Sun Ra And The Arkestra - Sound Of Joy

Sound of Joy is an album by Sun Ra and his Arkestra. It features the Arkestral lineup during the last few months of 1956, after trombonist Julian Priester left to join Lionel Hampton, Charles Davis became a regular member of the band, and Victor Sproles took over on bass. It was intended as the follow-up to "Jazz By Sun Ra" but Transition Records ceased to operate before it could be released.

Four of the tracks were included on "Sun Ra and his Solar Arkestra Visits Planet Earth", released in 1966. The entire LP was eventually released in 1968 by Delmark Records, who also re-issued "Jazz by Sun Ra". Two ballads, written by Sun Ra and sung by Clyde Williams, were left off the original album, however, because the president of Delmark Records, Bob Koester, "felt they didn't fit with the other pieces on the session." The songs were reinstated when the album was re-issued on CD in 1994.

This reissue, prior to the release of many of Sun Ra's Saturn albums on Evidence CDs, was often thought of as Ra's second recording although now several earlier dates have appeared.
The music from Sun Ra's Chicago-based band of the 1950s (some of the same tunes, but different performances, also appear on Evidence's Planet Earth/Low Ways) is quite interesting for its ties to the bop and swing traditions are much more obvious than it would be in the near future.
Ra's eccentric piano and occasional electric keyboard look forward as do some of the harmonies and Jim Herndon's colorful tympani. Two previously unissued cuts (other versions of which have also surfaced on an Evidence set) augment the original LP program.       

Recorded in November 1957. CD reissue of the 1968 Delmark LP. Tracks 10 & 11 are previously unissued bonus tracks.

Tracklist:

1	El Is A Sound Of Joy	3:59
2	Overtones Of China	3:21
3	Two Tones	3:38
4	Paradise	4:27
5	Planet Earth	4:21
6	Ankh	6:28
7	Saturn	3:58
8	Reflections In Blue	6:18
9	El Viktor	2:30
10	As You Once Were	4:17
11	Dreams Come True	3:51

Sun Ra And The Arkestra - Sound Of Joy
(192 kbps, cover art included)