Discaholic
Sun Ra record collecting - a remembering song....
in his autobiography, Treat It Gentle, one of the Kings of Jazz, the great Sidney Bechet wrote:
It’s the remembering song. There’s so much to remember. There’s so much wanting, and there’s so much sorrow, and there’s so much waiting for the sorrow to end. My people, all they want is a place where they can be people, a place where they can stand up and be part of that place, just being natural to the place without worrying someone may be coming along to take that place away from them.
There’s a pride in it, too. The man singing it, the man playing it, he makes a place. For as long as the song is played, that’s the place he’s been looking for.
- Sidney Bechet
For me, the wonder of records is that it takes you to “that place” Sidney Bechet” talks about. When the needle hits the vinyl, for a brief moment, we are able to share that place in time. Records preserve that place and should therefore be honored and well preserved.
Old records are the physical manifestations of historical narrative. By collecting them, we participate in, perhaps add to, that history. The rarer the record, the more significant the collector’s role. I feel there must be a trail of broken hearts as the record moves along from its original purchaser into a used record store or private sale or auction. Along the way, records take on marks of their journey - like we all do - with bent corners and yellowed inner sleeves.
On April 13, 1956, Sun Ra and his Arkestra arrived at Balkan Music Company in the Pilsen area of Chicago to record their first full-length session for their new label, El Saturn Records. The album was called Super-Sonic Jazz. Before the 1950s, artist-owned record companies were unheard of. Sun Ra, along with most notably Charles Mingus and Max Roach’s Debut label and classical composer Harry Partch’s Gate 5 label, pioneered the idea.
Sun Ra defined the DIY ethic that would go on to become central to the American independent music industry, designing and manufacturing their covers themselves. Saturn Records enlisted the help of amateur or semi-professional artists like Claude Dangerfield, who designed Sun Ra and his Solar Arkestra Visits Planet Earth. The artists drew raw images using ink on boards, which were then used to make metal plates that were finally hand-inked to print the covers. The metal plates looked like this one:
The end result came off looking more like a work of art, like this:
An original copy of Sun Ra’s Visits Plant Earth is as close to “that place” Bechet wrote about as I can get. Holding the cover is like holding a Picasso.
El Saturn Records
Although initiated in 1954, Ihnfinity Incorporated was legally established in Chicago, Illinois in 1957 by Sun Ra, Alton Abraham, James Bryant and Almeter Hayden (Alton Abraham’s sister). Not wanting to depend on others to release his music, Sun Ra took the crucial step of creating his own record company: El Saturn Records. In the 1950s, as I stated earlier, artist-owned labels were extremely unusual. The primary distribution channel was a cardboard box, in which records were brought to gigs and sold by band members for cash only. The first LP offering on Saturn was Super Sonic Jazz. Here’s my copy, which has the original pressing on the gold label, but the second variation of the cover.
I picked these two up on eBay years ago. However, to start at the beginning, we’ll have to journey back to Berkeley, California on a random stop at a record store on Telegraph Avenue.
While working at Wessex Books in Menlo Park, my buddy Luis and I became big Sun Ra fans. While in Europe, for years I had been reading about Sun Ra in The Wire magazine, but did not get a chance to see the Arkestra perform until I was back in California in the late 1980s. I actually bought CDs before I ever got a record. Quite unexpectedly and remarkably Evidence had just started to release Sun Ra’s Saturn catalog. The first set of five CDs they release came out in 1991. Luis and I immediately bought them: I think I bought 3 and he bought the other 2. We’d play them in the bookstore on Friday and Saturday nights. Here are the first three pieces of my Sun Ra collection:
The first actual Sun Ra albums I ever put my hands on were in Berkeley, California in the late 1980s at Amoeba Records.
One day, while Luis and I were combing through Amoeba’s Jazz section, we stumbled on a huge collection of Sun Ra records on Saturn. There were probably 75 LPs, but only three specific albums - probably 25 of each album. All were in generic white covers and shrink wrapped - never played. I bought one of each. Here they are:
It was odd. I have never seen that many Saturn Sun Ra albums anywhere. Usually, you’ll go to the record store for years and maybe find one, if you’re lucky. In all my years in California looking for Sun Ra albums, I never did see another one. It wasn’t until I moved to Chicago that I started to see them from time to time.
As I shared earlier in my journey, probably the second or third time I walked into the famed Jazz Record Mart in Chicago I hit pay dirt. Back in the day, collecting Sun Ra Saturn LPs was all about timing. You had to be in the right place at the right time. But you also had to be consistent and patient. It helped that I was in Chicago, the home of Saturn Records, and it was the early 1990s when very few people were looking for Sun Ra’s music. Here are two from a group of six I bought that day at the Jazz Record Mart:
Through all my years in Chicago, I only found Sun Ra albums at the Jazz Record Mart, which was the record store I visited the most frequently - probably just about every Saturday morning….
The big change came with eBay. I started using eBay very early on as a source for locating and buying Sun Ra records. In those early years of eBay, I grew my collection pretty quickly, as Sun Ra still had not become overly popular outside a small circle of enthusiasts, many of whom were old school record store buyers and not yet digging the eBay scene. Here are some of my earlier eBay picks:
An old school Sleeping Beauty:
Note the classic “Omniverse Greetings” from Sun Ra and June Tyson signatures.
A closer look at “Space Age Greetings” from Sun Ra on the label. Solid.
And nice cover art on this one:
These are just a handful of the rare and beautiful records I’ve collected over the course of my Jazz journey. I must admit, I am a discaholic. But I am also a collector of a historical narrative that is an important part of America’s vast and unique musical history.
Our journey ends now with God Is More Than Love Can Ever Be, a rare trio Sun Ra cut from 1979:
Next week, that Big River called Jazz winds through the world of John Gilmore, Sun Ra’s great tenor and one of the true tenor innovators.
If you like what you’ve been reading and hearing so far on our journey, please share my newsletter with others - just hit the “Share” button at the bottom of the page.
Also, find my playlist on Spotify: From Fred Astaire to Sun Ra.
Feel free to contact me at any time to talk shop. I welcome and encourage that….
Until then, keep on walking….
Those record album covers are seriously cool and unique!