Search - Artist/Band: Sun Ra

• Name: Sun Ra
• Birthday: 05/22/1914
• Birth Place: Birmingham, AL
• Died: 05/30/1993
• Decades Active: 1940,1950,1960,1970,1980,1990
• Genre: Jazz
• Styles: Avant-Garde Jazz, Experimental Big Band, Free Jazz, African Jazz, Mainstream Jazz, Mixed Media, Progressive Jazz, Swing, World Fusion
• Moods: Amiable/Good-Natured, Boisterous, Campy, Carefree, Cerebral, Cheerful, Complex, Difficult, Earthy, Eccentric, Eerie, Ethereal, Exuberant, Fiery, Freewheeling, Fun, Intense, Joyous, Passionate, Playful, Quirky, Rousing, Searching, Sophisticated, Spacey, Trippy, Uncompromising, Volatile, Whimsical, Aggressive, Ambitious, Atmospheric, Confident, Dramatic, Earnest, Elaborate, Energetic, Enigmatic, Fractured, Hedonistic, Irreverent, Literate, Lively, Manic, Meandering, Pastoral, Rambunctious, Rebellious, Silly, Stately, Swaggering, Theatrical, Visceral, Warm, Witty, Wry

Title	Release
Interplanetary Melodies	12/08/2009
Rocket Ship Rock	12/08/2009
Second Stop Is Jupiter	12/08/2009
Helsinki 1971 - The Complete Concert and Interview	2009
Jazz in Silhouette/Sound Sun Pleasure	11/17/2008
Untitled Recordings WA	10/07/2008
Universe Sent Me: Lost Reel 5 WA	04/22/2008
New Horizons WA	03/10/2008
Some Blues But Not the Kind That's Blue WA	01/29/2008
Dance of the Living Image WA	12/11/2007
Intergalactic Research, Vol. 2 WA	07/17/2007
The Creator of the Universe WA	05/28/2007
Toward the Stars WA	03/19/2007
The Complete ESP-Disk' Recordings	12/12/2005
Heliocentric Worlds of Sun Ra, Vol. 3 WA	03/15/2005
Heliocentric Worlds of Sun Ra, Vols. 1 & 2 WA	03/15/2005
Solo Piano WA	06/14/2004
Spaceship Lullaby (1954-60) WA	11/04/2003
Nuits de la Fondation Maeght, Vol. 2 WA	06/24/2003
Music From Tomorrow's World WA	11/05/2002
The Ark and the Ankh WA	07/16/2002
The Solar Myth Approach, Vols. 1-2 WA	11/06/2001
Great Lost Sun Ra Albums: Cymbals & Crystal Spears WA	09/26/2000
Greatest Hits: Easy Listening for Intergalactic Travel WA	09/26/2000
Pathways to Unknown Worlds/Friendly Love WA	09/26/2000
When Angels Speak of Love WA	09/26/2000
Standards WA	05/13/2000
Janus WA	10/12/1999
Song for the Sun WA	1999
The Singles WA	1996
Fate in a Pleasant Mood/When Sun Comes Out WA	11/25/1993
Angels & Demons at Play/The Nubians of Plutonia WA	1993
Somewhere Else WA	1993
Cosmic Tones for Mental Therapy/Art Forms of Dimensions Tomorrow WA	11/20/1992
Visits Planet Earth/Interstellar Low Ways WA	11/02/1992
We Travel the Spaceways/Bad and Beautiful WA	1992
Mayan Temples WA	1990
Out There a Minute WA	1990
Purple Night WA	11/1989
Blue Delight WA	12/05/1988
Hours After WA	1986
Reflections in Blue WA	1986
Cosmo Sun Connection WA	1985
Sun Ra Arkestra Meets Salah Ragab in Egypt WA	1984
We Are in the Future WA	1984
Nuclear War WA	1982
Oblique Parallax WA	1982
On Jupiter WA	1980
Sleeping Beauty WA	1980
Strange Celestial Road WA	1980
The Other Side of the Sun WA	1979
Lanquidity WA	07/17/1978
Solo Piano, Vol. 1 WA	05/20/1977
Cosmos WA	1976
Space Is the Place [Impulse!] WA	10/19/1972
Space Is the Place [Original Soundtrack] WA	1972
Continuation WA	05/1971
My Brother the Wind, Vol. 2 WA	1970
Sound Sun Pleasure!! WA	1970
The Night of the Purple Moon WA	1970
The Solar Myth Approach, Vol. 1 WA	1970
The Solar Myth Approach, Vol. 2 WA	1970
Atlantis WA	1969
Outer Spaceways Incorporated WA	1968
Monorails and Satellites WA	1966
The Sensational Guitars of Dan and Dale: Batman and Robin WA	1966
The Heliocentric Worlds of Sun Ra, Vol. 2 WA	11/16/1965
The Heliocentric Worlds of Sun Ra, Vol. 1 WA	04/20/1965
The Magic City WA	1965
Other Planes of There WA	1964
The Futuristic Sounds of Sun Ra WA	10/10/1961
Holiday for Soul Dance WA	1960
Jazz in Silhouette WA	1958
Sound of Joy WA	11/1957
Horizon WA
Out in Space
Sun Ra, Vol. 2 WA

Of all the jazz musicians, Sun Ra was probably the most controversial. He did not make it easy for people to take him seriously, for he surrounded his adventurous music with costumes and mythology that both looked backward toward ancient Egypt and forward into science fiction. In addition, Ra documented his music in very erratic fashion on his Saturn label, generally not listing recording dates and giving inaccurate personnel information, so one could not really tell how advanced some of his innovations were. It has taken a lot of time to sort it all out (although Robert L. Campbell's Sun Ra discography has done a miraculous job). In addition, while there were times when Sun Ra's aggregation performed brilliantly, on other occasions they were badly out of tune and showcasing absurd vocals. Near the end of his life, Ra was featuring plate twirlers and fire eaters in his colorful show as a sort of Ed Sullivan for the 1980s.

But despite all of the trappings, Sun Ra was a major innovator. Born Herman Sonny Blount in Birmingham, AL (although he claimed he was from another planet), Ra led his own band for the first time in 1934. He freelanced at a variety of jobs in the Midwest, working as a pianist/arranger with Fletcher Henderson in 1946-1947. He appeared on some obscure records as early as 1948, but really got started around 1953. Leading a big band (which he called the Arkestra) in Chicago, Ra started off playing advanced bop, but early on was open to the influences of other cultures, experimenting with primitive electric keyboards, and playing free long before the avant-garde got established.

After moving to New York in 1961, Ra performed some of his most advanced work. In 1970, he relocated his group to Philadelphia, and in later years alternated free improvisations and mystical group chants with eccentric versions of swing tunes, sounding like a spaced-out Fletcher Henderson orchestra. Many of his most important sidemen were with him on and off for decades (most notably John Gilmore on tenor, altoist Marshall Allen, and baritonist Pat Patrick). Ra, who recorded for more than a dozen labels, has been well served by Evidence's extensive repackaging of many of his Saturn dates, which have at last been outfitted with correct dates and personnel details. In the late '90s, other labels began reissuing albums from Sun Ra's vast catalog, an effort that will surely continue for years to come. ~ Scott Yanow, All Music Guide