Sun Ra's Big Band

Despite the expertise of other contemporary big bands, it is in hearing the most avant garde of them all, the Arkestra, play Prelude To A Kiss or Blue Lou, that the listener feels what it must have been like to hear, say, Duke Ellington circa 1940, and when that same quality--the freedom of texture and improvisation combined with the ability to swing--is heard here immediately afterwards on Lights On A Satellite, the largeness of the Arkestra's accomplishment is made clear. (David Lee, "Notes from the Basement," Coda May/June 1994, issue 255)