Sun Ra - The Nubians Of Plutonia

These recordings date from 1959, cut at El Saturn Studios in Chicago, and they circulated for years in near-total obscurity before ABC's Impulse label went digging through Sun Ra's back catalogue in the seventies and put them in front of a real audience.

The Arkestra here is the Chicago band at its early peak. Marshall Allen and James Spaulding on alto, John Gilmore on tenor, Pat Patrick on baritone, Ronnie Boykins on bass, Nate Pryor on trombone, Lucious Randolph and Phil Cohran on trumpets, Jim Herndon and Robert Barry on percussion, and Sun Ra on piano and electric piano. "Plutonian Nights," "Nubia," "Africa" and "Watusa" set heavy hand percussion under big-band writing years before anyone had a name for what he was doing.

Alton Abraham produced. Impulse issued it in 1974 in a gatefold sleeve, and for a long stretch these ABC reissues were how most listeners outside Chicago ever heard the early Arkestra, since the original Saturn pressings were made in tiny quantities and sold hand to hand.

1974 US Impulse pressing, catalog AS-9242, of material originally issued on Saturn as LP 406.

Used copy: VG+ vinyl / VG+ sleeve