Sound Sun Pleasure (Remastered 2014) [feat. Marshall Allen, John Gilmore & Pat Patrick]

This short LP was recorded during the same 1959 session that yielded Jazz in Silhouette and features the same basic personnel, with the notable addition of singer Hattie Randolph. Where the other album was made up entirely of Sun Ra originals, this featured two originals cowritten with Hobart Dotson—the version of “Enlightenment” is the same recording as on Silhouette, just as it was on the original issue of this one—and four crowd-pleasing originals that probably worked well for dance gigs, particularly with the Latin overtones embedded in “I Could Have Danced All Night.” Also included are tender readings of the ballads “’Round Midnight” and Al Jolson’s “Back in Your Own Backyard,” which both feature Randolph. The Ellington-esque arrangement of the ballad “Hour of Parting” by Mischa Spoliansky and Gus Kahn is absolutely sublime, equaled in beauty here by the original “You Never Told Me That You Cared,” which illustrates Ra’s skill as an in-demand arranger and composer. Undoubtedly one of Sun Ra’s most conventionally beautiful albums, this is a real eye-opener for those more familiar with his later material.