Official expanded 2xLP / 2xCD edition of Sun Ra's Saturn debut features an additional fourteen tracks of alternate versions and studio takes. The CD also contains four CD only bonus tracks. Liner notes were penned by avid fan Ira Kaplan of Yo La Tengo, as well as an essay from longtime Ra blogger Rodger Coleman (NUVOID Sun Ra Sundays). Vinyl gatefold jacket includes a 12x12 insert reproduction of the original LP jacket art.
Recorded in 1956 and released in 1957, Supersonic Jazz is arguably the first long-playing album by Sun Ra and His Arkestra on his Saturn label. However, it was not recorded as a debut. Rather, the album was assembled from tapes recorded during a number of sessions at two Chicago studios (RCA Victor and Balkan), and several tracks had been released as singles before their inclusion on this album. (Sunny's first fully realized commercial album was 1957's Jazz by Sun Ra, produced by Tom Wilson on his short lived/soon to be defunct Transition label.)
Prior to these sessions, Sunny was still arranging for the Red Saunders Orchestra and singer Joe Williams, in addition to arranging for and coaching doo-wop ensembles. As Sunny's ambitions achieved liftoff, the Arkestra coalesced, began building a repertoire (mostly of Ra's originals), and making forays into studios. Deciding it was time for commercial releases, Sunny and business partner Alton Abraham launched Saturn (sometimes called El Saturn) as a record company in 1956.
As a first offering, Supersonic Jazz is a pinnacle Sun Ra release. While reflecting many prevailing bebop, Latin, and R&B conventions of the mid-1950s, it's evident that Sun Ra's musical voice and vision were starting to propel him away from the jazz mainstream. Biographer John Szwed finds on these recordings "characteristics which seemed alien to swing, bebop, or the new, more soulful and hard-edged music which was coming to be called hard bop."
1.India
2. Sunology Part 1
3.Advice to Medics
4.Super Blonde
5.Soft Talk
6.Sunology Part 2
7.Kingdom of Not
8.Portrait of the Living Sky
9.Blues at Midnight
10.El is a Sound of Joy
11.Springtime in Chicago
12.Medicine for a Nightmare
13.Journey to Discland
14.October (Single)
15.Somebody Else's Idea (Take 1)
16.New Horizons (Take 1)
17.El Viktor (Take 1)
18.Adventure in Space
19.Delilah
20.Soft Talk (Take 1)
21.Medicine for a Nightmare (Alternate)
22.Saturn #2
23.Delight (Take 2)
24. Space Aura (Take 2)
25.State Street (Alternate)
26.Stratosphere
27.Velvet (Alternate)
28.Somebody Else's Idea (Take 2)
29.Super Blonde (Take 3)
30.Big City Blues (Live at Budland)
