Night Of The Purple Moon

The Night of the Purple Moon, recorded and released in 1970, has a vague flavor of psychedelia. Credit the presence of an electronic keyboard popular with late-1960s shaggy-haired acid-rock bands: the Rock-Si-Chord. It served as a louder stand-in for the ancient harpsichord, which couldn't compete against high-decibel electric guitars. On Purple Moon there's a sense that after a decade of experimentalism and genre-bending jazz-not-jazz, Sun Ra sought to produce an accessible pop album. The Arkestra here is minimal, with only three sidemen: saxophonist John Gilmore (oddly, mostly playing drums), bassist Stafford James (his sole recording with Ra), and Danny Davis (reeds and percussion).