Sun Ra & Arkestra FEATURING PHARAOH SANDERS & BLACK HAROLD

One of the more curious entries in the monolithic catalog of avant-jazz legend Sun Ra, FEATURING PHAROAH SANDERS & BLACK HAROLD is a document of a seldom-heard Arkestra date from 1964, first issued on Ra and Alton Abraham's El Saturn imprint in 1976, and now released on extended reissue format by the resurrected ESP-Disk label. The album is notable not only for its provenance, which is exquisitely rare even by El Saturn standards, but for its unusual lineup, which replaces Arkestra mainstay John Gilmore with then-unknown tenor saxophonist Pharoah Sanders. While the music is as uncompromising as anything in the Arkestra's late '60s and early '70s oeuvre, it achieves a tenuous balance between dense, high-energy ensemble play (courtesy of Sanders, bassist Alan Silva, and alto saxophonist Marshall Allen) and Ra's lyrical piano soloing--best evidenced on the impressionistic "Dawn over Israel" and "The Voice of Pan," which features the wild Roland Kirk-esque vocalizations of flautist Black Harold.

• Format: Vinyl
• Genre: Pop