Jazz Articles about Sun Ra

Sun Ra: The Immeasurable Equation

by AAJ Staff
October 9, 2005

Sun Ra: The Immeasurable Equation The Collected Poetry and ProseJames L. Wolf and Hartmut Geerken, co-ed. Waitawhile ISBN: 3833426594 2005 “In his poems, as much as his music, Sun Ra seemed to want to undo and rewrite every concept he could get his hands on. The words of co-editor and Library of Congress member James L. Wolf (the co-editor being German writer/ percussionist Hartmut Geerken) show his ...

Sun Ra: Heliocentric Worlds Vol. 1 & 2

by Rex Butters
September 4, 2005

ESP's reissue series matches two classics on one disc, Sun Ra's Heliocentric Worlds, Vol. 1 & 2. These two 1965 sessions feature the Arkestra playing out, but mostly in small units, and rarely with the quirky humor often in evidence on Ra recordings. This space seems more intimate and introspective than some other galactic narratives in the discography. While the music here sounded like incomprehensible free jazz to critics living in the age of the Beatles and Herman's Hermits, Ra ...

Sun Ra: Nothing Is...

by Jerry D'Souza
August 6, 2005

In 1966 Sun Ra performed a series of concerts sponsored by the New York council of Arts which were released as Nothing Is. The tunes were sequenced for LP release, but now, after extensive research, more material from the concert which took place at the St. Lawrence University in Potsdam, New York has been unearthed and made its way to CD. The extensive playing time of that medium has been put to welcome use with the addition of the last ...

Sun Ra: Heliocentric Worlds Vol. 3

by Mark Corroto
May 21, 2005

Have pity on the poor Sun Ra music collector. You see, those who “do research" on a single artist like Duke Ellington, Sonny Blount, or John Coltrane spend years and countless dollars chasing one thing, like a heroin addict who can never find a high as good as the first time. Those of us who had an audience with the great Sun Ra are never (let me repeat, never) able to duplicate that live concert experience on record, try as ...

The Sun Ra Arkestra: Music for the 21st Century

by Rex Butters
November 2, 2004

As one would hope from a release claiming certified lineage to the source, Music for the 21st Century finds the Sun Ra Arkestra still playing swing mechanique, angular outside freestyle, comet tail cold, and overheating from inward friction. Its indomitable goodwill intact and glued to the blues, the Ark still flies on a supply, the interdimensional navigations hand-carved by astro alto Arkestra alumni Marshall Allen. The octogenarian returns the ship to the rougher rides of earlier times, zipping through tight ...

Sun Ra: Solo Piano Recital - Teatro La Fenice, Venezia

by Ken Waxman
March 9, 2004

This is the hippest solo piano CD you're ever going to hear that features old time standards like “Take the A Train," “St Louis Blues" and “Honeysuckle Rose." That's because the artist involved isn't some wannabe young lion aiming for mainstream cred or a palsied trad jazz survivor nostalgically re-creating the sounds of his youth. Instead, the hoary jazz standards are slotted in among certified Saturnian melodies and improvisations by a figure who during his time on earth seemed to ...

Sun Ra And His Intergalactic Solar Arkestra In Space Is The Place

by Daniel Kassell
January 28, 2004

Outer space is a pleasant place A place where you can be free There's no limit to the things you can do Your thought is free and your life is worthwhile Space is the place ~ Sun Ra

Faced with a society that ignored his talent solely because of the color of his skin and race, Herman “Sonny" Blount, known first as pianist/aranger for the ...