Back in the early 60's between '61 and '63 Sun Ra recorded two albums, the first called Art Forms Of Dimensions Tomorrow was more in a traditional jazz style, but you could see him heading towards the launching pad and his exclursion into space...The second titled Cosmic Tones For Mental Therapy has Ra traveling the spaceways in grand psychedelic style...These two ground breaking recordings could very well be the first psychedelic albums ever recorded...Has anyone else ever traveled the spaceways with Sun Ra?

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I never have heard his stuff (outside of documentaries and such)... I would be curious to hear the "Cosmic Tones" album...

Usually for me, if there aren't guitars, I don't have a lot of interest... There are some psychedelic songs without guitars that I do like, but for the most part I need the rock element to catch my interest... With me, once you lose the rock aspects of psychedelia, you lose me.. So if this Sun Ra stuff is primarily experimental jazz, it would be down (but not out) on my list of interests...



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I've actually heard of these guys before and I must say that you've peaked my interest with that post. I, unlike Syd (no offense Syd) have a deep appreciation for jazz and these guys sound pretty funky. I'll go on Ebay and see if I can find either of those records.

Syd, you should check out some Sun Ra at some point. I don't have any of his records, but I've made it a point to listen to some things. In a way, he was the "grandfather of psychedelic music", because he had the attitude before anyone else. He was doing the wild threads, the spacey special effects, and the hallucinagenic album graphics back in the 50s and early 60s, before anyone else.

I am a big fan of the DA MAN FROM SATURN. I have a big percentage of his recordings and here a few I would suggest

Jazz in Silhouette - considered his best
Nothing Is... (recently reissued with an extra 20 minutes of music)
We Travel the Spaceways/Bad and Beautiful ***
The Heliocentric World of Sun Ra Vol. 1 & 2
Art Forms Of Dimensions Tomorrow/Cosmic Tones For Mental Therapy ***
Other Planes Of There
Atlantis
Outer Spaceways Incorporated
Sunrise in Different Dimensions - recently reissued by Hat Hut
Mayan Temples - not sure if this one is still in print.
Angels & Demons at Play/The Nubians of Plutonia ***
Visits Planet Earth/Interstellar Low Ways ***


*** two seperate recordings reissued on one CD.

Here is an excellent Sun Ra related site for the man from Saturn

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Actually I do have a deep appreciation of jazz... I own 50+ jazz albums (most of which would be considered jazz classic by Coltrane, Miles, Monk, Armstrong, Parker and others), it just isn't my favorite musical style and the more experimental jazz is often not to my taste... (I have posted this before but I should have made it clear in my earlier post)...


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Both Art Forms Of Dimensions Tomorrow and Cosmic Tones For Mental Therapy were reissued together on one CD.

The pic in my post is the CD cover...I picked up a copy of it at Borders.

I have "lanquidity" and "Atlantis", both superb!