Basket 0

👌 Your order qualifies for free shipping You are £85 away from free shipping.
No more products available for purchase

Leave a note for us...
Leave a gift message
Subtotal
View Basket
Continue to the checkout to apply any gift cards or discount codes and to review shipping and collection options.

Your basket is empty

This product is a Pre Order and is scheduled to be released 29th November 2024

This product is available on preorder with a limited discounted price.

The Qualities (Sun Ra) - It's Christmas Time

£14.99

This product is available on pre order with a limited discounted price.

A holiday single we can totally get behind...
Currently good stock Limited stock Currently unavailable

Strut is celebrating the holiday season with an exclusive reissue of The Qualities’ 1961 single, “It’s Christmas Time” b/w “Happy New Year To You!” Originally released on Sun Ra’s Saturn label, this mysterious harmony group 45 captures a unique moment in music history. 

Alongside his renowned jazz work in Chicago, Sun Ra experimented with harmony groups from the mid-‘50s to the early ‘60s, before his move to New York. “I had two main vocal groups at the time,” Ra recalled. “One was called the Cosmic Echoes. And the Cosmic Rays too. It was around the same time that John Gilmore joined the band. I saw the possibility that they could be really great so I began to coach them; they were connected with a barber shop, but I taught them other things.” John Gilmore added, “We’d go down to the barber shops and rehearse some groups. Sun Ra had them singin’ some beautiful stuff. I think he probably was saving the from themselves. He heard them, heard their potential, snatched them off the street, and started making them do something constructive.”

This rare festive single from The Qualities, likely recorded around 1956, features Sun Ra as co-composer on both tracks alongside Saturn Records co-founder Alton Abraham. Sun Ra might also be the harmonium player on these recordings. Although two more songs by the group appeared on a Norton Records collection of Ra-related vocal numbers, these are the only known recordings by The Qualities.

Featuring two newly restored and remastered tracks thanks to Technology Works and housed in an exclusive new 7" picture sleeve designed by Liam Large.

Tracklisting

A. It’s Christmas Time
B. Happy New Year To You

Scheduled: 29 November 2024

Shipping & Delivery

Drift gladly ship all items Worldwide using Royal Mail Tracked® and DHL services. There is a shipping calculator available in the basket. Read More

Click & Collect

Available on all orders from Drift. Select the Click & Collect option during the checkout process. Read More.

UK Free Shipping

We offer free delivery on orders of £85 and over, sent within mainland UK. To qualify for free delivery, your order will be sent as one dispatch. Read More.

Global Shipping & Tax

If you are based outside the UK and EU, all prices will appear without tax at the checkout. Drift is IOSS registered and collects tax on all EU orders at point of purchase. Read More.

Drift Extras

Earn [points_amount] when you buy this item.

[{"variant_id":"52537749995904" , "metafield_value":""}]
                               

Pre Order FAQ

When is this released?

The Qualities (Sun Ra) - It's Christmas Time is available for Pre Order now and has a scheduled release date of 29th November 2024.

In the event of any delays to this date, we will try to keep this page updated in the '⚠ Updates' tab.

When will I get it?

We ship pre order items to arrive with you on or as close as possible to release day. We are limited naturally by when the stock arrives with us in Totnes, but we work hard to ship them in a timely fashion.

⚠ If you make a purchase from Drift that includes both Pre Order titles and in-stock titles, we will ship your entire order as one when all items are released. Read More.

What is the discount?

Every Pre Order product has a discount of between 10% and 15%. This is already factored into the price and will revert to full RRP during the week of release.