When Angels Speak of Love is an album by the American Jazz

Jazz

Jazz is a musical style that originated at the beginning of the 20th century in African American communities in the Southern United States. It was born out of a mix of African and European music traditions. From its early development until the present, jazz has incorporated music from 19th and 20th...

 musician Sun Ra

Sun Ra

Sun Ra was a prolific jazz composer, bandleader, piano and synthesizer player, poet and philosopher known for his "cosmic philosophy," musical compositions and performances. He was born in Birmingham, Alabama...

 and his Myth Science Arkestra. Originally released in 1966 on Sun Ra's own Saturn

El Saturn Records

El Saturn Records is the name of an American record label. The label was one of the most active artist-owned record labels created in 1957 by Alton Abraham. Notable albums produced by the label include works by Sun Ra....

label, the record would have only been available by mail order or sold at Arkestra concerts, and is one of the rarest of all Saturn releases. The record was reissued on compact disc

Compact Disc

The Compact Disc is an optical disc used to store digital data. It was originally developed to store and playback sound recordings exclusively, but later expanded to encompass data storage , write-once audio and data storage , rewritable media , Video Compact Discs , Super Video Compact Discs ,...

 by Evidence in 2000.

Next stop Mars

'[When Angels Speak of Love] was considered a bizarre record when it was heard even three years later, made more bizarre by extreme echo, horns straining for the shrillest notes possible, rhythms layered, their polyrhythmic effect exaggerated by massive reverberation (which was abruptly turned off and on). Next Stop Mars is the centrepiece of the album, a very long work which opens with a space chant, followed by Allen and Gilmore taking chances on their horns beyond what almost any other musician would dare at that time. Sun Ra played behind them, again relentlessly spinning around a single tonal center with two-handed independence, then rumbling thunderously at the bottom of the keyboard against Boykins's bass, a clangor made heavier by electronic enhancement.' John F Szwed

12" Vinyl

All songs by Sun Ra

Side A:

1. Celestial Fantasy - (5.55)
2. The Idea Of It All - (7.32)
3. Ecstasy of Being - (9.53)

Side B:

1. When Angels Speak of Love - (4.34)
2. Next Stop Mars - (17.56)

Musicians

• Sun Ra - Piano, Clavioline
  Clavioline
  The clavioline is an electronic keyboard instrument, a forerunner to the analog synthesizer.It was invented by Constant Martin in 1947. It consists of a keyboard and a separate amplifier and speaker unit. The keyboard usually covered three octaves, and had a number of switches to alter the tone of...
  
  , Gong
• Walter Miller - Trumpet
• Marshall Allen
  Marshall Allen
  Marshall Belford Allen is an American free jazz and avant-garde jazz alto saxophone player. He also performs on flute, oboe, piccolo, and EVI ....
  
   - Oboe, Alto Saxophone, Percussion
• Danny Davis - Alto Sax
• John Gilmore
  John Gilmore (musician)
  John Gilmore was an American jazz tenor saxophone player best-known for his long tenure as a member of Sun Ra's Arkestra...
  
   - Tenor Sax, Percussion
• Pat Patrick - Baritone Saxophone, Percussion
• Robert Cummings - Bass Clarinet
• Ronnie Boykins
  Ronnie Boykins
  Ronnie Boykins was a jazz bassist and is best known for his work with pianist/bandleader Sun Ra, although he had played with such disparate musicians as Muddy Waters, Johnny Griffin, and Jimmy Witherspoon prior to joining Sun Ra's Arkestra.-Biography:He joined the Arkestra during the Chicago...
  
   - Bass
• Clifford Jarvis
  Clifford Jarvis
  Clifford Jarvis was an American hard bop and free jazz drummer.After studying at Berklee in the 1950s he established himself in jazz between 1959 and 1966 by recording with Chet Baker, Randy Weston, Yusef Lateef, Freddie Hubbard, Barry Harris, Jackie McLean, and Elmo Hope, and playing with Grant...
  
  - Drums
• Tommy Hunter - Percussion, Reverb
• Ensemble vocals

Recorded entirely at the Choreographer's Workshop, New York (the Arkestra's rehearsal space) in 1963.