From david turgeon Sent Fri, Apr 23rd 1999, 15:45
From david turgeon Sent Fri, Apr 23rd 1999, 15:45
> Sorry for the off-topic post, but I noticed your email name. Do you (or > anyone else) have any Sun Ra recommendations? I have a lot of late 60's > Miles and Coltrane, but never knew where to begin with the Ra. if i may make one simple recommendation--the soundtrack to the pbs film "space is the place" on evidence (not the impulse album with the same name, although it's great too) is probably the best place to start. the songs are more straightforward than many sun ra records, but nonetheless quite thrilling, & it has many references to other sun ra records which you'll want to check out at some point in the future. usually, anything reissued on evidence is worth buying, especially albums recorded within the 60-70s period. buy by the cover, the more sketchy & obscure they look, the better they're likely to be. at least that's how i buy mine. :) here's a few more titles which i wholeheartedly recommend: - heliocentric worlds (only got vol.2 but i would bet vol.1 is just as great) (esp disk) - atlantis (evidence) (don't have it, but heard great things about it) - cosmic tones for mental therapy / art forms for dimensions tomorrow (evidence) (has a great early use of echo effects... sounds especially spacey & experimental) - space is the place (impulse) (excellent, but would be worth buying anyway if only for the 20-minute title song, which is also available in 5-minute form on the aforementioned soundtrack) it is also worthy of note that all these cds come with more than extensive liner notes which make you appreciate sun ra's work all the more. if anybody has more sun ra recommendations, please do go ahead, i'm far from having everything myself. :) -- david turgeon at http://www.notype.com