Jazz — All Formats  

A killer early session from Sun Ra! Ra plays organ and electric piano, and the band includes Gilmore, Pat Patrick, Marshall Allen, Ronnie Boykins, Art Hoyle, Phil Cohran, and Julian Priester. The group's also got an electric bass, which gives the tracks a nice bottom, and a good spooky feel. ... read more

Amazing work from Sun Ra – record that really features a great range of sounds and styles, and a heck of a lot of soul as well! Ra plays some especially nice rocksichord on the set – that freaky, fuzzy keyboard that comes off sounding like a guitar, even though it's played with keys... read more

Amazing work from Sun Ra – record that really features a great range of sounds and styles, and a heck of a lot of soul as well! Ra plays some especially nice rocksichord on the set – that freaky, fuzzy keyboard that comes off sounding like a guitar, even though it's played with keys... read more

An incredible record from Sun Ra! The session was recorded in New York in the late 60s – and it features Ra playing the "solar sound instrument", which is actually a modified Hohner Clavinet, used here with some really spooky sounds! The setting of the album is spare and moody... read more

Tremendous lost work from Sun Ra – recorded live in Detroit at the start of the 80s, and only ever issued briefly on a limited Saturn Records pressing! Given the show's setting in the Detroit underground, the material has an especially hip sound to it – a return to some of the more... read more

Mindblowing music from Sun Ra & The Arkestra – sounds recorded during the same marathon session that gave the world the records Other Planes Of There, When Sun Comes Out, and When Angels Speak Of Love – but titles that are much more obscure overall! The initial release of the... read more

Mindblowing music from Sun Ra & The Arkestra – sounds recorded during the same marathon session that gave the world the records Other Planes Of There, When Sun Comes Out, and When Angels Speak Of Love – but titles that are much more obscure overall! The initial release of the... read more

One of the greatest Saturn albums! This one has Ra playing clavioline and echoey "cosmic side drums" with a great spacey sound that was probably arrived at through some primitive reverb and echo techniques! The overall effect is everything you'd imagined about Sun Ra – a mixture... read more

If this is disco, point us in the direction of Studio 54! The album's one of Ra's greatest from the 70s – recorded in Italy in 1978, and featuring some incredibly otherworldly keyboards that are some of his most enigmatic on record! The track "Disco 3000" is an incredible workout... read more

If this is disco, point us in the direction of Studio 54! The album's one of Ra's greatest from the 70s – recorded in Italy in 1978, and featuring some incredibly otherworldly keyboards that are some of his most enigmatic on record! The track "Disco 3000" is an incredible workout... read more

Late 60's issue of a record that's also known as Rocket Number Nine Take Off For The Planet Venus. The material was recorded in 1959 and 1960, but unissued until the mid 60's. Ra plays piano, chimes, and gong, and the tracks have a nice laid back spacey feel, with some ensemble vocals chanted by... read more

Sun Ra's really moving forward with this classic set – refining the sound of his Chicago-based Arkestra, and reaching for new territory that moves him way past familiar jazz modes! The cover bills the group as playing "music from tomorrow's world" – and you can definitely... read more

Sun Ra's really moving forward with this classic set – refining the sound of his Chicago-based Arkestra, and reaching for new territory that moves him way past familiar jazz modes! The cover bills the group as playing "music from tomorrow's world" – and you can definitely... read more

Crazy stuff – one of the wilder albums from Sun Ra, and a record that has him playing on "two moog synthesizers" – which both sound as if they're going at the same time! The rest of the group is quite small – with only John Gilmore, Marshall Allen, and Danny Davis... read more

A pretty darn incredible record from Sun Ra – with a soulful, spiritual approach that's missing from most of his other albums of the time! The album features Ra playing a good deal of organ (dubbed "intergalactic organ" in this case!) – grooving soulfully on some short tracks... read more

An excellent Sun Ra session from 1959! Ra and the Arkestra are playing in a fine mix of straight jazz and spacey styles, with Ra on electric piano throughout the entire set. A few tracks have some great chanted vocals – and we're not sure if they're sung by one of the Saturn doo wop groups,... read more

Righteous Ra from the end of the 70s – one of the most soulful albums ever by the Sun Ra Arkestra, and a lost treasure that's got some nice funky moments! The vibe here is very much in the Lanquidity/Disco 3000 mode – an extrapolation of styles best known from the Space Is The Place... read more

One of the most soulful Sun Ra albums ever – very much on the Lanquidity tip, and done with a great mix of electric and acoustic instrumentation! The vibe here is really mellow, spiritual, and warm – and the album actually feels a lot more like a session recorded for the Strata East... read more

One of the most soulful Sun Ra albums ever – very much on the Lanquidity tip, and done with a great mix of electric and acoustic instrumentation! The vibe here is really mellow, spiritual, and warm – and the album actually feels a lot more like a session recorded for the Strata East... read more

Unbelievable! This is one of the rarest Sun Ra records we've ever seen – and it's also one of the most compelling. There are no tracks listed on the label (although the Sun Ra discography lists them as "Sometimes The Universe Speaks", "Pleiades", "Third Heaven"... read more

The rare Space Probe sent out to the cosmos by Sun Ra in the mid 70s – with material recorded from the early 60s onward – the heart of it being Sun Ra's first ever recordings on a moog synthesizer in 1969, and it's one heck of a trip! This excellent edition on Art Yard includes the... read more

One of the rarest Sun Ra albums ever – and one of the most enigmatic, too! Strange Strings is a very unique session recorded with an otherworldly sound – heavily steeped in the use of "electronic strings", amplified string instruments recorded with crazy echo and other... read more

The first album on Saturn! Despite the futurism that the title of the set might imply, the material on this LP is actually some of Sun Ra's earliest, and dates back to the years when the Arkestra was first beginning to make itself heard in Chicago. That doesn't stop the material from being... read more

A beautiful little record from Sun Ra and the orchestra – and a set that really lives up to its evocative cover and title! The album features Ra on "intergalactic space organ" – an instrument that may well be a conventional version of the organ, but which is handled with some... read more

A lost Sun Ra classic – from the early days of the Arkestra! This 1966 release on Saturn features music that was recorded by The Arkestra in Chicago in 1957 and 1958. Some of the tracks are from the same session as the Sound Of Joy LP, and a few others were from sessions later in the year. ... read more

An adventurous side from Sun Ra – recorded in 1962, when the Arkestra had recently moved to New York City – with Ra playing a bit of percussion and electric celeste on one track, and an overall freer approach by the rest of the group! Players include the classic lineup with Pat Patrick... read more

A set of varied moods and settings – yet one that really does a wonderful job of fleshing out the Sun Ra aesthetic during these crucial years when Ra dubbed himself the "King Of The Sub Underground"! That humorous title is a reference to the fact that Ra and the Arkestra were still... read more