I’ve been getting into Sun Ra and his Arkestra quite seriously recently. For someone like me, working with very limited means, sets like this are an absolute godsend.
What we get here is a collection of four early Sun Ra/Arkestra albums, plus a CD full of early singles, from Ra’s prolific Saturn Records output,
The albums are: Jazz by Sun Ra (1956), Supersonic Jazz (1956), and Jazz In Silhouette (1959), and The Futuristic Sounds of Sun Ra (1961). These four albums are spread over discs one to three. And then on disc four we have 18 tracks issued as singles.
These latter range from blues, rock n’ roll to doo-wop, novelty tunes (Christmas themed, etc.) and Arkestral jazz! Quite a range. This stuff is where they get closest – in my view – to what one critic described as being or sounding like an ‘intergalactic ice cream van’!