I don't remember the first time I heard Sun Ra, but something kept me coming back for more. Some of it I find completely unlistenable, yet irresistable. Eventually I bought the Space Is The Place album, and the anarchic sounds juxtaposed with some gentle jazz blew me away.
This one was another punt - actually a double album release (this and 1957's Supersonic Jazz) but I'm treating them separately as with other such 'box sets'.
It opens with Bassism a bass sax bossa-nova type romp, then Of Wounds And Something has a nice piano intro, with the faintest discord, leading into some sax driven be-bop. What's That is the big-band style slightly discordant (that word's going to get used a lot) piece, as is When Is Tomorrow. It gets weirder still with The Beginning a percussive cacophony starting, quickly developing a beat, with wind instruments coming in after a couple of minutes, each playing their own tune, but somehow melding into something interesting. China Gates is the only vocal track on the album, a lovely song, a very different reggae version of which I picked up on 12" single by Guardian Angel in the late 1970s. New Day is a gently percussive tune, with an Eastern sounding flute theme, and equally gentle is Tapestry From An Asteroid, more laid back, but slipping into the mania characteristic of Sun Ra, before we conclude with more percussion on Looking Outward, and Space Jazz Reverie, a typical Sun Ra piece - laid back but discordant enough awaken the ears, a lovely ending.
4* - varied, listenable and lots to interest the listener. A great album.
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