Sun Ra is simply one of the best-loved and most highly respected progressive jazz musicians in history. "Toward the Stars" showcases" the incredible music Sun Ra was making at the outset of his career in the mid fifties. This music is decades ahead of its time. Numbers like "Sun Song" and "India" may owe something to Les Baxter and Martin Denny but their intonation is somehow much deeper. Sun Ra influenced Miles Davis and David Bowie and dozens upon dozens of others. In serious international jazz circles he is hardly less than a deity.