Sun Ra gets new singles collection
Strut have announced a new collection of singles released by jazz maverick Sun Ra during his ‘Earth years’, spanning 1952 to 1991.
From the press release:
Released prolifically during the 1950s and more sporadically thereafter, primarily on the Saturn label, the 45s offer one-off meteorites from Ra’s prolific cosmic journey, tracing the development of his forward-thinking “Space-Bop” and his unique take on jazz and blues traditions which sounded unlike anything else from the period.
As with his LPs, most 45s were only pressed in small runs and were sold at gigs and have since become extremely rare and sought after. Some have only been discovered in physical form in recent years; some were planned and pencilled but allegedly never made it to vinyl and some appeared as one-off magazine singles and posthumous releases.
Singles will be released in various formats across two release dates. All formats feature fully remastered tracks, rare photos, poster artwork, extensive sleeve notes by Francis Gooding, an interview with Saturn Records founder Alton Abraham by John Corbett and detailed track by track and session notes by Paul Griffiths. The 45s box sets each feature a hardboard flip top box containing 10 x 45s in their original artwork along with a bound 28pp booklet.
Release dates and formats:
November 25th 2016:
– all-encompassing 3CD and digital versions covering Ra’s full output from 1952-1991
– 3LP set Volume 1 covering 1952-1961
– 10 x 45 box set Volume 1 covering 1952-1961 (limited to 500 copies)
March 2017:
– 3LP set Volume 2 covering 1962-1991
– 10 x 45 box set Volume 2 covering 1962-1991 (limited to 500 copies)
Pre-order here.
