Dreaming of the Masters

The song Enlightenment was a staple of Sun Ra performances.  Its composition reaches back to some of the earliest days of the Arkestra and if you ever saw them live, chances are good that you heard some version or another of the song.  Enlightenment first appeared on the album Jazz In Silhouette, recorded in Chicago in 1958 or 1959, as a fairly traditional big band arrangement that only hinted at the other-worldliness the Arkestra was to later embody.  This instrumental version also appears on the album Sound Sun Pleasure, which wasn't released until 1970.

At some point, lyrics were added to the arrangement, and it was the vocal version of Enlightenment that became the staple of Sun Ra's live sets.  Here's an excellent profile that appeared on French television in 1969; the vocal version of Enlightenment begins at the 3:21 mark.  

Around this time, a similar version of Enlightenment that was recorded at Sun Ra's Philadelphia home was released as a single, with Journey to Saturn on the flip side. This slow, almost dirge-like version of the song was performed by the trio of Sun Ra on clavinet, Tyson on vocals, and the great tenor saxophonist John Gilmore on drums and vocals.  

At some point, June Tyson began echoing back some of the lyrics of the song, creating the call-and-response typical of later performances of the song.  Here's a faster-paced, live and livelier version from their 1973 Town Hall concert in New York commemorating the near-Earth approach of the comet Kohoutek.  This was how the song was performed in the shows I saw in the 1970s and '80s. 

A live version of Enlightenment is included in Gilles Peterson's posthumous compilation To Those Of Earth... And Other Worlds.  I have no idea when or where this live version was performed.