Sun Ra - Sound of Joy (1956)

Something of a "lost" album from Sun Ra – material initially intended as his second album for Transition records in the 50s, but not issued until a decade later when Delmark Records was first putting the Chicago underground on the map! The sound here steps out nicely from the first Transition session – and Ra is already a bit bolder, not just in his structure of the songs, but in the way he handles his piano – with some darker notes and tones, more exotic phrasing, and even some very early use of electric piano – already with the haunting qualities that would show up more strongly in the Saturn years. Every member of the group is wonderful too – each with their own voice, spoken strongly and freely – in a lineup that includes Art Hoyle and Dave Young on trumpets, Julian Priester on trombone, Pat Patrick on alto and baritone sax, John Gilmore on tenor, Charles Davis on baritone, Victor Sproles on bass, William Cochran on drums, and Jim Herndon on tympani and timbali.

from Dusty Groove

38. [24]  Sun Ra and the Arkestra

Sound of Joy/
Sun Ra Visits Planet Earth/
Deep Purple

Sun Ra (p, Wurlitzer ep, announcement); Art Hoyle (tp, perc); Dave Young (tp except -2); John Avant (tb -1); Pat Patrick (as, bars, perc); John Gilmore (ts, perc); Charles Davis (bars, perc); Victor Sproles (b); William Cochran (d); Jim Herndon (tymp, timb except -2); Clyde Williams (voc -2).

Unidentified Studio, Chicago,
November 1, 1956

El Is a Sound of Joy (Ra) -1
Overtones of China (Ra) -1
Two Tones (Patrick-Davis)
Paradise (Ra) [p, ep, b, d, perc only]
Planet Earth (Ra)
Ankh (Ra)
Saturn (Ra)
Reflection in Blue (Ra)
El Viktor (Ra)
As You Once Were (Ra-Williams) -2
Dreams Come True (Ra-Mayo) -2

This session was recorded for Transition and intend for a follow up to Jazz by Sun Ra, but the company failed and the album was never issued.  Items from this session appeared on three different LPs, two on Saturn and one on Delmark, from which various reissues have sprung in turn.

First, four tracks appeared in 1966 on Saturn 9956-11-A/B, Sun Ra Visits Planet Earth.  In 1967, it was given the catalog number 207.  All tracks from this album were reissued in 1992 on Evidence 22039 [CD].

Second, all but two tracks from the session were released in 1968 on Delmark DS-414, Sound of Joy (in electronic stereo).  According to Bob Koester, as interviewed by Allan Chase, the two cuts featuring vocalist Clyde Williams were in Delmark's possession but were held from release in 1968 because they seemed stylistically incongruous with the rest of the session.  (Clyde Williams sang with Sun Ra in late 1956 and 1957.)  The Delmark album was pirated as the first LP of the 2-LP set Monkey MY 40014 (Monkey being a French label with dubious credentials).  In addition, there was a single-LP French bootleg in the BYG Jazz Masters Série, BYG 529.162 (issued c. 1970 -- thanks to Marco Melaragni for pointing this one out).

Third, "Dreams Come True" with Clyde Williams' vocal (listed in the first edition as a separate session) saw the light in 1973 on Side A of Saturn LP 485, Deep Purple (some copies titled Dreams Come True).  All tracks from Side A of this LP were reissued on Evidence 22014 [CD, 1992].  "Dreams Come True" was also reissued in 1983 on the Saturn anthology LP, Just Friends (Saturn XI).  Hoyle is listed as "Arthur Horn" on the jacket of Saturn 485; Robert Barry is incorrectly given there as the drummer.

All tunes from the session (including "As You Once Were") were finally united on one disk in 1994 as Delmark DD-414 (a CD again titled Sound of Joy).  On the Delmark CD, the 6-second piano introduction to "Dreams Come True" is included for the first time (it was edited out of the other issues).  The composer of "As You Once Were" is not listed by Delmark, but Ron Horton's research at the library of Congress shows that Ra copyrighted it, and James Wolf has found that Clyde Williams was credited with the words.  The Delmark CD incorrectly states that "Dreams Come True" was previously unissued.


Personnel as per the Delmark LP jacket.  The date and location for the session are troublesome.  First, the date.  Delmark gave (and, on the CD, still gives) November 1957 as the recording date, but that is impossible.  Given the makeup of the band, September to December 1956 is pretty much guaranteed.  Art Hoyle was gone by the end of 1956 or shortly thereafter.  A 1957 recording would have included Lucious Randolph and (after June of that year) James Spaulding and (not too long after that) Marshall Allen.

Delmark gives John Avant as the trombonist, but Hoyle says he did not know Avant at the time.  However, Julian Priester (mentioned on the CD issue and in the first edition of this discography) left in September 1956 and did not work with this particular Arkestral lineup.  Moreover, Priester had a conspicuous trombone part on the first recording of "Saturn," and the trombonist lays out on this one.  Priester says Johnny Avant was a leading studio musician in Chicago and could well have been available for only two tracks.  (It turns out that Avant also worked briefly with Arkestrans Gilmore and Ronald Wilson in a big band led by alto saxophonist Willie Randall; moreover, he was a regular in the Dukes of Swing when Sunny was their music director and in the Red Saunders band while Sunny was arranging for Saunders.)

James Wolf at the Library of Congress has found that Sun Ra copyrighted a slew of tunes in December 1956.  On December 5, he and Clyde Williams copyrighted "As You Once Were."  On December 7, "Sunology: A Suite of Philosophical Sounds" followed.  The eight-part suite consisted of "Planet Earth," "Overtones of China," "India," "Eve," "Big Charles" (retitled "Kingdom of Not").  "El (House of Joy)," "El Viktor," and "Summation: Sunology."  The affinity between this session and the preceding session at RCA Studios is therefore most clear.

The best guess for the date is that November 1, 1957, as given in various discographies, is a year off, and the correct date was November 1, 1956.

Now, the location.  Delmark says that the session took place at Universal Studios, but Hoyle recalls recording for Transition in a "kind of nondescript" studio on the West Side of Chicago.  Alton Abraham recalls recording at a studio with a name like "Balladine" as well as RCA Studios.

John Szwed has uncovered test pressings of Sound of Joy and Visits Planet Earth.  Both were made at a Columbia pressing plant, but it is not known whether the plant was in Chicago or New York.  Alton Abraham has claimed that both Delmark albums were first put out on Saturn, but we have no confirmation that there were ever released Saturn LPs corresponding to Sun Song and Sound of Joy.

from Campbell / Trent  The Earthly Recordings 2nd ed.

Sound of Joy
Sun Ra and the Arkestra
Delmark DD-414 [CD]

1.  El Is A Sound Of Joy   4:04
2.  Overtones Of China   3:25
3.  Two Tones   3:41
4.  Paradise   4:30
5.  Planet Earth   4:24
6.  Ankh   6:31
7.  Saturn   4:01
8.  Reflections In Blue   6:21
9.  El Viktor   2:33
10. As You Once Were   4:20
11. Dreams Come True   3:50

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Thanks again to I-) for the web pics!