Sun Ra The Invisible Shield (Saturn Records)

$

78

 Sun Ra on Saturn Records. I purchased this album at Car City Records brand new in the mid-80's. It was played once, recorded onto cassette. It is in NM condition.  E-mail me with questions. I will talk with you on the phone if you feel the need.

Sun Ra and his Intergalactic Research Arkestra
The Invisible Shield
(Janus)
(A Tonal View of Times Tomorrow, vol. 2)
(Satellites are Outerspace...)

Saturn LP 529 (1974)
matrix numbers 14400A/B

Side A:
State Street (Ra)
Ra-p; Walter Miller-tp; Al Evans-flg; Ali Hassan-tb; Marshall Allen- as, fl; John Gilmore-ts; Pat Patrick-bs; Michael White-vln; Ronnie Boykins-b; Clifford Jarvis-d.

Violinist is often said to be Stuff Smith (it doesn't sound like him), but Richard Wilkinson says Michael White. Walter Miller is identified by stamp on jacket, Evans on label (as the soloist). Boykins and Jarvis identified on label. Date for Side A is simply given as "1960s."

Sometimes I'm Happy (Caesar-Youmans)
Ra-p; John Gilmore-ts; Ronnie Boykins-b; Clifford Jarvis-d.

Time after Time 1 (Cahn-Styne)
Time after Time 2 (Cahn-Styne)
Ra-p; Walter Miller-tp; Ronnie Boykins-b; Clifford Jarvis-d.

Easy to Love (Porter)
Sunnyside Up (DeSylva-Brown)
Ra-p; Walter Miller-tp; John Gilmore-ts; Ronnie Boykins-b; Clifford Jarvis-d.

The four musicians mentioned on some copies (Walter Miller stamped on jacket, Miller, Evans, Boykins and Jarvis on the label) make sense. Miller's wispy sound and the virtuoso drumming are giveaways. Mystery solved. New York, 1962. [rlc, with thanks to Jerry Gordon for label and cover copy, and to Mark Webber for a tape; Trent concurs]

Julian Vein believes that Sometimes I'm Happy through Sunnyside Up came from the same sessions as Side B of When Sun Comes Out. A tape of this material (minus State Street) was sold to Alan Bates of Black Lion/Freedom around 1970. It also included a version of But Not for Me, provenance unknown.

Side B:
Island in the Sun (Ra)
The Invisible Shield (Ra)
Janus (Ra)
Ra-p, org, Mini-Moog syn; Marshall Allen- as, fl, picc; Danny Davis- as, acl; John Gilmore-ts, perc; Danny Ray Thompson-modified bsn/ Neptunian libflecto/ lunatic fagott (on The Invisible Shield), perc; Ben Henderson (Jaribu Shahid)-b; Art Jenkins-ancestral African vocal and space voice (on Janus), other Arkestrans, bells and perc. Philadelphia or New York 1970 [according to Ben Henderson via Stahl, corrections by rlc; album gives a date of "1970s" only]

Side B was sold to Alan Bates, with the addition of Velvet and Joy, two tracks of unknown provenance. [Vein]

This one's been hybridized a lot. Number two in the Sub Underground series. [rlc] Some copies have Chicago Saturn labels (This is a Chicago label); others have Philadelphia labels. [Trent]