Art Yard

Sun Ra - Art Yard in a Box (2012) {7CD Box Set Art Yard SUNRERBOX rec 1970s}
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© 1970s, 2012 Art Yard / ReR Megacorp | SUNRERBOX
Jazz / Avant-Garde Jazz / Jazz Funk / Experimental Big Band / Progressive Jazz

9 classic Saturn LP releases from Sun Ra on 7 CDs in an individually numbered box set limited to just 500. All these albums are great, all of them quite different from one another and all featuring a lot of electric keyboards and Moog from the boss. The albums are: Disco 3000, Sleeping Beauty, On Jupiter, Beyond the Purple Star Zone, Oblique Parallax, Horizon, Nidhamu, Dark Myth Equation Visitation The Antique Blacks.

Sun Ra - Space Probe (1974) {Saturn-Art Yard ‎CD011 rel 2011}
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© 1974, 2011 Saturn / Art Yard ‎| ART YARD CD 011
Jazz / Avant-Garde Jazz / Space-Age / Jazz Funk / Progressive Jazz

The rare Space Probe sent out to the cosmos by Sun Ra in the mid 70s – with material recorded from the early 60s onward – the heart of it being Sun Ra's first ever recordings on a moog synthesizer in 1969, and it's one heck of a trip! This excellent edition on Art Yard includes the material from the original Saturn release – the epic, nearly 18 minute interstellar trip that is the title track – with Sun Ra crafting hallucinatory moog magic throughout it. He shifts gears on "Earth Primitive Earth" (the complete version), an earlier recording, as much influenced by ancient sounds as futuristic ones, with hand drums for the beat and bass clarinet by John Gilmore. The closing "Conversion Of JP" is the other holdover from the earlier Space Probe LP and it's another gem steeped in primitivism, believed to feature Marshall Allen on flute (sure sounds like him to us).

Sun Ra - Media Dreams, Complete Concert Milan 1978 (2008) {2CD Set ART YARD CD 002}
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© 1978, 2008 El Saturn Records / Enterplanetary Koncepts / Art Yard | ART YARD CD 002
Jazz / Avant-Garde Jazz / Progressive Jazz

This is the companion to Disco 3000, made on the same classic Italian quartet tour with John Gilmore, Michael Ray (trumpet) and the minimal but perfect Luqman Ali (drums). Ra himself plays piano and electronic keyboards, including the mysterious Crumar Mainman, which Ra describes as like a piano, organ, clavichord, cello, violin and brass instruments and which also, importantly, has a facility for pre-programmed bass-lines and electronic percussion, which Ra uses constantly and to great effect in this small ensemble setting and seldom, if ever, elsewhere. The best of this collection (most of CD1) is luminous: very electronic, often rhythmical and melodic, always economical and making every sound count.

Sun Ra - Disco 3000 (1978) {Art Yard CD101 rel 2009}
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© 1978, 2009 Saturn / Art Yard / Enterplanetary Koncepts BMI | CD101
Jazz / Experimental Jazz / Avant-Garde Jazz / Cosmic Jazz / Progressive Jazz

In the winter months of 1977-1978, philosopher, pianist and bandleader Sun Ra was in Italy. The Italian tour resulted in releases on Sun Ra's own Saturn label, all of which have long been out of print and all but impossible to find. With the re-release of DISCO 3000 one of the most celebrated of these elusive Saturn gems is once more available. This release, and it's companion MEDIA DREAMS, capture a side of Sun Ra's work - small ensemble, close form, original composition, rather minimal - that is otherwise under-represented.

Sun Ra - Cosmo Earth Fantasy (2012) {Art Yard CD013 rec 1962-1975}
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© 1962-75, 2012 Art Yard / Enterplanetary Koncepts BMI | CD 013
Jazz / Experimental Big Band / Avant-Garde Jazz / Cosmic Jazz / Progressive Jazz

The late Sun Ra used to have his own record label. It was called Saturn and it was used to release records that the band took with them to concerts. So every time when the Arkestra left for a series of concerts, they took the boxes of the Saturn records with them. When they ran out of records, they printed new runs, often meaning that they would use new recordings, sometimes mixing them with material that already had been released. One print-run usually was about 300 copies. The result is an immense and very complex discography.

Sun Ra - Beyond the Purple Star Zone & Oblique Parallax (1980) {Art Yard ‎CD 005 rel 2010}
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© 1980, 2010 Art Yard ‎| CD 005
Jazz / Avant-Garde Jazz / Space Jazz / Progressive Jazz

In 1980 Sun-Ra fanatic Rick Steiger organised what was to be the "Greatest cultural event going on in America at that time" according to Sun Ra himself. The concert started the day after Christmas and evolved into a 6-day, 11-performance residency that rocked the Detroit Jazz centre to it's boots. These are nine tracks from those sessions, capturing the Arkestra in full flight with some help from local musicians Tani Tabbal, Ali Mora, Jaribu Shahid and Reggie Fields. Pure vibes!!!

Every Sun Ra album is unique. Yet even by Ra's standards, DISCO 3000 is an outlier. However, it sits comfortably in the Sun Ra discography — because it's weird.

This is the great late-night Sun Ra chillout album you never knew about. The band had been working in a more groove-oriented setting off and on for over a year, as evidenced by the albums Lanquidity and On Jupiter, with both featuring prominent electric bass and electric guitar. Sleeping Beauty picks up right where On Jupiter left off, with the gentle, swaying "Springtime Again" echoing the same mellow vibe of "Seductive Fantasy" from On Jupiter.