Interspersed with such alien sound attacks as ‘Prelude To Stargazers’, ‘Dance Of The Extra Terrestrials’ and a truly hypnotic ‘I Dream Too Much’, the bulk of this four CD set (re-mastered from the catalogues of Italian labels Black Saint and Soul Note) is taken up with Sun Ra and his Arkestra in traditional big band mode. The most interesting disc here is the personalised tribute to pre-bebop violinist Hezekiah Leroy Gordon (aka Stuff) Smith with Billy Bang adopting the main role. Joined by Ra on piano, John Ore on bass and the great free jazz drummer Andrew Cyrille, A Tribute To Stuff Smith sees the Bang-led quartet blazing their way through a set that includes standards by Duke Ellington, Jerome Kern and Smith. Represented here by lively versions of his ‘Only Time Will Tell’ and ‘Bugle Blues’, Bang's passionate violin bowing entwines around Ra's equally strident keyboard frilling, while Ore and Cyrille provide a beefy back beat. Estranged from the control console of his Arkestral mothership, Ra occasionally sounds overwhelmed by Bang's almost Stéphane Grappellian playing style, but when let loose to play a solo he rears up to show that he is an integral member of the group. On ‘Deep Purple’ he shines, providing a simple but complex arrangement that persuades his fellow players to probe the outer limits of the composition. While these recordings are not among the most essential of Sun Ra's vast recorded oeuvre, they do demonstrate just how much he knew about the historical legacy of jazz music and how it worked.