Sun Ra & His Arkestra – Live at Montreux (Saturn/Inner City, 1976)

Sun Ra (syn, org, p); Danny Davis (as, fl); Marshall Allen (fl, as); John Gilmore (ts); Pat Patrick (fl, bs); Elo Omo (b cl); James "Ham" Jackson (bas, Egyptian d); Chris Capers (tr); Ahmed Abdullah (tr); Al Evans (tr); Vincent Chancey (Fr hrn); Tony Bunn (el b); Hayes Burnett (b); Larry Bright (d); Clifford Jarvis (d); Stanley Morgan (perc); June Tyson (dancer, vo) 

Recorded on July 9, 1976

Years ago, I was at my local public library, checking out some books at the front desk.  The librarian picked up one of the books I had chosen and immediately a faraway look came into her eyes.  The book?  It was John Szwed's Space is the Place: The Lives and Times of Sun Ra.  "I saw Sun Ra in the 1970s!" she exclaimed.  "How was it?" I asked.  "Incredible!  I've never seen anything else like it."  Such is the power of Sun Ra!  There is no one else like him. 

I'm familiar with about twenty-five or so Sun Ra records.  His discography is so massive that you could say that I've only heard a drop in the proverbial bucket.  But this album, originally released as a two-LP set, is often recognized as a milestone in Sun Ra's huge body of work.  The album illustrates the enormous range of Sun Ra's vision.

By the way, Szwed's biography of Sun Ra is outstanding.