Sun Ra

Recorded in 1963 but not released until 1967 on Sun Ra's Saturn label, Cosmic Tones for Mental Therapy is one of the more notorious of the artist's early New York releases. It near-completely rejects existing notions of jazz in favor of conducted chaos, offering a template for the unknown.

Therapeutic for some, electroshock for others. In its lysergic abstractness, Cosmic Tones prefigures by a few years the outer dimensions of psychedelia (which was inspired by psychosis-replicating chemicals), and foreshadows some of the wilder studio escapades of Frank Zappa and the Mothers of Invention. (Early in their careers—though a decade apart—Zappa and Sun Ra shared a producer: Tom Wilson.)

PERSONNEL:

• Sun Ra - (Hammond B-3 organ, Clavioline, celeste, percussion)
• Marshall Allen - (oboe, percussion)
• Danny Davis - (alto sax, flute)
• John Gilmore - (bass clarinet, percussion)
• Bernard Pettaway - (bass trombone)
• Pat Patrick - (baritone sax)
• Robert Cummings - (bass clarinet)
• Ronnie Boykins - (bass)
• Clifford Jarvis - (drums)
• James Jacson - (percussion)
• Tommy Hunter - (percussion, reverb)

TRACKS:

• SIDE A
• A1. And Otherness
• A2. Thither and Yon
• A3. Adventure Equation

• SIDE B
• B1. Moon Dance
• B2. Voice of Space