The Gorgeous Full-Color Illustrated Book Includes Hundreds Hand-Designed, One-of-A-Kind Covers Decorated by Sun Ra and his Arkestra
(November 1, 2022) Sun Ra was a musician, composer, bandleader, artist, and philosopher who mastered a wide array of styles spanning jazz, R&B, exotica, Afro-hybrids, electronic, big band, solo piano, orchestral, experimental, and chamber works. In his 45-year recording career, he issued an epic number of albums and was one of the first Black musicians to own an independent label, which he named Saturn, after the planet on which he claimed to have been born. Sun Ra: Art on Saturn : The Album Cover Art of Sun Ra’s Saturn Label, which will be published by Fantagraphics this fall, is the first comprehensive collection of the label’s printed record covers, along with hundreds of hand-designed, one-of-a-kind sleeves and disc labels decorated by Sun Ra and members of his Arkestra. Compiled and edited by Irwin Chusid and Chris Reisman, the oversized hardcover is packed with full-color illustrations, photos, and chronicles of the Saturn legacy.
The covers of Saturn LPs, issued from 1957 to 1988, are iconic—some rolled off commercial printing presses but many were hand-crafted between band rehearsals. These records were sold at concerts, club dates, and by mail order. As collectibles, original handmade Saturn covers sell for hundreds, sometimes thousands, of dollars. More than just packaging for a slab of vinyl, they are works of art in their own right. Art on Saturn draws from private collections around the world; most of these one-off LP covers have been seen only by the LP owners, many of whom purchased them at Sun Ra gigs in the 1970s and ’80s.
Essays by Sun Ra catalog preservationist Irwin Chusid, noted Ra scholar John Corbett, and Glenn Jones, who in the 1970s signed Ra to a distribution deal that put countless homemade covers into circulation, add unique insights into the interplanetary life and work of Sun Ra and his Saturn partner Alton Abraham.
Historians have written extensively about Sun Ra and his music. This book is a tribute to the covers and to the uncredited visual artists and their rich imaginations. From the simple to the baroque to the absurd, the covers that sheathed Ra’s discs reflect the tenaciousness of a genius who refused to compromise or relinquish control of his destiny.
Sun Ra: Art on Saturn : The Album Cover Art of Sun Ra’s Saturn Label will be in stores on November 8, 2022.
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About the Creators
Sun Ra (1914-1993) was an American composer, bandleader, piano and synthesizer player, and poet known for his experimental music, cosmic philosophy, prolific output, and theatrical performances.
Irwin Chusid is a journalist, music historian, radio personality and self-described “landmark preservationist” based in Hoboken, NJ. Since 1975, Chusid has been a DJ on free-form radio station WFMU in New Jersey and he is the author of Songs in the Key of Z: The Curious Universe of Outsider Music. He has produced landmark reissues of the music of composer/bandleader/electronic music pioneer Raymond Scott, Space Age Pop avatar Esquivel, the Langley Schools Music Project, and has preserved the legacies of icons like artist Jim Flora, the Langley Schools Music Project, and calypso king the Mighty Sparrow.
Chris Reisman is a longtime record collector, Sun Ra enthusiast, and proprietor of Hudson Valley Vinyl in Beacon, NY. Chusid insists that without Chris, this book would not exist.
