For the song by Harold Arden and Ted Koehler, see When the Sun Comes Out
When Angels Speak of Love is a music album by the American Jazz musician Sun Ra and his Myth Science Arkestra. Originally released in 1966 on Sun Ra's own Saturn label, the record would have only been available by mail order or sold at Arkestra concerts, and is one of the rarest of all Saturn releases. The record was reissued on compact disc by Evidence in 2000.
Holiday For Soul Dance is an album by the American jazz musician Sun Ra and his Intergalactic Arkestra recorded in Chicago, mid-1960 and originally released on his own Saturn label in 1970. The album was reissued by Evidence on Compact disc in 1992. Within Ra's catalogue, Holiday For Soul Dance is considered a bit of an oddity as it lacks any tracks written by Sun Ra, although a song written by Phil Cohran, the Arkestra's cornet player, is included. The record is one of a trio of albums recorded between 1959 and 1961, featuring jazz standards, that Ra released in the early 1970s. The others were Sound Sun Pleasure!! and Bad and Beautiful.
Monorails and Satellites, Volumes I & II are two albums of solo piano compositions by the American Jazz musician Sun Ra. Both recorded in 1966, Volume 1 was released in 1968 under the title "Monorails And Satellites" and Volume II was released in 1974 under the title "Monorails & Satellites", both on Sun Ra's own Saturn label. The first volume was reissued on compact disc by Evidence in 1992. Both volumes, along with nine previously unreleased tracks from the same sessions, were reissued in 2019 on the Cosmic Myth Records label as Monorails and Satellites: Works For Solo Piano Vols. 1, 2, 3. The album showcases Ra's skills as a pianist, which are often compared to Cecil Taylor's;
'Monorails and Satellites, a 1966 solo piano recording, showcases Ra's unique style, which bridges the bluesy architecture of Jelly Roll Morton with the angularity of Monk and Cecil Taylor's ascent beyond traditional structure.'
Alton Abraham was an African American social entrepreneur who acted as business manager for jazz musician Sun Ra.
Michael Ray is an American jazz trumpeter. He tours extensively with Sun Ra and the successor Sun Ra Arkestra under Marshall Allen's direction following Sun Ra's passing. For a period from the mid-1990s to the present he leads his own band, Michael Ray and the Cosmic Krewe. His playing with Sun Ra and independently has incorporated funkjazz, R & B, electronica and fusion genres.
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.
References
- ↑ "Hyde Park Art Center : Exhibitions : Pathways to Unknown Worlds: Sun Ra, El Saturn & Chicago's Afro-Futurist Underground, 1954-68". Archived from the original on 2007-12-26. Retrieved 2007-12-22.
