Sun Ra - Nuits de la Fondation Maeght (6LP) (RSD25)

UK Quantity: 500

"Originally released across two edited volumes by Shandar in 1971, the concerts are now being reissued by Strut in a stunning expanded 6 LP vinyl box set for Record Store Day 2025. The set is housed in a hardboard box and features a reprint of the original festival programme, a 12-page over-sized booklet featuring liner notes by Daniel Caux, Jacqueline Caux and Paul Griffiths and stunning restored photos of the festival by Philippe Gras.

Sun Ra’s Nuits de la Fondation Maeght recordings are legendary within his extensive canon. Across two nights in August 1970, these were the first concerts Ra and the Arkestra had performed outside North America and formed part of a stellar festival line-up alongside Albert Ayler, Cecil Taylor, LaMonte Young and Marian Zazeela. Prior to Maeght, The Arkestra’s early years in New York had been lean in terms of gigs, money and visibility. Their precarious situation improved after Ra’s participation in the 1964 October Revolution concerts and the release of the breathtaking Heliocentric Worlds LPs. A gradual increase in touring followed and talk had turned to brokering dates in Europe when they received an invitation to play at an art gallery in Southern France in 1970. Set in the medieval town of St Paul-de- Vence in Provence, the Fondation Maeght celebrated modern art in all its forms, housing work from some of the most important artists of the 20th Century including Matisse, Georges Braque, Chagall and Giacometti.

The Ra performance featured one of the great Arkestra line-ups with mainstays John Gilmore, Marshall Allen, Pat Patrick, Danny Davis and Danny Ray Thompson at the peak of their powers. Festival curator Daniel Caux recalled, “The Arkestra’s performances were electrifying. Films were projected behind the musicians - vistas of New York and Chicago, moon rockets, Egyptian Gods and plumed African warriors. Sun Ra’s organ threw lightning bolts, dancers brandished symbolic objects. The audience was stunned by a spectacle that surpassed anything they could have imagined”.

1. Sun Interlude
2. Love In Outer Space
3. Shadow World (Excerpt)
4. Cosmic Explorer (Continuation)
5. Piano Solo (Untitled)
6. Friendly Galaxy No.2
7. Why Go To The Moon? / It's After The End Of The World
8. Spontaneous Simplicity
9. Watusi
10. Percussion Interlude
11. Interstellar Low Ways
12. Somewhere Else
13. They'll Come Back
14. Tone Science Interlude
15. Satellites Are Spinning
16. Sun Ra And His Band From Outer Space
17. Calling Planet Earth
18. Imagination
19. I'll Wait For You
20. We Travel The Spaceways
21. The World Of Lightning
22. Blackmyth; I) Shadows Took Shape II) Strange Worlds III) Journey Through The Outer Darkness
23. Myth Tone Poem (Untitled)
24. Sky5. Three Cheers For Ra
25. Prelude
26. Theme Of The Stargazers
27. Shadow World
28. Satellites Are Spinning
29. Second Stop Is Jupiter
30. Tone Science
31. Next Stop Mars
32. Spontaneous Simplicity
33. Friendly Galaxy No.2
34. Pleasant Twilight
35. Outer Spaceways Incorporated / You Better Get Ready
36. Enlightment
37. Calling Planet Earth
38. Space Bop (Untitled)
39. Space Ballad (Untitled )
40. Sun Ra And His Band From Outer Space / Theme Of The Stargazers / I’ll Wait For You
41. Somebody Else’s Idea / Walking On The Moon / It’s After The End Of The World
42. We Travel The Spaceways
43. Tone Science Interlude
44. Days Of Wine And Roses
45. Satellites Are Spinning