Adventurous keyboardist and arranger Dick Hyman worked in radio, film, and television before making a name for himself as a jazz pianist in the mid-1950s with a hugely popular harpsichord rendition of "Mack The Knife". An early experimenter with electronic instruments, including the Moog, his 1963 rarity Moon Gas, produced by Creed Taylor and recorded with Sinatra sidekick and Broadway musical mainstay Mary Mayo, was conceived as "a glimpse of the possible sounds of the 22nd Century". Blasting lounge music and love ballads into the nether regions of outer space, Moon Gas pitted Hyman's organ, mini-organ, and piano riffs against Mayo's ethereal voice - sometimes singing wordlessly, other times with actual lyrics - atop a tight studio ensemble, the sounds made more otherworldly through the use of an ondioline, a martinot, oscillators, and Vinnie Bell's customized guitar, which allowed for individualized sound effects. Although improvised opener "Moon Gas" sounds pleasantly jazzy, "Maid Of The Moon" and "Space Reflex" reach the cosmos and there's a one-off rendition of João Gilberto's "Desafinado" too, delivered with skill in Portuguese.

Tracklist:
A1 Moon Gas
A2 Maid Of The Moon
A3 Isn't It Odd
A4 Stella By Starlight
A5 Imagination
A6 Space Reflex (Blues In 5/4)
B1 Bye, Bye Blues
B2 They Can't Take That Away From Me
B3 For All We Know
B4 Desafinado (Slightly Out Of Tune)
B5 I'm Glad There Is You
B6 Star Eyes