Jazz Articles about Sun Ra

like 322

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 ...

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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 ...

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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. ...

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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 ...

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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 ...

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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 ...

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Space is the Place: The Life and Times of Sun Ra

by Matthew Wuethrich
January 24, 2003

Space Is the Place: The Lives and Times of Sun Ra John F. Szwed DaCapo Press (September 1998) 0679435891 320 pagesSun Ra's music challenges listeners to approach it with no preconceptions of right and wrong; Sun Ra himself challenges the biographer in the same manner. Sun Ra thought in ways that run counter to how a majority of society conceives of life. To start with, how should we respond when ...