Editing Sun Ra (section)

===New York phase===
After the move to New York, Sun Ra and company plunged headlong into the experimentalism that they had only hinted at in Chicago. The music was often extremely loud and the Arkestra grew to include multiple drummers and percussionists. In recordings of this era, Ra began to use new technologies—such as extensive use of tape delay—to assemble spatial sound pieces, such as "Saturn", which were far removed from earlier compositions. Recordings and live performances often featured passages for unusual instrumental combinations, and passages of collective playing that incorporated [[free improvisation]]. It is often difficult to tell where compositions end and improvisations begin.{{cn|date=February 2024}}

In this era, Sun Ra began conducting using hand and body gestures. This system inspired cornetist [[Butch Morris]], who later developed his own more highly refined way to conduct improvisers.{{cn|date=February 2024}}

Though often associated with avant-garde jazz, Sun Ra did not believe his work could be classified as "free music": "I have to make sure that every note, every nuance, is correct... If you want to call it that, spell it ''p-h-r-e'', because ''ph'' is a definite article and ''re'' is the name of the sun. So I play ''phre'' music – music of the sun."<ref>{{cite journal |last=Doerschuk |first=Bob |date=January 1987 |title=Sun Ra |journal=[[Keyboard (magazine)|Keyboard]] |volume=13 |issue=1 |page=65}}</ref>

Seeking to broaden his compositional possibilities, Sun Ra insisted all band members double on various percussion instruments – predating [[world music]] by drawing on various ethnic musical forms – and most saxophonists became [[multireedist]]s, adding instruments such as flutes, oboes, or clarinets to their arsenals. In this era, Sun Ra was among the first of any musicians to make extensive and pioneering use of [[synthesizer]]s and other various [[electronic keyboards]]; he was given a prototype [[Minimoog]] by its inventor, [[Robert Moog]]. According to the [[Bob Moog Foundation]]: "Sun Ra first met Robert Moog after ''[[Down Beat|Downbeat]]'' journalist and Sun Ra acquaintance [[Tam Fiofori]] arranged for a visit to Moog’s factory in [[Trumansburg]] in the Fall of 1969....it was during this visit that Moog loaned Sun Ra a prototype Minimoog (Model B), several months before the commercial instrument (Model D) was introduced in March 1970. Ra immediately added the instrument to his repertoire of keyboards, later acquired a second, and featured the Minimoog prominently on many of his recordings of the early 1970s."<ref>Thom Holmes, [http://moogfoundation.org/sun-ra-the-minimoog-by-historian-thom-holmes/#_edn2 "Sun Ra & the Minimoog"], Bob Moog Foundation, November 6, 2013.</ref><ref>Tam Fiofori, "Sun Ra: Myth, Music & Media", ''Glendora Review, African Quarterly on the Arts'', vol. 3, No. 3 and 4.</ref>

Notable titles from this period include ''[[The Magic City (Sun Ra album)|The Magic City]]'', ''[[Cosmic Tones for Mental Therapy]]'', ''When Sun Comes Out'', ''[[The Heliocentric Worlds of Sun Ra, Volume One]]'', ''[[Atlantis (Sun Ra album)|Atlantis]]'', ''Secrets of the Sun'' and ''Other Planes of There''.