Monorails and Satellites
Monorails and Satellites | ||||
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Studio album by Sun Ra | ||||
Released | Volume 1, 1968 [1] Volume II, 1974 | |||
Recorded | 1966, New York [1] | |||
Genre | Jazz | |||
Label | Saturn Evidence | |||
Producer | Alton Abraham | |||
Sun Ra chronology | ||||
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Review scores | |
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Source | Rating |
AllMusic | [2] |
The Penguin Guide to Jazz Recordings | [4] |
Rolling Stone | [3] |
Monorails and Satellites, Volumes I & II are two albums of solo piano compositions by the American Jazz musician Sun Ra. Both recorded in 1966, Volume 1 was released in 1968 under the title "Monorails And Satellites" and Volume II was released in 1974 under the title "Monorails & Satellites", both on Sun Ra's own Saturn label. The first volume was reissued on compact disc by Evidence in 1992. Both volumes, along with nine previously unreleased tracks from the same sessions, were reissued in 2019 on the Cosmic Myth Records label as Monorails and Satellites: Works For Solo Piano Vols. 1, 2, 3.[5] The album showcases Ra's skills as a pianist, which are often compared to Cecil Taylor's;
'Monorails and Satellites, a 1966 solo piano recording, showcases Ra's unique style, which bridges the bluesy architecture of Jelly Roll Morton with the angularity of Monk and Cecil Taylor's ascent beyond traditional structure.' [6]
According to Ra's biographer, John Szwed, the title might refer to Stanley Kubrick's 2001, featuring a monolith that Ra remembered as a monorail, 'perhaps connecting it to his UFO experience'.[7] Both albums shared the same sleeve of disembodied hands playing a keyboard that seems to be plugged directly into Saturn.
Track listing
Volume 1, 12" Vinyl
All songs by Sun Ra except Easy Street;
Side A:
- "Space Towers" - (3.37)
- "Cogitation" - (6.36)
- "Skylight" - (3.59)
- "The Alter Destiny" - (3.08)
Side B:
- "Easy Street" - (Jones) - (3.38)
- "Blue Differentials" - (2.54)
- "Monorails and Satellites" - (5.36)
- "The Galaxy Sun" - (3.17)
Volume 2, 12" Vinyl
All songs by Sun Ra
Side A:
- "Astro Vision" - (3.10)
- "The Ninth Eye" - (9.00)
- "Solar Boats" - (5.00)
Side B:
- "Perspective Prisms of Is" - (6.20)
- "Calundronius" - (8.00)
Musician
- Sun Ra - piano, and electronics on Astro Vision
Recorded at the Sun Studios, New York, (the commune where the Arkestra lived), 1966 [1]
Notes
- v
- t
- e
Arkestra members
- John Gilmore
- Julian Priester
- Pat Patrick
- Charles Davis
- Victor Sproles
- Marshall Allen
- Ronnie Boykins
- James Spaulding
- Phil Cohran
- Clifford Jarvis
- Lex Humphries
- Michael Ray
- June Tyson
- Ahmed Abdullah
- Danny Ray Thompson
- Jazz by Sun Ra
- Super-Sonic Jazz
- Sound of Joy
- Visits Planet Earth
- The Nubians of Plutonia
- Jazz in Silhouette
- Sound Sun Pleasure!!
- Interstellar Low Ways
- Fate in a Pleasant Mood
- Holiday for Soul Dance
- Angels and Demons at Play
- We Travel the Space Ways
- The Futuristic Sounds of Sun Ra
- Bad and Beautiful
- Art Forms of Dimensions Tomorrow
- Secrets of the Sun
- When Sun Comes Out
- Cosmic Tones for Mental Therapy
- When Angels Speak of Love
- Other Planes of There
- The Heliocentric Worlds of Sun Ra, Volume One
- The Magic City
- The Heliocentric Worlds of Sun Ra, Volume Two
- Strange Strings
- Monorails and Satellites
- Atlantis
- Space Is the Place (soundtrack)
- Space Is The Place
- Pathways to Unknown Worlds
- Cosmos
- Deep Purple
- Some Blues But Not the Kind That's Blue
- New Steps
- Other Voices, Other Blues
- Visions
- Lanquidity
- Sleeping Beauty
- Strange Celestial Road
- Reflections in Blue
- Hours After
- Blue Delight
- Somewhere Else
- Purple Night
- Mayan Temples
- Featuring Pharoah Sanders & Black Harold
- Nothing Is
- Nuits de la Fondation Maeght
- It's After the End of the World
- Black Myth/Out in Space
- Live in Egypt 1
- Nidhamu
- Horizon
- Live In Montreux
- Unity
- Live from Soundscape
- I, Pharaoh
- Sunrise in Different Dimensions
- Cosmo Omnibus Imagiable Illusion
- Thunder of the Gods