Jazz Articles about Sun Ra

Sun Ra: Spaceship Lullaby

by Jay Collins
December 4, 2003

Sun Ra watchers have to be thrilled with Atavistic’s recent efforts to present rare and previously unreleased Saturnistic material. The label's first release was the Cold War-era classic Nuclear War, followed by Music From Tomorrow’s World, a compendium of two previously unreleased live sessions from the tail end of the Chicago Period. The series’ latest issue is an archeological find (all 37 unreleased tracks worth) which collects Ra’s work with several Chicago vocal groups during the mid to late 1950’s. ...

Space is the Place: The Mutha Ship Connection

by Rex Butters
November 27, 2003

In 1974 the original Brother From Another Planet, Sun Ra, participated in a legendary low budget indie sci-fi film based on the Ra myth. Shot in 16mm around Oakland’s Merritt College and San Jose’s Rosicrucian Museum, Space Is The Place stars Ra as a crazy wisdom-cracking alien come to transport black folks to an Edenic planet through the transformative quality of music. Along the way he battles Evil in a game of cards on an isolated table in the middle ...

Space Is The Place

by AAJ Staff
November 20, 2003

Space is the Place Featuring Sun Ra Directed by John Coney Plexifilm 2003

There's so much mystery and intrigue surrounding Sun Ra that it's quite hard to discern his identity. Was he really from Saturn? Biographer John Szwed, author of the book Space Is The Place, made big strides in revealing the forces at play behind the bandleader's mystical vision. But Ra's music has mostly been lost in obscure, independent, out-of-print releases--though ...

Sun Ra: Atlantis

by Trevor MacLaren
October 5, 2003

Sun Ra and the Astro Infinity Arkestra AtlantisSaturn 1967

With Mars now in sight with the naked eye, no time is better than the present to turn to the planets. During his tenure on Earth, Saturnian Sun Ra created some trailblazing sounds that helped to change not only the sound of jazz, but several other genres as well. Herman Blount, better known as Sun Ra, would take a listener from the New Orleans style ...

Sun Ra: We Travel the Spaceways/Bad and Beautiful

by Matthew Wuethrich
January 19, 2003

This Evidence re-issue package, like a large portion of the others, captures different aspects of the late '50s/early '60s Arkestra in transition. The first seven tracks comprise We Travel the Spaceways, recorded in Chicago between 1956 and 1960 at a variety of sessions. The second group of seven tunes were originally released as Bad and Beautiful, and is believed to have been recorded in New York sometime in 1961. Both albums sound relatively tame compared to the Arkestra’s later explorations, ...

Sun Ra: Holiday for Soul Dance

by Matthew Wuethrich
January 19, 2003

Holiday for Soul Dance testifies to not only Sun Ra’s originality, but also his courage when making stylistic decisions. This album, believed to be recorded sometime around 1958, casts Ra in the role of the traditionalist as the Arkestra interpret a batch of time-honored (and time-worn) standards. Surprisingly, this role fits better than one might expect. Ra always felt more affinity with Fletcher Henderson and Duke Ellington than he did with the bop and free jazz advocates. Perhaps even more ...

Sun Ra: Angels and Demons at Play/The Nubians of Plutonia

by Matthew Wuethrich
January 19, 2003

If you try to track the development of Sun Ra's music on record, you will inevitably run up against numerous difficulties. Both chronologically and stylistically, his oeuvre contains anachronisms, false trails, mistakes and just plain weirdness. Evidence's re-issue package of the two Saturn albums, Angels and Demons at Play/The Nubians of Plutonia represents exactly these problems. Luckily, the detailed liner notes shed light on the confusing chronology while simultaneously informing listeners that what we are hearing is a band in ...