Sun Ra - Somewhere Over the Rainbow [3LP]

Sun Ra's Somewhere Over the Rainbow stretches out across three LPs in a gatefold sleeve, giving the Arkestra's 1977 stand at the Bluebird in Bloomington, Indiana, room to breathe.

The late 1970s found the Arkestra in remarkable form, and their shows from this era were part history lesson, part space ritual, mixing swing-era standards and chants with Ra's own compositions. An earlier edition pieced the music together out of sequence, and this three-disc set lets the performances unfold at length, so it plays like a full evening with the band.

The standards are a delight. "Take the 'A' Train" becomes a sprawling, celebratory workout, and "Over the Rainbow" gets the tender yet slightly uncanny reading only Ra could give it. Less-recorded originals such as "Make Another Mistake" and "Amen Meni Many Amens" sit alongside them, the voices rising and falling as the band locks into the groove.

Ra's keyboard interludes act as the glue, steering the group from cosmic abstraction to big-band swing without warning, and the horns answer every turn with relish.

It is a vivid document of a band at a peak, generous and joyous, and a welcome listen for anyone who knows Sun Ra mainly from the studio records of the Saturn years.