Biography

Claiming to be from Saturn, and combining the aesthetics of extraterrestrials and ancient Egyptians, Sun Ra was one of the most distinctive, visionary artists in jazz. A piano and synthesizer player, and a widely inventive band leader, Ra combined big-band Ellingtonia, free jazz, electronic soundscapes, and celestial themes into an idiosyncratic stew, bolstered by the intense loyalty of his band members (they stuck together from the 1950s until Ra's death in 1993, eschewing higher-paying gigs for the opportunity to play his music). Once dismissed for his surreal antics, Sun Ra has become acclaimed for his brilliant contributions to jazz. His huge discography is a singular monument to his indefatigable artistry.

Top Tracks

• Click on the track to launch in Spotify

• (slow) Watusi

• [untitled]

• 4am Blues [instrumental]

• A Call For All Demons

• A Place In My Heart

• A Quiet Place In The Universe

• Adventures Of Bugs Hunter

• Advice To Medics

• Africa

• Aiethopia

• Ancient Aiethopia

• Angel Race/i Wait For You

• Angels And Demons At Play

• Ankh

• Another Shade Of Blue

• Approach Of The Eternal Tomorrow

• Astro Black

• At First There Was Nothing/the Universe Has More To Offer You/wake ...

• Atlantis

• Back Alley Blues

• Biosphere Blues

• Black Forest Myth

• Blue Delight

• Blue Intensity

• Blues At Midnight

• Blues On Planet Mars

• Blues Train

• Body And Soul

• But Not For Me

• Call For All Demons

• Calling Planet Earth

• Can This Be Love?

• Carefree (egyptian Fantasy)

• Chant Of The Groove [live]

• Chicago Usa

• Cocktails For Two

• Cosmo Sun Connection

• Daddy's Gonna Tell You No Lie

• Dance Of Innocent Passion

• Dance Of The Living Image

• Darn That Dream

• Dawn

• Deep Purple

• Demon's Lullaby

• Discipline "99"

• Discipline 27

• Discipline 27-ii

• Discipline 33

• Dreams Come True [rehearsal]

• Early Autumn

• Egypt Strut

• El Is A Sound Of Joy

• El Is The Sound Of Joy

• Enlightenment

• Eve [complete Unedited Version]

• Everything I Have Is Yours

• Exotic Forest

• Exotic Two

• Fat Man Blues

• Fate In A Pleasant Mood

• Friendly Galaxy No. 2

• Friendly Love I

• Friendly Love Iii

• Frisco Fog

• Future

• Hi Yo Silver

• Hole In The Sky

• Honey

• Honky Tonk

• Hour Of Parting

• I Can't Get Started [added Track]

• I Want To Rock

• If You Came From Nowhere Here

• I'll Get By

• I'll Never Be The Same

• I'll Wait For You

• Impromptu Festival

• In Every Man's Life

• India

• Inside The Blues

• Intergalaxtic Ii

• Interplanetary Music

• Interstellar Low Ways

• Island In The Sun

• It's After The End Of The World

• J.d. Blues

• Journey Through The Outer Darkness

• Kuba Mambo

• Legend

• Legs Gettin' Bigger

• Lightnin' Struck The Poorhouse

• Lights On A Satellite

• Living In The Space Age

• Lonely Moments

• Lonely Woman

• Loose Wig [live]

• Love In Outer Space

• Love Is For Always

• Man From The Island

• Manhattan Cocktail

• Mayan Temple

• Mayan Temples

• Medicine For A Nightmare

• Message To Earthman

• Moonship Journey

• Mu

• My Favorite Things

• Narration - Odetta Interview: The Body Is The First Instrument

• Narration - Producer & Sun Ra Introduction, Pt. 1

• Narration - Sun Ra And The Vee Jay & Duke Labels 1954

• Narration - Sun Ra Interview - Sunny Remembers Stuff Smith

• Narration - Sun Ra Interview: Having Discipline In His Band

• Narration - Sun Ra Interview: Teaching The Arkestra To Play Like Swing Musicians

• Narration - Sun Ra Interview: The Innovators & The Youth

• Narration - Sun Ra Sings & Plays Piano

• Narration - The Afro-cuban Influence - Machito 1951

• Narration - The Early Sci-fi Factuality Influence

• Nature Boy

• Nebulae

• Neverness

• New Planet

• Nothin' From Nothin'

• Nuclear War

• Of Sounds And Something Else

• Omniscience

• On Jupiter, The Skies Are Always Blue

• On Sound Infinity Spheres

• Opus In Springtime

• Other Planes Of There

• Other Worlds

• Otherness Blue

• Outer Space Incorporated

• Outer Spaceways Incorporated

• Overtones Of China

• Pan Afro

• Pathways To Unknown Worlds

• Pennies From Heaven

• Picadillo [live At Birdland - New York]

• Plutonian Nights

• Pork-n-beans

• Purple Night Blues

• Pyramids

• Quiet Ecstasy

• Reflections In Blue

• Ridin' The Boogie

• Rocket Number Nine

• Rough House Blues

• Round Midnight

• 'round Midnight [mono Take 3 - Master Take]

• Rumpelstiltskin

• Saturn

• Search Light Blues

• Second Star To The Right

• Seductive Fantasy

• Shadow World

• Sketch

• Sky And Sun

• Skylight

• Sleeping Beauty

• Solar Differentials

• Sometimes I'm Happy

• Somewhere Else

• Sophisticated Blues

• Sophisticated Lady

• Space Is The Place

• Space Is The Place/we Travel The Spaceways/outer Spaceways ...

• Space Jazz Reverie

• Space Loneliness, No. 2

• Space Towers

• Spaceship Lullaby

• Spontaneous Simplicity

• St. Louis Blues

• Stardust From Tomorrow

• Strange Worlds

• Street Named Hell

• Summertime

• Sun Ra Blues

• Sun Song

• Sunny's Place #1

• Sunrise

• Sunrise In The Western Sky

• Take The "a" Train

• Tapestry From An Asteroid

• That's My Baby

• The Conversion Of J.p.

• The Galaxy Way

• The Idea Of It All

• The Magic City

• The Night Of The Purple Moon

• The Nile

• The Order Of The Pharaonic Jesters

• The Others In Their World

• The Pajama Game

• The Perfect Man

• The Satellites Are Spinning

• The Sound Mirror

• The Sun Man Speaks

• The Wind Speaks

• The World Of The Lightening

• Theme Of The Stargazers

• They Dwell On Other Planes

• They Plan To Leave

• Thither And Yon

• Thoughts Under A Dark Blue Light

• To Nature's God

• Twin Stars Of Thence

• U.f.o.

• Unidentified Blues

• Universe In Blue, Pt. 2

• Unknown Kohoutek

• Untitled I

• Urnack

• Velvet [take 4 - Complete Take]

• Walkin' On The Moon...

• Walking On The Moon

• Watusa

• Watusa/disciplline 27-11

• Watusi, Egyptian March

• We Travel The Spaceways

• What A Difference A Day Made

• When Angels Speak Of Love

• When Sun Comes Out

• Where Is Tomorrow?

• Where Pathways Meet

• Where There Is No Sun

• Whistle While You Work

• Why Go To The Moon?

• Wordless Piece

• Worlds Approaching

• Yeah Man!

• You And The Night And The Music

• You're Driving Me Crazy [live]

Discography

• Click on the album to launch in Spotify

• Dance of the Living Image

  Transparency

  2007

• The Creator of the Universe

  Transparency

  2007

• Live at Myron's Ballroom

  Transparency

  2006

• Heliocentric Worlds of Sun Ra, Vol. 3

  ESP-Disk

  2005

• Spaceship Lullaby (1954-60)

  Atavistic Records

  2003

• Solo Piano Recital: Teatro la Fenice Venizia

  Golden Years Of New Jazz / Golden Years of New

  2003

• Piano Recital (Teatro La Fenice In Venice)

  Leo

  2003

• Nuits de la Fondation Maeght, Vol. 2

  Universe

  2003

• Live in Paris at the Gibus

  Universe

  2003

• Nuits de la Fondation Maeght, Vol. 1

  Universe

  2003

• It Is Forbidden

  Total Energy

  2001

• When Angels Speak of Love

  Evidence

  2000

• Stardust from Tomorrow

  Leo

  2000

• Life Is Splendid

  Total Energy

  1999

• At the Village Vanguard

  Rounder

  1999

• Outer Space Employment Agency

  Total Energy

  1999

• Live from Soundscape

  DIW (Japan)

  1994

• Somewhere Else

  Rounder Select / Rounder

  1993

• Mayan Temples

  Black Saint

  1990

• Sun Ra and His Year 2000 Myth Science Arkestra

  Blast First

  1990

• Purple Night

  A&M

  1989

• Second Star to the Right: Salute to Walt Disney

  Leo

  1989

• Cosmo Sun Connection

  ReR USA / Recommended

  1985

• Live at Praxis '84

  Golden Years of New

  1984

• Sun Ra Arkestra Meets Salah Ragab in Egypt

  Golden Years Of New Jazz

  1984

• Dancing Shadows

  Happy Bird

  1984

• We Are in the Future

  Savoy

  1984

• Love in Outer Space: Live in Utrecht

  Leo

  1983

• Ra to the Rescue

  Saturn

  1983

• Oblique Parallax

  Saturn IX

  1982

• Of Mythic Worlds

  Philly Jazz

  1981

• John Cage Meets Sun Ra (June 8, 1986 at "Sideshows by the Seashore, Coney Island, NY)

  Meltdown Records

  1981

• Aurora Borealis

  Saturn

  1981

• The Rose Hue Mansions of the Sun

  Saturn 80

  1980

• Voice of the Eternal Tommorrow

  1980

• Strange Celestial Road

  Rounder

  1980

• I, Pharaoh

  El Saturn

  1980

• Dance of Innocent Passion

  Saturn

  1980

• The Other Side of the Sun

  Universe

  1979

• Sleeping Beauty

  Art Yard / ReR

  1979

• On Jupiter

  Art Yard / ReR

  1979

• Lanquidity

  Evidence

  1978

• Visions

  Steeplechase

  1978

• Space Probe

  Saturn

  1978

• The Sound Mirror

  Saturn

  1978

• The Antique Blacks

  Art Yard

  1978

• A Quiet Place in the Universe

  Leo Records / Leo

  1977

• Unity

  Horo

  1977

• Cosmos

  P-Vine Records

  1976

• Pathways to Unknown Worlds

  Impulse!

  1975

• Discipline 27-II

  El Saturn Research

  1974

• Cosmo-Earth Fantasy

  Saturn

  1974

• Concert for the Comet Kohoutek

  Get Back Records

  1973

• Space Is the Place [Impulse!]

  Impulse! / GRP

  1972

• Astro-Black

  Impulse!

  1972

• Universe in Blue

  Saturn

  1972

• Live in Egypt, Vol. 1

  Saturn

  1972

• Continuation

  Atavistic Records

  1971

• My Brother the Wind, Vol. 1

  Saturn

  1971

• Fondation Maeght Nights, Vol. 2

  Jazz View

  1970

• Fondation Maeght Nights, Vol. 1

  1970

• Nidhamu

  Saturn

  197?

• Atlantis

  Evidence

  1969

• Outer Spaceways Incorporated

  Black Lion

  1968

• Pictures of Infinity

  Black Lion

  1968

• A Black Mass

  Son Boy

  1968

• The Magic City

  Evidence

  1965

• Secrets of the Sun

  Saturn

  1965

• When Sun Comes Out

  Saturn

  1963

• Fate in a Pleasant Mood

  1961

• Bad and Beautiful

  Impulse!

  1961

• Holiday for Soul Dance

  Evidence

  1960

• Angels & Demons at Play

  1960

• The Nubians of Plutonia

  Impulse!

  1959

• Visits Planet Earth

  Impulse!

  1958

• Super-Sonic Jazz [Extra Track]

  Impulse!

  1956