Sun Ra Celestial Love (Vinyl LP)

True studio albums of Sun Ra with the Arkestra are rare on this planet or beyond. This studio saucer is an interplanetary interpreter, here to convert even the faintest of heart to the sounds of Sun Ra. Recorded with Arkestra veterans at the same New York studio that hosted countless Sun Ra sessions since the late '60s, this first ever reissue of Celestial Love contains the only known recordings of the titular track and "Blue Intensity," plus a bonus cut not on the original Saturn LP!

The music here is mostly "inside Ra." In fact, it's one of the most accessible albums in the Ra canon. One of Ra's early heroes, Duke Ellington, is represented twice with "Sophisticated Lady" and "Drop Me Off In Harlem," and two other standards ("Smile" and "Sometimes I'm Happy," both sung by June Tyson) are given snappy Ra arrangements. Though Sun Ra was renowned for outrageous music and performances, Celestial Love is a reminder that he was a man of many moods, with a deep respect for jazz history. His embrace of Futurism never implied a rejection of the past. Even rocket ships were constructed with raw materials discovered eons ago.

Available on vinyl LP for the first time in over 30 years courtesy of Modern Harmonic!