Interstellar Low Ways


Interstellar Low Ways is an album recorded by the American jazz musician Sun Ra and his Myth Science Arkestra, mostly recorded in Chicago, 1960, and released in 1967 on his own El Saturn label. Originally titled Rocket Number Nine, the album had acquired its present name, and the red-on-white sleeve by Claude Dangerfield, by 1969. The album is known particularly for the two songs featuring chants, "Interplanetary Music" and "Rocket Number Nine Take Off for the Planet Venus". These would stay in the Arkestra's repertoire for many years.
When reissued by Evidence, Interstellar Low Ways was included as the second half of a CD that also featured the whole of Sun Ra and his Solar Arkestra Visits Planet Earth.
Lady Gaga references the titular line of "Rocket Number Nine Take Off for the Planet Venus" in her song "Venus".

Marathon sessions at the RCA Studios

Most of the tracks were recorded at a marathon session tracking between 30 and 40 songs, either at RCA Studios or the Hall Recording Company, around 17 June 1960. Other albums to include tracks from the session include Fate in a Pleasant Mood, Angels and Demons at Play, We Travel [the Space Ways] and Holiday for Soul Dance.
A single, "Space Loneliness" b/w "State Street", was released shortly after the recording sessions. Whilst "State Street" was never released on an album by Ra, it was copyrighted as part of the "Space Loneliness" suite, along with "Fate in a Pleasant Mood" and "Lights on a Satellite", on July 8, 1960. This single was followed up by another 7-inch from the session, "The Blue Set" b/w "Big City Blues", which wasn't included on any of the Saturn-released Chicago albums.
Trumpeter Phil Cohran later remembered the reaction "Space Loneliness" received when it was played on a local radio station:
[Image:SunRa1960-WonderInn.jpg|thumb|260px|left|The Arkestra in 1960; l-r, Marshall Allen, John Gilmore, Ronnie Boykins, Ricky Murray (crouching), Sun Ra, Walter Strickland and Billy Mitchell]

The Wonder Inn, Chicago

In June 1960, their manager, Alton Abraham, secured the band a solid booking—their first since the Queen's Mansion gigs—playing first Wednesdays and then five nights a week at the Wonder Inn, at 75th and Cottage Grove in Chicago. Originally billed as "a special added attraction" for July 30, 1960 featuring Sun Ra and his "recording band", Abraham celebrated the engagements by acquiring for the band the entire wardrobe from a local opera company—heavily stocked with capes, puffed sleeves and doublets—that had been discarded after performing William Tell; from here on in, the whole band started to dress for 'Space'. The engagement, lasting until early 1961, "has justly become legendary".
On other nights, the Arkestra would wear "purple blazers, white gloves, and beanies with propellers on top that lit up", and would set off robots with flashing lights and wind-up flying saucers into the audience.

Track listing

All songs were written by Sun Ra.
Side one
  1. "Onward" – 3.31
  2. "Somewhere in Space" – 2.56
  3. "Interplanetary Music" – 2.24
  4. "Interstellar Low Ways" – 8.23
Side two
  1. "Space Loneliness" – 4.30
  2. "Space Aura" – 3.08
  3. "Rocket Number Nine Take Off for the Planet Venus" – 6.14

Personnel

On "Interstellar Low Ways", March 6, 1959:
On "Space Loneliness", "Somewhere in Space", "Interplanetary Music" and "Rocket Number Nine", recorded at the RCA Studios, Chicago, around June 17, 1960:
  • Sun Ra – piano
  • Phil Cohran – cornet
  • Nate Pryor – trombone
  • Marshall Allen – alto sax, flute, bells
  • John Gilmore – tenor sax, percussion
  • Ronnie Boykins – bass, space gong
  • Jon Hardy – drums, percussion, gong
  • Ensemble – vocals
On "Onward" and "Space Aura", recorded during rehearsals, Chicago around October 1960:
  • Sun Ra – piano
  • George Hudson – trumpet
  • Marshall Allen – alto sax, bells
  • John Gilmore – tenor sax, percussion
  • Ronnie Boykins – bass, percussion
  • Jon Hardy – drums