Sun Ra – Exotica [Full Album] (Vol. 1 & 2)

Sun Ra – Exotica (2017) [Vol. 1] 00:00 Kingdom of Thunder 03:53 Space Mates (Abridged) 08:40 Star Bright (Previously Unissued) 11:08 The Nile (Part 1) 16:08 Eve 22:01 Tiny Pyramids 25:42 The Lady with the Golden Stockings 33:29 Paradise 37:59 New Horizons 41:03 Portrait of the Living Sky 42:55 India 47:47 Ancient Aiethopia 57:04 Planet Earth 01:02:04 April in Paris (Previously Unissued) [Vol. 2] 01:05:59 Island in the Sun (Complete Version) 01:16:24 Africa 01:21:31 Friendly Galaxy 01:26:25 Interstellar Low Ways 01:34:52 The Conversion of J.P. (Abridged) 01:41:56 Cha Cha in Outer Space (Previously Unissued) 01:46:35 Brazilian Sun 01:50:34 Lights on a Satellite 01:54:15 Somewhere in Space 02:00:32 Spontaneous Simplicity 02:03:35 Overtones of China John Szwed in Sun Ra’s biography, Space is The Place : “Sunny was listening to the Hollywood-inspired music being made by people like David Rose, whose lush, massed string writing could be heard as theme songs on popular radio programs; or to the exotica of people like Martin Denny, who recorded in Honolulu accompanied by animal noises, natural acoustic delay, and reverberation; and especially to the arrangements of Les Baxter, the premier figure in what was being called mood music. Baxter developed a post-swing style in the late forties and early fifties of spectacular orchestral writing, full of timpani and hand drums, tumbling violin lines, harps, flutes, marimbas, celesta, Latin rhythm vamps, the cries of animals, choral moans, and flamboyant singers, creating imaginary soundscapes which he helped evoke with titles like ’Atlantis,’ ’Voodoo Dreams,’ and ’Pyramid of the Sun.’ Sunny first heard Baxter on Perfume Set to Music (1946) and Music Out of the Moon (1947). Baxter went on to produce records which celebrated the Aztecs (The Sacred Idol, 1959), South Asia (Ports of Pleasure, 1957), Africa and the Middle East (Tamboo!, 1955), and the Caribbean (Caribbean Moonlight, 1956), all of which used Latin rhythms generically, as did his two big band records, African Jazz (1958) and Jungle Jazz (1959). Though later generations would understand this music in strictly utilitarian terms, and hear in it the sounds of air conditioning and the clink of ice in cocktail shakers, for Sunny it was music rich with imagination and suggestion. His genius was to take as raw material what others in the 1950s thought of as ’easy listening’ and turn it into what in the late 1960s would be heard as ’Third World music’ by some and as ’uneasy listening music’ by others.“ Lacquer Cut By – Kevin Gray Written By – The Sun Ra Arkestra Tracks 1-12, 1-13, 2-4, 2-10 Stereo. All other selections Mono. Recordings produced for Sun Ra and Enterplanetary Koncepts (BMI), except: “Tiny Pyramids“ by Ronnie Boykins, Enterplanetary Koncepts (BMI) and “April in Paris“ by Venom Duke and Yip Harburg, Glocca Morra Music Corp., Kay Duke Music, and Universal Music Corp. (ASCAP). Recordings produced by Sun Ra for Saturn Records, under the business aegis of Alton Abraham Album produced by Irwin Chusid Audio transfers by Michael D. Anderson, Sun Ra Music Archive Audio restoration by Michael D. Anderson and Irwin Chusid Mastered by Brenan Ford at Sundanized Studios North Project Management: Jay Miller Text Editing: Austin Gray and Brian Thompson Production Coordination: Stephanie Kennedy Art direction: Laura Lindgreen