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A TAV Curator’s Pick.

Space Is the Place provides an excellent introduction to Sun Ra's vast and free-form jazz catalog. Typical of many Sun Ra recordings, the program is varied; earthbound songs, like the swing number "Images" and Egyptian exotica piece "Discipline," fit right in with more space-age cuts, like the tumultuous "Sea of Sounds" and the humorous "Rocket Number Nine.” – Fat Beats

“Space is possibly Ra’s most-accessible outing, a fine entry point to his world(s). It’s centred around a 21-minute opening title-track, an incantatory paean to the cosmos which opens like a bristling big-band swing number: Gilmore, June Tyson and the miscellaneous voices of the Arkestra gospelise to the galaxies, as horns and organs grow ever more cacophonic. But there’s little fury here; as loud and wild as Space Is the Place grows, the mood is always spiritual, ecstatic, transcendent, some glorious fusion between the strange and the profound. It’s Sun Ra’s ultimate anthem, espousing the fusion of science fiction and ancient myth with the panoply of jazz that would seduce Sun Ra fans on rock’s innovative vanguard, the likes of the MC5, Sonic Youth and Primal Scream.” - BBC

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