Cosmic Tones for Mental Therapy (Remastered 2014) [feat. Marshall Allen, Danny Davis, John Gilmore & Pat Patrick]

The story goes that Sun Ra and his Arkestra performed at a Chicago psychiatric facility for the patients, and at one point a woman who hadn’t spoken or moved in years got out her wheelchair and walked over to the bandleader, asking him: “Do you call that music?” That woman isn’t the last to ask that question, and this reverb-heavy album (recorded in 1963 and released in 1967) seems only to fuel that accusation. The first two tracks were recorded in the band’s practice space and highlight different small groupings. Recorded during mornings at the Tip-Top in Brooklyn, where Ra could use the club’s B3 organ, “Moon Dance” has a nice groovy vibe. The chattering “Adventure Equation” falls into a gentle gait with a narrative bass clarinet solo from John Gilmore. Due to its poor sound quality (likely from the way the tape was stored), “Twilight” had been previously unreleased, even though it came from the same Tip-Top sessions. All of this has been remixed from source tapes using 24-bit transfers for the best possible fidelity under the circumstances.