Pre-Order from Rappcats: Sun Ra: Art on Saturn

Book by Irwin Chusid & Chris Reisman, pub. by Fantagraphics.

Drawn from private collections around the world, this is the first comprehensive collection of the Saturn label’s printed record covers, along with hundreds of the best hand-designed, one-of-a-kind sleeves and disc labels decorated by Sun Ra and members of his Arkestra.

Considered the foremost exponent of Afrofuturism, Sun Ra mastered a wide array of styles that spanned jazz, R&B, exotica, Afro-hybrids, electronic, big band, solo piano, orchestral, experimental, and chamber works. In the mid 1950s, Sun Ra and Alton Abraham formed Saturn Records, one of the first African American-owned record labels, and by some accounts was one of the most active artist-owned record labels in the late 50s & 60s.

The covers of Saturn LPs, issued from 1957 to 1988, are iconic—some rolled off commercial printing presses but many were hand-crafted.

Beginning in the 1970s, the pressing plant would ship boxes of records, each in a thin paper sleeve and outer outer cardboard in blank jacket, to Sun Ra and the Arkestra group's headquarters and living space in Philadelphia's Germantown district. There they would decorate the sleeves with felt-tip markers, paint, xeroxes, photos, and assorted materials – even trimmed squares of shower curtain. These records were sold at concerts, club dates, and by mail order.

The quantity and variety of handmade Sun Ra covers is vast—and unknowable. This book is the first comprehensive collection of all Saturn printed covers, along with hundreds of the best hand-designed, one-of-a-kind sleeves and disc labels, decorated by Ra himself and members of his Arkestra. Essays by Sun Ra catalog preservationist Irwin Chusid, Sun 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.

The music of Sun Ra has been an ongoing inspiration to Madlib, and the hand-made Saturn sleeves were a primary inspiration of the packing for Madlib Medicine Show series.

Selections of hand-made covers and labels from the book: