Details
Track Listing
1. Reflections in Blue
2. Two Tones
3. El Viktor
4. Saturn
5. Planet Earth
6. Eve
7. Overtones of China
8. Onward
9. Somewhere in Space
10. Interplanetary Music
11. Interstellar Low Ways
12. Space Loneliness
13. Space Aura
14. Rocket Number Nine Takes Off For the Planet Venus
Album Notes
2 LPS on 1 CD: SUN RA VISITS PLANET EARTH (1958)/INTERSTELLAR LOW WAYS (1962).
Producers: Ihnfinity Inc., Alton Abraham.
Reissue producer: Jerry Gordon.
Recorded in Chicago, Illinois between 1956 and 1960.
Includes liner notes by John Litweiler.
SUN RA VISITS PLANET EARTH:
Personnel: Sun Ra (piano, electric piano, bells, percussion), Pat Patrick (alto & baritone saxophones, bells, drums), Marshall Allen (alto saxophone, flute), James Spaulding (alto saxophone), John Gilmore (tenor saxophone, bells, tambourine, drums), Charles Davis (baritone saxophone), Dave Young, Art Hoyle, Lucious Randolph (trumpets), Julian Priester, Nate Pryor (trombones), Victor Sproles, Ronnie Boykins (bass), William Cochran, Robert Barry (drums), Jim Herndon (tympani, timbales, boo-bams).
INTERSTELLAR LOW WAYS:
Personnel: Sun Ra (piano, chimes, gong), Marshall Allen (alto saxophone, flute), Pat Patrick (alto & baritone saxophones, flute, bells, claves), John Gilmore (tenor saxophone), Phil Cohran, George Hudson (trumpets), Ronnie Boykins (bass, gong), William Cochran (drums), Edward Skinner (drums, percussion).
Born in 1914 in Birmingham, Alabama, Herman Poole "Sonny" Blount went on to achieve intergalactic fame as keyboardist, composer, arranger and big band leader...Sun Ra.
His earliest musical days in Alabama were distinguished by the bewilderment of listeners and musicians alike. By the mid-1940s he found himself in Chicago, where he became the right hand man and pianist for big band innovator Fletcher Henderson. He went on to lead the band and the floor show at The Club DeLisa (featuring singer Joe Williams). By the early '50s he was holding down a gig at The Pershing Hotel as Sun Ra and his Solar Arkestra.
For listeners brought up on the far out sounds of later Sun Ra, these rare Saturn recordings from 1956, 1958 and 1960 reveal just how solid Sun Ra's grounding in the jazz tradition really was.
Yet even in this most formative stage, Sun Ra's music was already pointing inexorably towards the future as shown on haunting, quirky tunes like "Planet Earth," "Eve" and "Interstellar Low Ways." His high-flying anthems like "Saturn" and "Rocket Number Nine Take Off For The Planet Venus" revel in relentless swing, even as they depict Sun Ra's evolving cosmic mysticism.
Industry Reviews
4.5 Stars - Very Good Plus - ...hints at colors yet to come...
Down Beat (05/01/1993)
...typical Ra big-band stuff of the time, occasionally wacky, more often nodding toward the tradition...
Musician (04/01/1993)
...this is a double-record disc to dance to. These are songs that have developed over the years and become Sun Ra standards...
Spin (02/01/1993)
4 Stars - Excellent - ...opens with the incendiary `Reflections In Blue,' includes `Saturn,' one of the band's most beautiful signature tunes, as well as some more-exotic material recorded in 1958...
Rolling Stone (03/04/1993)
...this is a double-record disc to dance to. These are songs that have developed over the years and become Sun Ra standards...
Spin (02/01/1993)
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