paint effect
blank spaceA · B · C · D · E · F · G · H · I · J · K · L · M · N · O · P · Q · R · S · T · U · V · W · X · Y · Z · #
MY RECORD
COLLECTION
blank space
paint effect

Sun Ra

National Flag

Undeniably the most eccentric jazz artist ever to step foot on God's green golf ball (and probably Saturn, from where he is said to be from). Sun Ra's music, besides being rooted in jazz, goes far beyond that description. Some of his earlier albums might sound more conventional and he's even played a few standards (albeit with his own "free" twist), but when the Ra decides to turn up the space factor and tries to communicate with his home planet, there is just no telling how far-out he will go. It's breathtaking to hear how he can lead a band of musicians to sound like nothing from this earth, yet by using instruments created by mere mortals!

I remember thinking that No Neck Blues Band sounded weird, not having heard (but having heard of) Sun Ra at the time. I was working in a music store, in the jazz section, I knew he had a reputation to be quite strange, but most of his most obscure recordings were not available at the time. Once I did get to hear these recordings (thank you p2p file sharing!), I immediately realized the NNCK definitely weren't breaking that new a ground (although I still love what they do and no, they do not plagiarize Sun Ra, they merely channel into his free attitude towards music). Absolutely every artist who has a free and tribal approach to music owes this inspiration to the Ra. And any true fan of weird and out there music owes it to themselves to buy a few of his records (God knows there are many to choose from nowadays). An absolute legend!

Genre Button Genre Button Genre Button Genre Button
blank space
blank space
Album Cover Jazz In Silhouette
Label: Evidence Music
Release: 1958
Format: CD
Cat. no: ECD 22012-2

Song list:

  1. Enlightenment (5:06)
  2. Saturn (3:41)
  3. Velvet (3:21)
  4. Ancient Aiethopia (9:09)
  5. Hours After (3:46)
  6. Horoscope (3:47)
  7. Images (3:53)
  8. Blues At Midnight (11:57)


Album Cover We Travel The Spaceways/Bad And Beautiful
Label: Evidence Music
Release: 1960 (Spaceways)/1963 (Bad & Beautiful)
Format: CD
Cat. no: ECD 22038-2

Song list:

  1. Interplanetary Music (2:40)
  2. Eve (3:08)
  3. We Travel The Spaceways (3:21)
  4. Tapestry From An Asteroid (2:06)
  5. Space Loneliness (4:48)
  6. New Horizons (3:00)
  7. Velvet (4:36)
  8. The Bad And The Beautiful (2:43)
  9. Ankh (5:10)
  10. Just In Time (3:49)
  11. Search Light Blues (5:37)
  12. Exotic Two (4:46)
  13. On The Blue Side (5:28)
  14. And This Is My Beloved (3:15)


Album Cover The Futuristic Sounds Of Sun Ra
Label: Lone Hill Jazz
Release: 1961
Format: CD
Cat. no: LHJ10234

Song list:

  1. Bassism (4:01)
  2. Of Sounds And Something Else (2:51)
  3. What's That? (2:13)
  4. Where Is Tomorrow? (2:47)
  5. The Beginning (6:26)
  6. China Gates (3:22)
  7. New Day (5:49)
  8. Tapestry From An Asteroid (3:00)
  9. Jet Flight (3:13)
  10. Looking Outward (2:48)
  11. Space Jazz Reverie (4:55)
  12. Early Autumn (4:50)
  13. Kingdom Of Thunder (3:50)
  14. Distant Stars (2:57)
  15. Onward (3:31)
  16. Space Aura (3:10)
  17. We Travel The Spaceways (3:24)
  18. Space Loneliness (4:32)


Album Cover Angels And Demons At Play/The Nubians Of Plutonia
Label: Evidence Music
Release: 1963/67 (Angels)/1966 (Nubians)
Format: CD
Cat. no: ECD 22066-2

Song list:

  1. Tiny Pyramids (3:38)
  2. Between Two Worlds (1:56)
  3. Music From The World Tomorrow (2:20)
  4. Angels And Demons At Play (2:51)
  5. Urnack (3:46)
  6. Medicine For A Nightmare (2:16)
  7. A Call For All Demons (4:12)
  8. Demon's Lullaby (2:35)
  9. Plutonian Nights (4:20)
  10. The Golden Lady (7:40)
  11. Star Time (4:15)
  12. Nubia (8:13)
  13. Africa (5:04)
  14. Watusa (2:35)
  15. Aiethopia (7:11)


Album Cover Cosmic Tones For Mental Therapy/Art Forms Of Dimensions Tomorrow
Label: Evidence Music
Release: 1965 (Art Forms)/1967 (Cosmic)
Format: CD
Cat. no: ECD 22036-2

Song list:

  1. And Otherness (5:08)
  2. Thither And Yon (4:25)
  3. Adventure-Equation (8:25)
  4. Moon Dance (6:33)
  5. Voice Of Space (7:38)
  6. Cluster Of Galaxies (2:20)
  7. Ankh (6:06)
  8. Solar Drums (2:25)
  9. The Outer Heavens (4:47)
  10. Infinity Of The Universe (7:06)
  11. Lights On A Satellite (3:08)
  12. Kosmos In Blue (8:05)


Album Cover The Heliocentric Worlds Of Sun Ra Vol. 1
Label: ESP-Disk/Abraxas Records
Release: 1965
Format: CD
Cat. no: ESP1014

Song list:

  1. Heliocentric (4:00)
  2. Outer Nothingness (7:40)
  3. Other Worlds (4:18)
  4. The Cosmos (7:20)
  5. Of Heavenly Things (5:40)
  6. Nebulae (3:16)
  7. Dancing In The Sun (1:50)


Album Cover The Heliocentric Worlds Of Sun Ra Vol. 2
Label: ESP-Disk/Abraxas Records
Release: 1966
Format: CD
Cat. no: ESP1017

Song list:

  1. The Sun Myth (17:50)
  2. A House Of Beauty (4:45)
  3. Cosmic Chaos (14:48)


Album Cover Nothing Is...
Label: ESP-Disk/Abraxas Records
Release: 1966
Format: CD
Cat. no: ESP1045

Song list:

  1. Dancing Shadows (9:51)
  2. Imagination (1:54)
  3. Exotic Forest (9:50)
  4. Sun Ra And His Band From Outer Space (1:59)
  5. Shadow World (13:48)
  6. Theme Of The Stargazers (0:41)
  7. Outer Spaceways Incorporated (1:43)
  8. Next Stop Mars (0:39)


Album Cover Other Planes Of There
Label: Evidence Music
Release: 1966
Format: CD
Cat. no: ECD 22037-2

Song list:

  1. Other Planes Of There (22:01)
  2. Sound Spectra/Spec Sket (7:39)
  3. Sketch (4:46)
  4. Pleasure (3:10)
  5. Spiral Galaxy (10:01)


Album Cover When Angels Speak Of Love
Label: Evidence Music
Release: 1966
Format: CD
Cat. no: ECD 22216-2

Song list:

  1. Celestial Fantasy (5:52)
  2. The idea Of it All (7:30)
  3. Ecstasy Of Being (9:50)
  4. When Angels Speak Of Love (4:32)
  5. Next Stop Mars (17:55)


Album Cover The Magic City
Label: Evidence Music
Release: 1966
Format: CD
Cat. no: ECD 22069-2

Song list:

  1. The Magic City (27:22)
  2. The Shadow World (10:55)
  3. Abstract Eye (2:51)
  4. Abstract "I" (4:08)


Album Cover Strange Strings
Label: Atavistic
Release: 1967
Format: CD
Cat. no: ALP263CD

Song list:

  1. Worlds Approaching (10:17)
  2. Strange Strings (12:47)
  3. Strange Strange (20:23)
  4. Door Squeak (10:28)


Album Cover Monorails And Satellites
Label: Evidence Music
Release: 1968
Format: CD
Cat. no: ECD 22013-2

Song list:

  1. Space Towers (3:37)
  2. Cogitation (6:35)
  3. Skylight (3:59)
  4. The Alter Destiny (3:07)
  5. Easy Street (3:37)
  6. Blue Differentials (2:54)
  7. Monorails And Satellites (5:35)
  8. The Galaxy Way (3:17)


Album Cover Atlantis
Label: Evidence Music
Release: 1969
Format: CD
Cat. no: ECD 22067-2

Song list:

  1. Mu (4:30)
  2. Lemuria (5:02)
  3. Yucatan (Saturn Version) (5:27)
  4. Yucatan (Impulse Version) (3:38)
  5. Bimini (5:45)
  6. Atlantis (21:51)


Album Cover Sound Sun Pleasure!!
Label: Evidence Music
Release: 1970
Format: CD
Cat. no: ECD 22014-2

Song list:

  1. 'Round Midnight (3:55)
  2. You Never Told Me That You Care (5:36)
  3. Hour Of Parting (4:52)
  4. Back In Your Own Backyard (2:07)
  5. Enlightenment (5:09)
  6. I Could Have Danced All Night (3:11)
  7. Deep Purple (4:02)
  8. Piano Interlude (1:55)
  9. Can This Be Love (6:00)
  10. Dreams Come True (3:07)
  11. Don't Blame Me (2:53)
  12. 'S Wonderful (2:18)
  13. Lover Come Back To Me (2:48)


Album Cover My Brother The Wind Volume II
Label: Evidence Music
Release: 1971
Format: CD
Cat. no: ECD 22040-2

Song list:

  1. Otherness Blue (4:46)
  2. Somebody Else's World (3:59)
  3. Pleasant Twilight (3:34)
  4. Walking On The Moon (6:13)
  5. Somewhere Else (4:30)
  6. Contrast (2:52)
  7. The Wind Speaks (3:50)
  8. Sun Thoughts (2:33)
  9. Journey To The Stars (2:54)
  10. World Of The Myth "I" (1:32)
  11. The Design - Cosmos II (2:21)


Album Cover The Solar-Myth Approach Vol. 1
Label: Sunspots/Byg Records
Release: 1971
Format: CD
Cat. no: SPOT 509

Song list:

  1. Spectrum (4:59)
  2. Realm Of Lightning (12:21)
  3. The Satellites Are Spinning (3:30)
  4. Legend (9:53)
  5. Seen III, Took 4 (3:27)
  6. They'll Come Back (3:49)
  7. Adventures Of Bugs Hunter (6:36)


Album Cover The Solar-Myth Approach Vol. 2
Label: Sunspots/Byg Records
Release: 1971
Format: CD
Cat. no: SPOT 520

Song list:

  1. The Utter Nots (11:19)
  2. Outer Spaceways, Inc. (1:19)
  3. Scene 1, Take 1 (8:19)
  4. Pyramids (2:27)
  5. Interpretation (7:40)
  6. Ancient Ethiopia (2:47)
  7. Strange Worlds (8:30)


Album Cover The Night Of The Purple Moon
Label: Atavistic
Release: 1972
Format: CD
Cat. no: ALP264CD

Song list:

  1. Sun-Earth Rock (4:45)
  2. The All Of Everything (4:26)
  3. Impromptu Festival (4:06)
  4. Blue Soul (3:50)
  5. Narrative (2:59)
  6. Outside The Time Zone (5:05)
  7. The Night Of The Purple Moon (3:50)
  8. A Bird's Eye View Of Man's World (3:07)
  9. 21st Century Romance (4:12)
  10. Dance Of The Living Image (4:43)
  11. Love In Outer Space (3:53)
  12. Love In Outer Space (Alternate Take) (5:06)
  13. Wurlitzer And Celeste (1:56)
  14. Wurlitzer Solo 1 (2:05)
  15. Wurlitzer Solo 2 (2:09)


Album Cover Space Is The Place
Label: Impulse!
Release: 1973
Format: CD
Cat. no: 051 249-2

Song list:

  1. Space Is The Place (21:14)
  2. Images (6:15)
  3. Discipline (4:50)
  4. Sea Of Sounds (7:42)
  5. Rocket Number Nine (2:50)


Album Cover Live In Paris At The "Gibus"
Label: Universe
Release: 1973
Format: CD
Cat. no: UV 079

Song list:

  1. Spontaneous Simplicity (4:05)
  2. Lights On A Satellite (5:32)
  3. Ombre Monde #2 (12:18)
  4. King Porter Stomp (2:53)
  5. Salutations From The Universe (14:55)
  6. Calling Planet Earth (1:29)


Album Cover Cosmos
Label: P-Vine Records/Blues Interactions Inc.
Release: 1977
Format: CD
Cat. no: PCD-22034

Song list:

  1. The Mistery Of Two (5:50)
  2. Interstellar Low-Ways (5:22)
  3. New Project #2 (5:02)
  4. Cosmos (2:56)
  5. Moonship Journey (6:15)
  6. Journey Among The Stars (5:11)
  7. Jazz From An Unknown Planet (7:10)


Album Cover Somewhere Else
Label: Rounder Records Corp.
Release: 1993
Format: CD
Cat. no: ROUNDER CD 3036

Song list:

  1. Priest (4:01)
  2. Discipline/Tall Trees In The Sun (8:26)
  3. 'S Wonderful (5:32)
  4. Hole In The Sky (7:31)
  5. Somewhere Else, Part 1 (8:38)
  6. Somewhere Else, Part 2 (2:41)
  7. Stardust For Tomorrow (4:56)
  8. Love In Outer Space (12:01)
  9. Everything Is Space (3:57)
  10. Tristar (3:31)