Sun Ra Recommendations? (2 Viewers)

[Mitchum]

it's a goddamn jungle out there!

I have Space Is The Place & I've got a taste for more but I dunno where to start.
Had a look at a WIRE primer a while back & when I could see past the pointless name-dropping, cunfusing use of prefixes & suffixes and reading about long out of print vinyl, I was none the wiser.

Can anyone offer any advice?

I guess ALL the Impulse! re-issues are a safe bet, eh?

 

[mackle]

My to favourites are Nuclear War and Atlantis. Though I am not an expert in Ra at all.
​

 

[simp]

I can recommend The Heliocentric Worlds Vol 1 & 2 as a primer.
Everything's good, really, just depends on your appetite for skronk...

 

[Charlie Bucket]

ask shaney - he's got a sun ra t-shirt!

 

[Denny Oubidoux]

ask shaney - he's got a sun ra t-shirt!

i have two - a purple one and a brown one. im no sun ra expert either but just to add to the list of what to go for next i'd recommend We Travel The Spaceways for nice mellow straight ahead stuff, Cosmic Tones for Mental Therapy/Art Forms of Dimensions Tomorrow (2 albums on 1 cd) or Strange Strings for more out there stuff and Media Dream if you're after some synthy disco stuff.

My friend texted me the other day to say that he now has 56 sun ra albums - I'll text him for his advice this minute...

Edit: - The reply.

The comp Out There A Minute, also The Solar Myth Approach Vols 1 & 2, and maybe a live one from the 70s. Depends on the taste of the person though. Who is this wide-eyed tousle-haired youngster? CENSORED CENSORED CENSORED...

 

[david]

Nothing Is/Dancing Shadows is my favourite.
Solar Myth Approach (vols 1 & 2), Strange Celestial Road, Pictures of Infinity, Sound of Joy,Nuits de la Foundation Maeght (sp?),Fate in a Pleasant Mood are all good as well.

 

[ron]

Check out the video in the Ilac library

 

[simp]

Full discography here:-
http://www.the-temple.net/sunradisco/
I hadn't quite realised how much he'd released..!


The wikipedia entry recommends the following:-

As is the case with an artist whose output is so extensive, there is quite a bit of debate regarding his "best" albums. However, Atlantis, Jazz In Silhouette (considered by many to be among his most accessible albums), Space Is The Place (the Blue Thumb release), The Magic City, Super-Sonic Jazz, Interstellar Low Ways, Lanquidity, The Nubians Of Plutonia, Secrets Of The Sun, Mayan Temples, and Cosmic Tones For Mental Therapy are considered by many critics and fans of Sun Ra's work to be amongst his finest recordings. All of these recordings (except for Secrets Of The Sun) are available on CD. Indeed, many of his best-known compositions (such as "Saturn", "Enlightenment" and "Rocket Number Nine") are on these recordings.
Out of these recordings, many enthusiasts feel that Jazz In Silhouette is the best entry-point into his work.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sun_Ra

 

[Mitchum]

Cheers, one & all. Food for thought etc.

 

[ratmonkey]

He's also on this, no idea if it's any good or not:

[

 

[quasiquasi]

He's also on this, no idea if it's any good or not:

It's fun and a good conversation piece, but it's not really a Sun Ra album. He and some other Arkestra types play on a few tracks but it's mainly kitschy fuzzed-up takes on classical tunes.

The album I listen to most is Lanquidity (Sun Ra does spacy lounge jazz) but I'm also a big fan of Concert for the Comet Kohoutek (the full-on live Arkestra experience). Actually, most of the albums I've heard are great.

 

[simp]

He's also on this, no idea if it's any good or not:

[

Which is available for download here:-
http://blog.wfmu.org/freeform/2006/02/sun_ra_and_the_.html

 

[nez]

"Jazz In Silouhette" from 1957 is a great album and fairly accessible as well, sounds like hard bop with a Sun Ra slant.

 

[cyclotron]

My favourite is "Cosmic Tones for Mental Therapy" for one...also recommended are the following..but there are tons and tons more....

Out there a minute (excellent Blast First comp. of the 80's put together by Thurston Moore I think..)
Disco 3000 (very like some those e.70's "Sesame Street" animations, far out synthesiser space-funk)
The Nubians of Plutonia
The Futuristic Sounds of Sun Ra
Heliocentric Worlds Vols. 1 & 2 (both v. "far out" and disjointed, more like modern classical composers than "jazz"...)
Cosmos
Discipline 27-11
Astro Black

 

[nlgbbbblth]

He's also on this, no idea if it's any good or not:

[

I have that LP, Dick Dale
no mention of Sun Ra although the inner sleeve is only half there.

 

[Denny Oubidoux]

My favourite is "Cosmic Tones for Mental Therapy"

currently listening to this one. a deadly one i heard recently was Dance Of Innocent Passion, a live album from 1980. its jazzy and swinging/rocking and has filthy synth soloing

 

[Diumraid]

Along with many of the aforementioned I'd recommend the singles collection, all of the Saturn Records singles on 2 cds - very different because everything's short and recorded in all kinds of situations. Concert for the comet Kohoutek is great but I'm a sucker for any Ra records with June Tyson singing.

 

[Oggy Pip]

Question - is Jerry Dammers Spatial AKA performing Sun Ra material, or is it fresh stuff influenced by Sun Ra? He was terrific on Jools Holland the other week. Either way Im getting some Sun Ra so I've got some good recommendations here.

There is a good BBC4 doc about him too, he was an absolute crackpot.

 

[dunderhead]

never listened to any sun ra myself but jazzman records are reissueing some very rare 3x7" on limited, luminous, glow in the dark vinyl no less.
might be of interest to some of ye

http://www.jazzmanrecords.co.uk/v2/prodtype.asp?s=zbbp5t10&strParents=&CAT_ID=45&numRecordPosition=1

 

[Denny Oubidoux]

I cant see the sense in releasing 6 tunes and having to charge £19.99 just justify the whole enterprise. the cover picture is pretty cool but would look better as a 12" sleeve with the 6 songs on side 1, another 6 on side 2, no annoying changing of the sides every 3 minutes and a price tag of £12.99 or thereabouts. Robert Wyatt's Nothing Can Stop Us is proof that an album cobbled together from a bunch of random singles can work on its own terms.