Last year, the release of the Sun Ra Arkestra’s magnificent *Lights On A Satellite* proved once again that the spirit of the brilliant, visionary bandleader—who passed away in 1993—was still very much present on Earth. “My music will scare people at first. It represents happiness, and they’re not used to it,” the Birmingham, Alabama, native once said. But it’s been a long time since anyone was afraid of his music, as we revel without restraint in the happiness it brings—a joy that has no equal in the jazz world. Under the direction of devoted ambassadors—John Gilmore in the past and the now-centenarian Marshall Allen—the Sun Ra Arkestra continues to bring to life music deeply rooted in the entire history of jazz, from the Ellingtonian style to the upheavals of free jazz, performed by exceptional soloists. Attending a Sun Ra Arkestra concert is an experience unlike any other, “on the Sun Ra side of the scene,” bathed in the inexhaustible sources of light from a body of work where the freest and wildest sounds are like an ode to stellar beauty. Not to be missed.