Sun Ra - Golden Selection (Remastered) '2021

Tracks list

Tracklist:

Disc 1

01. Tapestry from an Asteroid (Remastered)
02. Enlightenment (Remastered)
03. Space Jazz Reverie (Remastered)
04. Blues at Midnight (Remastered)
05. Hours After (Remastered)
06. Daddys Gonna Tell You No Lie (Remastered)
07. India (Remastered)
08. New Horizons (Remastered)
09. Call for All Demons (Remastered)
10. Daddys Gonna Tell You No Lie, Pt 2 (Remastered)
11. Future (Remastered)
12. The Beginning (Remastered)
13. Big City Blues (Remastered)
14. Lullaby for Realville (Remastered)
15. Jet Flight (Remastered)
16. A Foggy Day in London Town (Remastered)
17. Hot Skillet Mama (Remastered)
18. Happy New Year to You (Remastered)
19. Where Is Tomorrow? (Remastered)
20. The Sun One (Remastered)
21. Brainville (Remastered)
22. Medicine for a Nightmare (Remastered)
23. Swing a Little Taste (Remastered)
24. China Gates (Remastered)
25. Great Balls of Fire (Remastered)
26. Fall off the Log (Remastered)
27. Transitions (Remastered)
28. Message to Earthman (Remastered)
29. Horoscope (Remastered)
30. The Blue Set (Remastered)

Disc 2

01. El Is a Sound of Joy (Remastered)
02. Street Named Hell (Remastered)
03. Looking Outward (Remastered)
04. New Day (Remastered)
05. Saturn (Remastered)
06. Somebodys in Love (Remastered)
07. Of Sounds and Something Else (Remastered)
08. Velvet (Remastered)
09. Supersonic Jazz (Remastered)
10. Dreaming (Remastered)
11. Hours After 2 (Remastered)
12. Its Christmas Time (Remastered)
13. Super Blonde (Remastered)
14. Possession (Remastered)
15. Images (Remastered)
16. Medicine for a Nightmare, Pt. 2 (Remastered)
17. Whats That? (Remastered)
18. Ancient Aiethopia (Remastered)
19. Portrait of a Living Sky (Remastered)
20. Sunology (Remastered)
21. Urnack (Remastered)
22. Bye Bye (Remastered)
23. Advice to Medics (Remastered)
24. Blues at Midnight, Pt. 2 (Remastered)
25. Muck Muck (Matt Matt) (Remastered)
26. Sun Song (Remastered)
27. Soft Talk (Remastered)
28. Kingdom of Not (Remastered)
29. Bassism (Remastered)
30. Sunology, Pt 2 (Remastered)


 Read MoreBorn Herman Sonny Blount in Birmingham, Alabama (although he
claimed he was from Saturn), Ra led his own band for the first time in 1934. He
freelanced at a variety of jobs in the Midwest, recording with blues singer
Wynonie Harris in 1946 and working as a pianist/arranger with Fletcher Henderson
in 1946 and 1947. He also performed with swing musicians Coleman Hawkins and
Stuff Smith in 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. Following several singles, including songs recorded with doo wop
and R&B vocal groups such as the Qualities and the Cosmic Rays, early albums
released by the Arkestra on El Saturn Records included Super-Sonic Jazz and Jazz
in Silhouette. Jazz by Sun Ra, Vol. 1 also appeared on producer Tom Wilsons
Transition Records.

After moving to New York in 1961, Ra performed some of his most advanced work.
This period saw the release of The Heliocentric Worlds of Sun Ra, Vol. 1 and
Vol. 2, both on the famed ESP-Disk label, and often regarded as some of his best
work. In 1966, the Arkestra had a weekly Monday night gig at Slugs Saloon, a
jazz club in the Lower East Side in Manhattan, which greatly increased his fan
base among beatniks and music critics. While Ras music, mythology, and
appearance went over the heads of many listeners and audience members, he was
praised by jazz legends Dizzy Gillespie and Thelonious Monk.

In 1968, he relocated his group to Philadelphia, and the band undertook their
first tour of the West Coast of the United States, exposing their elaborate
performances to hippies and Deadheads. Ra was featured on the cover of Rolling
Stone in 1969. The ensemble began performing in Europe in 1970, and they
traveled to Egypt for the first time in 1971. Their concerts alternated free
improvisations and mystical group chants with eccentric versions of swing tunes,
sounding like a spaced-out Fletcher Henderson orchestra. Many of Ras most
important sidemen were with him on and off for decades (most notably John
Gilmore on tenor, altoist Marshall Allen, and baritonist Pat Patrick).

In 1972, Sun Ra recorded an album called Space Is the Place, as well as an
experimental science fiction movie of the same name. The album, led by the
21-minute title track, was released in 1973, and endures as one of his most
popular and influential works. The film, directed by John Coney, was released in
1974, and is often cited as a seminal work of Afrofuturism. The Arkestra
recorded an original soundtrack for the film (unrelated to the Space Is the
Place album), and it was eventually released on CD in the 90s.

The Arkestra continued recording and performing, and albums appeared on labels
large (Impulse!, Atlantic) and small (Philly Jazz, Sweet Earth Records).
Releases on Y Records, including the infamous Nuclear War (1982), exposed Sun
Ras work to post-punk/indie audiences. Ra became a fixture of Philadelphia radio
stations and regularly gave lectures. After appearing on Hal Willners Disney
tribute album Stay Awake in 1988, Ra became obsessed with the music of Disney
animated films, and incorporated renditions of these tunes into live
performances. Ra suffered a stroke in 1990, but he still continued to lead the
Arkestra and compose music. Gilmore led the Arkestra on dates when Ra was too
ill to perform. Ra died in 1993, and Gilmore led the Arkestra until his death in
1995, at which point Allen took over.

Ra has been well served by Evidences extensive repackaging of many of his Saturn
dates, which have at last been outfitted with correct dates and personnel
details. The label released a double-CD collection of his limited single
releases in 1996. Posthumous albums of live material have appeared on labels
such as DIW, Leo Records, and Kindred Spirits. In 2010, Norton Records released
a series of Space Poetry LPs containing Ras spoken word material. U.K. label
Strut also released a few notable compilations, including In the Orbit of Ra
(presented by Allen) and To Those of Earth... and Other Worlds (mixed by Gilles
Peterson), as well as a more extensive compendium of his singles. ~ Scott Yanow

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