Sun Ra & His Arkestra* – Prophet

The two vocal tracks that only made it on to the cd-edition are nice, although (or maybe because?) June Tyson looses her voice.

For good reasons Sun Ra didn't release those recordings during his life time. This release sounds like: Sun Ra walks in to a music store to test a new toy just to decide to never use it again. Seams like the "putting-out merchants" of Sun Ra's catalogue (mostly Modern Harmonic) are getting more and more desperate what to release next ...

One of relatively few Ra albums professionally recorded in a well equipped studio. It's not a session organised by the manufacturers as the cover seems to imply and the brochure has the valuable and interesting notes on page 4 in place of the specs.
Musically it's keys heavy with many solo or accompanied solo sections, mostly drums and somewhat brass light. No vocals unless you get the CD which has two non essential bonus tracks. Ra has the Prophet sounding similar to his other synthesisers and at times the album suggest solar myth or media dream. Different enough from his other albums to warrant a place in your collection. Wonderful keys and complex beats this is an album that when it finishes it leaves so much silence it needs another spin. While some can demand a break to recharge.
Beautifully recorded, nicely packaged and probably essential has it been released at the time. One of my top thirty Ra albums. This week anyway.

Despite being mentioned on the cover there are no appearances by June Tyson, Marshall Allen or John Gilmore. Still a worthwhile artefact for the diehard Sun Ra fanatics.