Sun Ra - Singles: The Definitive 45s Collection review: ‘as accessible as he gets’

Legendary pianist, bandleader and cosmic jazz adventurer Sun Ra was nothing if not prolific.

As well as hundreds of albums and compilations, the man who renounced his ‘slave name’ of Herman Poole Blount and reinvented himself as a visiting alien from Saturn issued dozens of singles, mostly in small numbers to be sold at gigs. Here are 65 of them.

Spanning 1952 to 1991, arranged chronologically and featuring everything from space poetry, doo wop and disco to unearthly takes on standards such as Round Midnight, this 3CD-set is as accessible as Ra and his outerspace Arkestra (and their antecedents) gets.

Check out condensed versions of well-known tracks Rocket#9 and Nuclear War, the proto-hip hop squiggles of Planet Rock and the far out It’s Christmas Time, the definitive alt-Yuletide anthem.

(Strut)