Sun Ra experts please reccomend me some
 

I've known who Sun Ra is for many years but I've only owned one album " Angels and Demons/Nubians of Plutonia ". I like that one, and I like regular jazz too, but upon listening to some more of his material, I prefer his abstract stuff like Strange Strings and The Magic City. But the stuff I am REALLY after is his synth/keyboard/organ heavy stuff like " The Night of the Purple Moon ". What other albums of his are similar to the music on Night of the purple moon?

I'm no expert in any sense but I've encountered if it's off of Atavistc Records then chances are it's good.

atavistic is fan-fucking-tastic

the futuristic sounds of sun ra
the heliocentric worlds of sun ra volumes 1 and 2
supersonic jazz
the jazz album

thats a real good starting point. im a sun ra fanatic so if you want more just pm me.

Heliocentric is great stuff. I have vol.3 if anyone is interested in hearing that.

Atavistic hasn't put out a lot of Sun Ra. Most of his stuff was rereleased on Evidence, and there's a few out on ESP Disc and a couple other labels. The ESP material is among his very best.

I've done two radio shows, one where I played 4 hours straight of Sun Ra, and another where I played 6. I've also had the pleasure of seeing him live the year before he died. They had to wheel him on and off the stage, but he still sat a the piano and did the Ra magic, and the Arkestra was fantastic, of course.

I had tickets to see him a year later, but he died right before the show was scheduled.

We played a Sun Ra song in the ceremony when my wife and I were married.

My favorites:

Space is the Place
Atlantis
Cosmic Tones for Mental Therapy
Concert for the Comet Kohoutek
The Heliocentric Worlds of Sun Ra (vols. 1 - 2 issued separately, all awesome)
My Brother the Wind
Crystal Spears
Cymbals (evidence issued this and the above album in a double cd as "The Great Lost Sun Ra Albums")
Nothing Is
Disco 3000
Dancing Shadows
Somewhere Else
Purple Night (one of the better later ones, I think maybe his last studio album)

It's really close to true that practically anything you find is likely to be good. Some of the very earliest stuff is pretty straight jazz by comparison to later work. The only Ra album I've ever had and gotten rid of was Reflections in Blue which is a '70s era very straight jazz album with him playing very digital sounding synths and no space stuff to speak of (I like a lot of his straight jazz, but this one sounds like smooth jazz of the elevator reality).

Sonic Youth are my favorite rock band, but Ra is the musician I consider the ultimate influence on me musically.

heliocentric isn't really a keyboard record though. try "space is the place" OST, or "concert for the comet kohoutec"

Good point. If looking specifically for keyboard stuff, I'd say get My Brother the Wind Vol. 2 for the solo keyboard work of the later half of it (the rest is great too, just more group oriented with killer June Tyson vocals).

I've only heard Space is the Place and Everything Is out of his vast discography, I feel as if I'm missing out...

Atlantis

Atlantis
Asto Black
New Steps
Cosmos
Lanquidity
Cosmic Tones For Mental Therapy
Heliocentric Worlds PT 1
Solar Myth Aproach Vol 2
We travel The Spaceways

Yeah, actually Atlantis is probably the best one for over the top Ra keyboards too. Especially the title track. It's totally my favorite Sun Ra album, though it's quite different from anything else in a lot of ways. That album and Cosmic Tones for Mental Therapy are his two most absolutely unique albums.

The ESP discs have a bit of a particular free jazz sound to them, and there are quite a few albums kind of along the lines of Space is the Place too (which is an awesome sound verging on space-pop at times with the June Tyson vocals).

Atlantis really sounds like a recording that was unearthed from the lost continent!

I always thought his most ''free-jazz'' sound came from his EL Saturn records.

Not exactly. El Saturn was just his personal label and all manner of stuff came out on it over the decades, much of which later got re-released by bigger labels. Atlantis was originally on Saturn, later put out by Impulse!, and most recently by Evidence (which contains both versions of "Yucatan" since the Impulse! one edited it).

The thing is, Saturn albums aren't exactly easy to come by or affordable. Some came out in editions of 20-30. Not something you are likely to find in your local record store, or even online for less than hundreds of dollars.

I would still maintain that his most free jazz stuff is on ESP because that was what that label was all about and thus what they were most apt to cull from his immense library of recordings to draw from. I'm not absolutely positive, but I think pretty much all of the stuff on ESP was also released on Saturn.

atlantis
space is the place
astro black are pretty damn funky shit....

Also Blast First put out Sun Ra's personal collection of rare arkestra recordings from the late 60s, it's called Out There A Minute. If you can't find it I'll happily upload it, it's really diverse. Some of it is just straight piano jazz, then there's insane marimba battles and organ noise..

I think you should definitely upload this.

this is very much appreciated. Thank you.