Last night, we were treated to a stellar performance by King Britt at the World Financial Center's Winter Garden. A very talented DJ and record producer from Philadelphia, King Britt took the stage last night as more than just one man to perform -- a five piece ensemble went on to create the whole experience of the show, called "Sun Ra-Lectric: Saturn Never Sleeps." It was a tribute to the legendary jazz composer Sun Ra, lyrical poet and cosmic philosopher.

When King Britt and his group stepped on stage and the music started, it was with little fanfare and a lot of fuzz. The video behind them was simple black and white static and shapes which eventually grew into other things and paired well with the sound we were being given. Eventually, as the sound changed, so did the video. There was a lot of layering, musically -- electronic fuzz overlayed on top of subtle jazz beats and gorgeous, soft, haunting voice given to us by Rucyl Mills. The video reflected that disparity between the soft jazz and the new electronica -- it wavered between graph patterns and neon shapes and videos of Sun Ra performing and sticks hitting a drum. Sometimes, the images overlapped and we saw the beautiful images distorted by the graph patterns and hypnotising shapes, giving the same effect that the music was giving: somewhat dissonant but laced with softness.

The dissonance built and transformed into what seemed just like a jazz jam session, with Britt's guitarist picking out random solos and everyone moving with the beat on stage. They brought out a saxophone player for a long solo in front of the audience, and it was easily my favourite part of the night -- the gorgeous tone of the saxophone complemented everything perfectly, from the video on stage to the sounds of the keyboard and flutes behind it. The jazz swelled into a huge sound, and then the solo ended and it faded, ending the performance on a beautiful note.

Everyone on stage smiled, hugged each other, and looked like they knew that they'd just done something pretty special.

In the 90’s King Britt brought spacey jazz hop production to Digable Planets, earning critical acclaim for his reworking of classic Blue Notes samples. Digable Planets' name and debut album cover featured references to the extra terrestrial, an implication that their music was otherworldly, innovative and revolutionary. Last night at the Winter Garden of the World Financial Center, Britt organized and played a tribute to legendary space cadet and kindred spirit Jazz Icon Sun-Ra (1914-1993) in a concert that combined electronica, live instrumentation and visual effects.

The performance was entitled “Saturn Never Sleeps,”-- the name refers to Sun-Ra's obsession with the planet he considered his ancestral home. For the tribute, King Britt recruited an entourage of talented electronic and analog musicians including Rucyl Mills (vocals and sampling), Tim Motzer (guitaronics), Damon Bennet (keyboards and flute) and Jason Senk (visuals) The group took the stage as a five piece, Britt on turntables, along with a pianist, an electric guitarist, and a man and women behind laptops and mics all dressed in green t-shirts baring a Saturn logo. A projection screen behind the ensemble began with black and white static as the musicians created an atonal atmospheric fuzz. A sample of indecipherable talking commenced as a bizarre spaceship appeared on stage and Sun-Ra, clad in faux Egyptian pharaoh futuristic garb, exited the vehicle . Britt began spinning breakbeats as a video of sticks hitting a drum played on the projector, the piano player switched to flute and wove a subtle melody in an out of the wall of sonic dissonance. The video vacillated between shots of Sun-Ra performing, a point of view shot of flying over a bizarre planet, Sun-ra walking in ceremonial Egyptian clothing and abstract images as the music went from cacophonous and abrasive to a finely tuned improvisational free jazz session. While a video of Thelonius Monk danced on screen, Britt’s piano player broke into a skillful solo behind the backing of a deft rhythm section consisting of Britt and his guitarist. After the solo climaxed, a portly white saxophone player with long hair and a beret confidently stepped to center stage. The band built intensity around a memorable bebop sax solo, as images of a man in an Egyptian bird mask lit up the screen. As a point of view shot from a distant world (with Saturn on the horizon) covered the screen, Sun-Ra’s voice intoned: ”History repeats itself and my story is limitless, it never repeats itself.”