Sun Ra - Omniverse - VINYL LP

Sun Ra, the extraordinary, outlandish, and sometimes controversial pianist, is often described as an Inchacquired tasteInch, with a massive and diverse catalog. This is a good place to start for uninitiated or dismissive listeners. The album showcases Ra's grounding in the jazz tradition, with unique takes on standards like InchTime After Time,Inch InchEasy to Love,Inch and InchBut Not for MeInch. Not unordinary for Sun Ra, the recording process was informal; InchCan This Be Love?Inch was recorded in his Chicago apartment in 1955; he is accompanied only by the great Wilbur Ware on bass. The other five tracks, which feature, among others, Ra's longtime associate John Gilmore on tenor saxophone, were recorded at the Choreographer's Workshop rehearsal space in 1962 and 1963. Album Tracks 1. Can This Be Love? 2. Sometimes I'm Happy 3. Time After Time 4. Easy to Love 5. Keep Your Sunny Side Up 6. But Not for Me

Double yellow colored vinyl LP pressing. Sun Ra was a master of misdirection. Tape boxes wrongly labeled-whether by accident or design-are legendary among Ra archivists. One can speculate about the artist's intent or carelessness, but source misinformation abounds on Ra tape cases, album jackets, cassettes, ephemera-as well as in interviews. It's as if Ra, in furtherance of his own mythmaking, wanted to keep historians guessing. This project began as a misidentified tape discovered by Michael D. Anderson of the Sun Ra Music Archive. The 7-inch reel, which contained a live Ra solo piano performance of 11 works-some recognizable, others not-was of stellar quality, and was marked as a 1979 Carnegie Hall date. But the program on the tape did not align with known facts (e.g., titles played, concert duration) which were chronicled in a Newsday review of Ra's appearance at Carnegie in September of that year. With a prod from writer/historian Ted Gioia and further research by myself, the tape was eventually identified as a mostly unreleased July 1977 performance by Ra at a downtown NYC Inchjazz caféInch called The Axis-in-Soho.

Vinyl LP pressing. Travelogue through a cybernetical soundscape! The future rendered here by Ra seems more dystopian than utopian, and these 1975 guided improvisations are imbued with an underlying violence, alternate twists, bank turns, headchoppers, loops, rolls, sidewinders and drops. It's a dark & glorious journey. Featuring the debut of the complete version of 'Extension Out,' Pathways has been exquisitely mastered from the four-track session reel and includes an insert offering an enlightening glimpse at Ra & co.'s plans for their major tag lucre. Album Tracks 1. Pathways to Unknown Worlds 2. Extension Out [Complete Take] 3. Cosmo-Media