SUN RA AND HIS INTER-GALACTIC RESEARCH ARKESTRA – NUITS DE LA FONATION MAEGHT (Strut) (6 x LP – Record Store Day/ DL) (2025)

Sun Ra never seems to go out of fashion, nor does the music ever see to be ahead of its time. The music heard here was originally released as two separate LPs on the Shandar label in 1971 and documented a two-day concert at the Fondation Maeght festival in France on 3rd and 5th August, 1970; an historical musical document then! This release goes way beyond the edited version to the whole shebang. Imagine an inflatable ‘theatre’ with light projections, dancers and the sounds of audience participation in nights of music and philosophical poetry: the latter two you will be able to hear! Amongst the numbers on it are ‘Love in Outer Space’ and ‘The Cosmic Explorer’ where Sun Ra unwraps his newly purchased Mini Moog synthesiser. John Gilmores sax playing has been described as volcanic and Marshall Allen’s oboe ecstatic in a recent “Jazzwise” review. ‘Sky’ brings the concert to a climax in a hail of trumpets and percussion. Note that this is a Record Store Day release.