For those unaware, Resonance Records has just released the previously-unheard Sun Ra album Lights On A Satellite: Live at the Left Bank as a limited edition 2LP vinyl set just in time for RSD Black Friday, November 29th, 2024.

Co-produced by Zev Feldman and Sun Ra archivist Michael D. Anderson (who also played drums on the ’78 concert), the newly unearthed live session is an exciting successor to Sun Ra at the Showcase: Live in Chicago, another archival find that Feldman issued on his Jazz Detective imprint for Record Store Day this April.

The deluxe package includes additional tracks recorded by Filmmaker Robert Mugge, Notes by Critic J.D. Considine and Archivist/Band Member Michael D. Anderson, Interviews with Arkestra Icon Marshall Allen, Musicians Gary Bartz and Craig Taborn, and more.

The new collection will also be released as a two-CD set on December 6th, 2024.

Prophetic avant gardist Sun Ra’s big band is heard in blistering form — playing repertoire ranging from space age jazz to interpretations of “Somewhere Over the Rainbow” and jazz standards by Fletcher Henderson, Miles Davis, and Tadd Dameron — on a dynamic 12-track set recorded at a show mounted by the Left Bank Jazz Society at the Famous Ballroom in Baltimore, Maryland, on July 23, 1978.

CD 1:
1. Band Intro – Thunder Of Drums – (4:27)
2. Tapestry From An Asteroid – (12:52)
3. Somewhere Over The Rainbow (Harold Arlen) – (2:59)
4. A Pleasant Place In Space – (4:26)
5. Space Travelin’ Blues – (5:56)
6. Yeah Man (Fletcher Henderson) – (2:36)
7. Big John’s Special (Horace Henderson) – (3:09)
8. Lights On A Satellite – (4:47)
9. Lady Bird (Tadd Dameron) – (5:52)

With the music at the ’78 concert reaching both veteran Sun Ra fans and new, younger listeners, he opens on the aptly-titled Band Intro – Thunder Of Drums and then brings us the trumpet ballad Tapestry From An Asteroid, the jaggedly sporadic nature of a simply stunning Somewhere Over The Rainbow, and an emotive A Pleasant Place In Space, before bringing forth the jazzy blues vibe of Space Travelin’ Blues, the frenetically-charged Yeah Man, a blistering Big John’s Special, the first disc rounding out on the mildly abrasive jaunt of the titular Lights On A Satellite and the robust Lady Bird.

CD 2:
1. Cocktails For Two (Arthur Johnston & Sam Coslow) – (4:26)
2. Watusi – (11:23)
3. They Plan To Leave – (9:09)
4. Images In A Mirror – (4:08)
5. We Travel The Spaceways – (7:28)
6. Blues Piano Joint – (6:05)
7. ‘Round Midnight – (5:53) (Thelonius Monk)

The second CD opens on the veritably glistening Cocktails For Two and the infectiously-grooved Watusi and they are in turn backed seamlessly by the dutifully emotive They Plan To Leave, the swinging genius of Images In A Mirror, with the atmospherically-strewn We Travel The Spaceways, the free flowing piano melodies highlighted on Blues Piano Joint and a powerful rendition of Thelonius Monk’s indelible ‘Round Midnight closing the recording.

Saxophonist and flautist Allen, who marked 66 years as a member of the Arkestra on his 100th birthday on May 25, reflects on Sun Ra’s trailblazing methods as a bandleader: “When Sunny was playing, he’d play four bars, and if you didn’t have the music, he’d switch it, he’d play another song, so you had to remember all this music. And then, when he played four bars, I’d come in. If I didn’t, he’d switch the number, and by the time you found that number, he’d be in another one. Above all, you had to be sincere to do what he wanted you to do.”

Those recordings are augmented by two tracks captured at the concert and featured in the classic 1980 film Sun Ra: A Joyful Noise by the acclaimed music filmmaker Robert Mugge, who also provided images for the new package.

Official Purchase Link