Sun Ra [SEP] instrument
Sun Ra


Sun Ra a prototype Minimoog (Model B), several months before the commercial instrument (Model D) was introduced in March 1970. Ra immediately added the instrument to his repertoire of keyboards, later acquired a second, and featured the Minimoog prominently on many of his recordings of the early 1970s." Notable titles from this period include "The Magic City", "Cosmic Tones for Mental Therapy", "When Sun Comes Out", "The Heliocentric Worlds of Sun Ra, Volume One", "Atlantis"
11853750
Tam Fiofori


who was given a prototype Minimoog by its inventor, Robert Moog; the Bob Moog Foundation reports: "Sun Ra first met Robert Moog after "Downbeat" journalist and Sun Ra acquaintance Tam Fiofori arranged for a visit to Moog’s factory in Trumansburg in the Fall of 1969...it was during this visit that Moog loaned Sun Ra a prototype Minimoog (Model B), several months before the commercial instrument (Model D) was introduced in March 1970. Ra immediately added the instrument to his repertoire of keyboards, later acquired
6631554
Sun Ra


—leaving the fired musician stranded. The following is a partial list of musical collaborators, and the eras when they played with Sun Ra or the Arkestra: The OVC was a giant machine, played with hands and feet, that allowed artists to create and finger-paint with light similar to how musicians create and explore sound with their instruments.The name of the instrument arose from Bill Sebastian's collaboration with Sun Ra. Sun Ra incorporated the OVC into the Arkestra from 1978-1980 and experimented with Bill on video applications
11853755
Sun Ra


note, every nuance, is correct... If you want to call it that, spell it "p-h-r-e", because "ph" is a definite article and "re" is the name of the sun. So I play "phre" music – music of the sun." Seeking to broaden his compositional possibilities, Sun Ra insisted all band members double on various percussion instruments – predating world music by drawing on various ethnic musical forms – and most saxophonists became multireedists, adding instruments such
11853748
Strange Strings


, Sun Ra decided to assemble a number of stringed instruments bought from curio shops and music stores. Ukuleles, Mandolins, Kotos, Koras, Chinese Lutes and 'Moon Guitars' were handed out to his reed and horn players in the belief that 'strings could touch people in a special way, different from other instruments.' The point was that the Arkestra didn't know how to play them - Sun Ra called it 'a study in ignorance.' 'Next they prepared a number of homemade instruments, including a
22148103
Free jazz


with Latin-inspired mambo percussion. His period of fully realized free jazz experimentation began in 1965, with the release of "The Heliocentric Worlds of Sun Ra" and "The Magic City." These records placed a musical emphasis on timbre and texture over meter and harmony, employing a wide variety of electronic instruments and innovative percussion instruments, including the electric celeste, Hammond B-3, bass marimba, harp, and timpani. As result, Sun Ra proved to be one of the first free jazz musicians to explore electronic instrumentation
12316956
The Futuristic Sounds of Sun Ra


was no reviews for twenty-three years, when it was reissued in 1984 as "We Are In The Future".' The album is often considered one of the most accessible records in Ra's vast catalogue; 'Sun Ra's only release for the Savoy label is a gem... Ra sticks to acoustic piano for the entire session, but various percussion instruments are dispersed throughout the band, giving a slightly exotic flavor to some of the tunes... With the exception of "The Beginning," all the tunes are
21266772
Sun Ra


and Al Kooper's Blues Project, recorded the album "Batman and Robin" under the pseudonym, "The Sensational Guitars of Dan and Dale." The album consisted primarily of instrumental variations on the Batman theme and public domain classical music, with an uncredited female vocalist singing the "Robin Theme." In 1968, when the New York building they were renting was put up for sale, Sun Ra and the Arkestra relocated to the Germantown section of Philadelphia. Sun Ra got a house on Morton Street that became the Arkestra
11853727
Eddie Gale


spent many hours exposed to Sun Ra's philosophy about music and life. Eddie explains, "Playing with Sun Ra is a great experience--from the known to the unknown. You play ideas on your instrument that you never imagine. His music provoked me to explore the use of trills, for instance, and the placement of whole tones and then a space chord--ideas you do not find in the exercise books." During the 1960s and 1970s, he toured and recorded extensively with Sun Ra, who influenced him
10369027
Sun Ra


live performances often featured passages for unusual instrumental combinations, and passages of collective playing that incorporated free improvisation. It is often difficult to tell where compositions end and improvisations begin. In this era, Sun Ra began conducting using hand and body gestures. This system inspired cornetist Butch Morris, who later developed his own more highly refined way to conduct improvisers. Though often associated with avant-garde jazz, Sun Ra did not believe his work could be classified as "free music": "I have to make sure that every
11853747
John Gilmore (musician)


Cummings as a specialist on the latter instrument in the mid-1950s. However, tenor sax was his main instrument and Gilmore himself made a huge contribution to Sun Ra's recordings and was the Arkestra's leading sideman, being given solos on almost every track on which he appeared. In the "Rough Guide to Jazz", Brian Priestley says: Gilmore is known for two rather different styles of tenor playing. On performances of a straight ahead post-bop character (which include many of those with Sun Ra), he runs
2921060
Pathways to Unknown Worlds


Pathways to Unknown Worlds is an album by jazz composer, bandleader and keyboardist Sun Ra and his Arkestra recorded in Chicago in 1973 and originally released on his Saturn label and rereleased on the ABC/Impulse! label in 1975. The Allmusic review by Lindsay Planer awarded the album 4 stars stating "the three free jazz instrumental improvisations are in many respects quite similar to the "laissez-faire" sonic free for alls that had become synonymous with Ra's concurrent Arkestra(s)". "All compositions by Sun Ra" Side One
8711331
Sun Ra


many years, providing extensive documentation of Sun Ra's perspectives on many issues. Sun Ra's collected poetry and prose is available as a book, published May 2005, entitled "Sun Ra, The Immeasurable Equation". Another book of over 260 of Sun Ra's poems, "Sun Ra: Collected Works Vol. 1: Immeasurable Equation" was published by Phaelos Books in November 2005. "The Wisdom of Sun Ra: Sun Ra's Polemical Broadsheets and Streetcorner Leaflets", was published in book form in 2005,
11853776
Gibson G-101


1977 issue) that he began using it (switching from the Vox Continental used on the first two albums) during the recording of the "Waiting for the Sun" album, in 1968: Jazz musician Sun Ra also began using the G-101 at some point during the 1960s. The first documented use is on the "Atlantis" album, which was released in 1969. Ra, who often invented names for his instruments, lists the G-101 as the "Solar Sound Organ" in the credits, but his discography correctly identifies
18331322
Atlantis (Sun Ra album)


Atlantis is an album by American jazz musician Sun Ra and his Astro-Infinity Arkestra, released in 1969 by El Saturn Records. The album heavily features the "Solar Sound Instrument", a Hohner Clavinet. One of the four compositions which originally featured on Side 1 of the original release was substituted by a different piece for the 1973 reissue, though reusing the same name, "Yucatan". Both pieces appear on the later CD reissue. The title track covered the second side of the LP and is regarded as a
20719450
Marshall Allen


Marshall Belford Allen (born May 25, 1924) is an American free jazz and avant-garde jazz alto saxophone player. He also performs on flute, oboe, piccolo, and EVI (an electronic valve instrument made by Steiner, Crumar company). Allen is best known for his work with Sun Ra, having recorded and performed mostly in this context since the late 1950s, and having led Sun Ra's Arkestra since 1993. Critic Jason Ankeny describes Marshall as "one of the most distinctive and original saxophonists of the
3540978
The Heliocentric Worlds of Sun Ra, Volume One


The Heliocentric Worlds of Sun Ra, Volume One is a 1965 album by the jazz musician Sun Ra. The back cover describes it as an ""album of compositions and arrangements by Sun Ra played by Sun Ra and his Solar Arkestra"". The album is a notable example of the radical break which Sun Ra's music of that time had made with "previous notions of melody or harmony". Although heavily percussive, the music also dispenses with a continuous beat; instead Ra's music is reconstructed around "interweaving
19044235
Sun Ra


is a feature-length film that stars Sun Ra and his band as themselves. The soundtrack, also by Sun Ra, is available on CD. The film follows Sun Ra after he returns to Chicago from many years of space travel with his Arkestra. In a meeting with "the Overseer" – a devil-like figure stationed in the desert – Sun Ra agrees to play a game of cards to "win" the black community. Sun Ra's goal is to transport the American black community to a new planet
11853773
Sun Ra


tribute to Sun Ra's philosophies and musical ideas within their albums "Realm Beyond Realm" and "Sun Ra Kills the World". The Spatial AKA Orchestra, formed in 2006 by Jerry Dammers (the main songwriter of British ska revival band The Specials), was originally created as a tribute to Sun Ra, borrowing many of the ideas, themes and tropes from Sun Ra's own performances. On June 25, 2019, "The New York Times Magazine" listed Sun Ra among hundreds of artists whose material was reportedly
11853771
Visions (Sun Ra album)


Visions is a duet album issued on LP format credited to Walt Dickerson (with Sun Ra) and later reissued on CD credited to Sun Ra and Walt Dickerson. In his review for AllMusic, Stewart Mason stated ""Visions" matches Walt Dickerson's cool vibes with Sun Ra's idiosyncratic piano in a way that shows both men's contrasting styles to surprisingly cohesive effect. ... Fans of Sun Ra's outer space mythology and chanting lyrics will have to look elsewhere for their fun, but fans of Ra's exceptionally gifted and
7053660
Sun Ra


", "Super-Sonic Jazz", "We Travel the Space Ways", "The Nubians of Plutonia" and "Jazz In Silhouette". Ronnie Boykins, Sun Ra's bassist, has been described as "the pivot around which much of Sun Ra's music revolved for eight years." This is especially pronounced on the key recordings from 1965 ("The Magic City", "The Heliocentric Worlds of Sun Ra, Volume One", and "The Heliocentric Worlds of Sun Ra, Volume Two"
11853745
Sun Ra


. The "Sun Ra Repatriation Project" was started in 2008 with the aim of using interplanetary communication with a view to facilitating Sun Ra's return to planet Earth. Filmmaker and visual artist Cauleen Smith has heavily researched the life and legacy of Sun Ra. Her 2013 exhibition "17" "arises out of [her] research into the legacy of Sun Ra, who was himself a student of numerology and achieved a kind of cultural immortality the number 17 might be said to refer to". Her project "The Solar
11853769
Sun Ra


trade ideas and discuss the offbeat topics that so intrigued them. This group printed a number of pamphlets and broadsides explaining their conclusions and ideas. Some of these were collected by critic John Corbett and Anthony Elms as "The Wisdom of Sun Ra: Sun Ra's Polemical Broadsheets and Streetcorner Leaflets" (2006). In the mid-1950s, Sun Ra and Abraham formed an independent record label that was generally known as El Saturn Records. (It had several name variations.) Initially focused on 45 rpm singles by Sun Ra and
11853721
Sun Ra


" musicians typically took themselves far too seriously.) Sun Ra and the Arkestra moved to New York City in the fall of 1961. To save money, Sun Ra and his band members lived communally. This enabled Sun Ra to request rehearsals spontaneously and at any time, which was already a noted habit of his. Despite their planned management of money, the costs of New York eventually became too high and motivated the group to move to Philadelphia. However, it was during this time in New York that Sun Ra recorded
11853724
Sun Ra


Flare Arkestral Marching Band" includes several components related to Sun Ra. "One component (2010) of the project is the production of five flash mob street performances involving a marching band inspired by Sun Ra's Arkestra. The second component of the project... is a full-length video that chronicles the urban legends of Sun Ra’s time in Chicago as well as the contemporary artists who live and work in this city". The "Sun Ra Revival Post-Krautrock Archestra", formed in Australia during 2014, paid
11853770
Lao music


Nyai and Sep Noi (or Mahori). The Sep Nyai is similar to Thai Piphat, and is ceremonial and formal music and includes: two sets of gongs (kong vong), a xylophone (ranat), an oboe (pei or salai), two large kettle drums and two sets of cymbals (xing, similar to Thai ching). The Sep Noi, capable of playing popular tunes, includes two bowed string instruments, the So U and the So I, also known to the Indians. These instruments
21676597
Ahmed Abdullah


Ahmed Abdullah (born Leroy Bland; May 10, 1947) is a jazz trumpeter who was a prominent member of Sun Ra's band. Leroy Bland began performing at age 13 in his native New York City. By the 1970s he was performing in New York's loft scene, and joined the Sun Ra Arkestra in 1976, working there on and off until 1993, when Sun Ra died. During that time Abdullah participated in more than 25 recordings and traveled extensively with Sun Ra. With Sun Ra With Arthur Blythe With
1560732
The Futuristic Sounds of Sun Ra


The Futuristic Sounds of Sun Ra is an album by the American jazz musician Sun Ra and his Arkestra, recorded October 10, 1961 for the Savoy label. The album was produced by Tom Wilson, who would later become famous for producing albums by the Velvet Underground, Frank Zappa and Bob Dylan. The first record to be recorded by a pared-down Arkestra after Sun Ra and the core of his group left Chicago and relocated to New York City. According to Sun Ra's biographer John Szwed: 'The idea was
21266768
John Gilmore (musician)


, however, remained with the Sun Ra Arkestra. Gilmore's devotion to Sun Ra was due, in part, to the latter's use of harmony, which Gilmore considered both unique and a logical extension of bebop. Gilmore had stated that Sun Ra was "more stretched out than Monk" and that "I'm not gonna run across anybody who's moving as fast as Sun Ra ... So I just stay where I am." Gilmore occasionally doubled on drums and also played bass clarinet until Sun Ra hired Robert
2921059
Art Forms of Dimensions Tomorrow


Art Forms of Dimensions Tomorrow is an album by the American jazz musician Sun Ra and his Solar Arkestra. Often considered the first of Ra's 'outside' recordings, the album was the first to make extensive use of a discovery by the Arkestra's drummer and engineer Tommy Hunter: "'Art Forms of Dimensions Tomorrow"... contained "Cluster of Galaxies" and "Solar Drums", two rhythm section exercises with the sound treated with such strange reverberations that they threatened to obliterate the instruments' identity and turn the music
21936908
Sun Ra


destroyed in the 2008 Universal fire. The University of Chicago has an extensive collection of Sun Ra's works and personal items in the Special Collections Research Center at the Regenstein Library. The collection was assembled by Ra's business manager Alton Abraham and is open to the public upon request. The Special Collections Research Center has also repeatedly exhibited Sun Ra's work. The latest exhibition was entitled "Sounds from Tomorrow's World: Sun Ra and the Chicago Years 1946-1961." "Space Is the Place" (1974)
11853772
The Heliocentric Worlds of Sun Ra, Volume One


compositional and improvisatory creative principles with programmatic affects". The album was originally released as The Heliocentric Worlds of Sun Ra, with a B/W sleeve designed by Ra himself. This was replaced with a new orange and red sleeve by Howard Bernstein & Baby Jerry - showing Sun Ra with the third eye - and the appendage Vol. 1 added when "The Heliocentric Worlds of Sun Ra, Volume Two" was released in 1966. The album was re-released on CD by ZYX-Music (ESP 1014-2
19044236
Sun Ra: A Joyful Noise


Sun Ra: A Joyful Noise is a 1980 jazz film by Robert Mugge documenting performances by Sun Ra and his Arkestra in Philadelphia, Washington D.C., and Baltimore, and also including interviews and rehearsal footage. The Philadelphia performances captured by the film took place at Danny's Hollywood Palace and on the rooftop of the Philadelphia International Center. The Baltimore performance took place in the Famous Ballroom, hosted by the Left Bank Jazz Society. Sun Ra compositions featured in the film include "Astro Black," "Along Came Ra,"
3023121
Ra


grander. The walls of tombs were dedicated to extremely detailed texts that depicted Ra's journey through the underworld. Ra was said to carry the prayers and blessings of the living with the souls of the dead on the sun boat. The idea that Ra aged with the sun became more popular during the rise of the New Kingdom. Many acts of worship included hymns, prayers, and spells to help Ra and the sun boat overcome Apep. The rise of Christianity in the Roman Empire put an end to the worship of Ra
7285251
Ronnie Boykins


This is especially pronounced on the key recordings from 1965 (The Magic City, The Heliocentric Worlds of Sun Ra, Volume One and The Heliocentric Worlds of Sun Ra, Volume Two) where the intertwining lines of Boykins' bass and Ra's electronic keyboards provide the cohesion. He was a regular member of Sun Ra's band from 1958 until 1966, and occasionally thereafter up to 1974. Like his fellow Sun Ra bandmates, John Gilmore and Pat Patrick, Boykins attended Chicago's DuSable High School and studied under its famed music
12008326
Sun Ra


of the musicians who played with him. Bassoonist/multireedist James Jacson had studied Zen Buddhism before joining Sun Ra and identified strong similarities between Zen teachings and practices (particularly Zen koans) and Ra's use of "non sequiturs" and seemingly absurd replies to questions. Drummer Art Jenkins admitted that Sun Ra's "nonsense" sometimes troubled his thoughts for days until inspiring a sort of paradigm shift, or profound change in outlook. Drummer Andrew Cyrille said Sun Ra's comments were "very interesting stuff... whether you believed it
11853760
Sun Ra discography


The Sun Ra discography is one of the largest discographies in music history. Jazz keyboardist, bandleader and composer Sun Ra recorded dozens of singles and over one hundred full-length albums, comprising well over 1000 songs, and making him one of the most prolific recording artists of the 20th century. His own El Saturn Records albums were usually printed in editions of 75 copies per album, and were sold primarily at live performances. Many of Sun Ra's early albums were recorded at home by Ra himself on wire or early tape
19813849
Super-Sonic Jazz


Super-Sonic Jazz is an album by Sun Ra, recorded in 1956 at RCA Studios, Chicago. "Super-Sonic Jazz" was the first album to be released on Saturn Records, the label run by Sun Ra and Alton Abraham, and was one of only three albums by Sun Ra to have been available in the 1950s. (The other two are "Jazz by Sun Ra", also released in 1957, and "Jazz in Silhouette", released May 1959.) The album was retitled as Super
3865280
Menkauhor Kaiu


Menkauhor built a temple to the sun god Ra. He was the last pharaoh to do so. His successors, Djedkare Isesi and Unas, abandoned this practice as the cult of Ra declined at the expense of that of Osiris. Given the paucity of documents relating to Menkauhor's sun temple, it probably functioned for only a short time or was never completed. Menkauhor's sun temple was called "Akhet-Ra", which is variously translated as "The Horizon of Ra" or "The Place where Ra Issues Forth
19599158
Sun Ra


artists related to him, Saturn Records issued two full-length albums during the 1950s: "Super-Sonic Jazz" (1957) and "Jazz In Silhouette" (1959). Producer Tom Wilson was the first to release a Sun Ra album, through his independent label Transition Records in 1957, entitled "Jazz by Sun Ra". During this era, Sun Ra recorded the first of dozens of singles as a band-for-hire backing a range of doo wop and R&B singers; several dozen of these
11853722
Sun Ra


were reissued in a two-CD set, "The Singles", by Evidence Records. In the late 1950s, Sun Ra and his band began wearing the outlandish, Egyptian-styled or science fiction-themed costumes and headdresses for which they became known. These costumes had multiple purposes: they expressed Sun Ra's fascination with ancient Egypt and the space age, they provided a distinctive uniform for the Arkestra, they provided a new identity for the band onstage, and comic relief. (Sun Ra thought "avant garde
11853723
Sun Ra


the album "The Futuristic Sound of Sun Ra." In March 1966 the Arkestra secured a regular Monday night gig at Slug's Saloon. This was a breakthrough to new audiences and recognition. Sun Ra's popularity reached an early peak during this period, as the beat generation and early followers of psychedelia embraced him. Regularly for the next year and a half (and intermittently for another half-decade afterwards), Sun Ra and company performed at Slug's for audiences that eventually came to include music critics and notable jazz
11853725
Sun Ra


musicians. Opinions of Sun Ra's music were divided (and hecklers were not uncommon). High praise, however, came from two of the architects of bebop. Trumpeter Dizzy Gillespie offered encouragement, once stating, "Keep it up, Sonny, they tried to do the same shit to me," and pianist Thelonious Monk chided someone who said Sun Ra was "too far out" by responding, "Yeah, but it "swings"." Also in 1966, Sun Ra, with members of the Arkestra
11853726
Sun Ra


"Sun Ra Meets Salah Ragab", "Egypt Strut" and "Horizon". In 1972, San Francisco public TV station KQED producer John Coney, producer Jim Newman, and screenwriter Joshua Smith worked with Sun Ra to produce an 85-minute feature film, entitled "Space Is the Place", with Sun Ra's Arkestra and an ensemble of actors assembled by the production team. It was filmed in Oakland and San Francisco. A 1975 show concert by the Arkestra in Cleveland featured an early lineup of Devo as the opening
11853734
Sun Ra


as flutes, oboes, or clarinets to their arsenals. In this era, Sun Ra was among the first of any musicians to make extensive and pioneering use of synthesizers and other various electronic keyboards; he was given a prototype Minimoog by its inventor, Robert Moog. According to the Bob Moog Foundation: "Sun Ra first met Robert Moog after "Downbeat" journalist and Sun Ra acquaintance Tam Fiofori arranged for a visit to Moog’s factory in Trumansburg in the Fall of 1969...it was during this visit that Moog loaned
11853749
Sun Ra


to utilize the music of Sun Ra and rely on his inspiration, as in this clip from Aethiopia Sun Ra's world view was often described as a philosophy, but he rejected this term, describing his own manner as an "equation" and saying that while philosophy was based on theories and abstract reasoning, his method was based on logic and pragmatism. Many of the Arkestra cite Sun Ra's teachings as pivotal and for inspiring such long-term devotion to the music that they knew would never make them much money.
11853757
Sun Ra


More recently, Don Letts' "Sun Ra – Brother from Another Planet" (2005) incorporated some of Mugge's material, and includes some additional interviews. "Points on a Space Age" (2009) is a documentary by Ephrahaim Asili. "It's a 60-minute doc along the lines of the talking-head-intercut-with performance clips style." Sun Ra wrote an enormous number of songs and material regarding his spiritual beliefs and music. A magazine titled "Sun Ra Research" was published irregularly for
11853775
Space Is the Place (soundtrack)


these California visits, Sun Ra came to the attention of Jim Newman, who produced the film "Space Is the Place" starring Sun Ra and his Arkestra, and based, in part, on Sun Ra's Berkeley lectures. The soundtrack CD compiles 16 tracks that Sun Ra recorded for the film. "The Penguin Guide to Jazz" describes the album as "a brisk montage of Arkestra music...[I]t works remarkably well and the playing is tight and enigmatic." The "Penguin" editors also note that "Mysterious
12574704
Eye of Ra


solar-associated deities, including Ra himself, to indicate their links with the sun. The disk could even be regarded as Ra's physical form. At other times, the sun god, in various forms, is depicted inside the disk shape, as if enclosed within it. The Egyptians often described the sun's movement across the sky as the movement of a barque carrying Ra and his entourage of other gods, and the sun disk can either be equated with this solar barque or depicted containing the barque inside it.
16039045
Space Is the Place


Space Is the Place is an 85-minute Afrofuturist science fiction film made in 1972 and released in 1974. It was directed by John Coney, written by Sun Ra and Joshua Smith, and features Sun Ra and his Arkestra. A soundtrack was released on Evidence Records. During the late-1960s and early-1970s, Sun Ra and his ensemble made several forays to California. In 1971, Sun Ra taught a course, "The Black Man in the Cosmos", at University of California, Berkeley. Over the course of these California visits,
5742861
Sun Ra


a music education major, studying composition, orchestration, and music theory. He dropped out after a year. Sun Ra soon left college because, he claimed, he had a visionary experience as a college student that had a major, long-term influence on him. In 1936 or 1937, in the midst of deep religious concentration, Sun Ra claimed that a bright light appeared around him, and, as he later said: Sun Ra said that this experience occurred in 1936 or 1937. According to Szwed, the
11853704
Sun Ra


period and it is also some of his most accessible music. Sun Ra's music in this era was often tightly arranged and sometimes reminiscent of Duke Ellington's, Count Basie's, or other important swing music ensembles. However, there was a strong influence from post-swing styles like bebop, hard bop, and modal jazz, and touches of the exotic and hints of the experimentalism that dominated his later music. Notable Sun Ra albums from the 1950s include "Sun Ra Visits Planet Earth", "Interstellar Low Ways
11853744
Sun Ra


the musicians. Dozens of musicians—perhaps hundreds—passed through Sun Ra's bands over the years. Some stayed with him for decades, while others played on only a few recordings or performances. Sun Ra was personally responsible for the vast majority of the constant changes in the Arkestra's lineup. According to contrabassist Jiunie Booth, a member of the Arkestra, Sun Ra did not confront any musician whose performance he was unsatisfied with. Instead, he would simply gather the entire Arkestra minus the offending musician, and skip town
11853754
Sun Ra


of a set) the entire Arkestra snaked out through the audience, playing and chanting something like this. According to Szwed, Sun Ra's view of his relationship to black people and black cultures "changed drastically" over time. Initially, Sun Ra identified closely with broader struggles for black power, black political influence, and black identity, and saw his own music as a key element in educating and liberating blacks. But by the heyday of Black Power radicalism in the 1960s, Sun Ra was expressing disillusionment with these aims
11853762
Sun Ra


when they're going to wake up." Sun Ra is considered to be an early pioneer of the Afrofuturism movement due to his music, writings and other works. The influence of Sun Ra can be seen throughout many aspects of black music. He grounded his practice of Afrofuturism in a musical tradition of performing blackness that remains relevant today. Sun Ra lived out his beliefs of Afrofuturism in his daily life by embodying the movement not only in his music, but also in his clothes and actions. This embodiment of the narrative
11853764
Purple Night


-track tapes were given to Sun Ra and his manager Alton Abraham for future release on their own after the A&M deal concluded; much of these recordings were released three years later by Rounder Records on the album "Somewhere Else", released shortly before Sun Ra's death. Currently the "Purple Night" album is out of print physically (the album is available on iTunes and other digital outlets) and the copyright on the original album passed on to Sun Ra’s estate’s holding company, Sun Ra LLC, in
18448546
Space Is the Place


Sun Ra came to the attention of Jim Newman, who produced the film "Space Is the Place" starring Sun Ra and his Arkestra, and based, in part, on Sun Ra's Berkeley lectures. Sun Ra, who has been reported lost since his European tour in June 1969, lands on a new planet in outer space with his crew, known as "the Arkestra", and decides to settle African Americans on this planet. The medium of transportation he chooses for this resettlement is music. He travels back
5742862
Sun Ra


interest in esoterica. Abraham's strengths balanced Ra's shortcomings: though he was a disciplined bandleader, Sun Ra was somewhat introverted and lacked business sense (a trait that haunted his entire career). Abraham was outgoing, well-connected, and practical. Though still a teenager, Abraham eventually became Sun Ra's "de facto" business manager: he booked performances, suggested musicians for the Arkestra, and introduced several popular songs into the group's repertoire. Ra, Abraham and others formed a sort of book club to
11853720
Sun Ra


allowed him to demonstrate black nationalism as a counternarrative to the present culture. It was in Chicago, as well, in the mid-fifties, that Ra began experimenting with extraterrestriality in his stage show, sometimes playing regular cocktail lounges dressed in space suits and ancient Egyptian regalia. By placing his band and performances in space and extraterrestrial environments Sun Ra built a world that was his own view of how the African diaspora connected. Many of Sun Ra's innovations remain important and groundbreaking. Ra was one of the first jazz leaders
11853765
Sun Ra


the talent to have been a strong leader in his own right. Saxophonist James Spaulding and trombonist Julian Priester also recorded with Sun Ra in Chicago, and both went on to careers of their own. The Chicago tenor Von Freeman also did a short stint with the band of the early 1950s. In Chicago, Sun Ra met Alton Abraham, a precociously intelligent teenager and something of a kindred spirit. He became the Arkestra's biggest booster and one of Sun Ra's closest friends. Both men felt like outsiders and shared an
11853719
Irwin Chusid


Shooby Taylor musical estates, he oversees the business affairs and publishing of R. Stevie Moore, Beth Sorrentino, the Mighty Sparrow, and Wendy & Bonnie. In 2014 Chusid became administrator of Sun Ra LLC, the heirs who control the catalog of the late, eccentric "Afro-Futurist" bandleader/composer. That same year, he and Michael D. Anderson of the Sun Ra Music Archive co-produced a digital-only series of classic Sun Ra albums remastered for iTunes from original Sun Ra session tapes. Since then Chusid
3770405
The Heliocentric Worlds of Sun Ra, Volume Two


The Heliocentric Worlds of Sun Ra, Volume Two is a 1965 recording by the jazz musician Sun Ra and his Solar Arkestra. Where ""Volume One"" of the "Heliocentric Worlds" series had predominantly featured short abstract pieces, "Volume Two" features longer pieces performed by a smaller group, making it closer in spirit to the contemporaneous "The Magic City", released on Ra's own Saturn label. The record has been widely bootlegged, some versions of which were retitled The Sun Myth. The album was
7162243
Sun Ra


ancient Egyptian attire and the Space Age. (Following Ra's illness-forced retirement in 1992, the band remained active as The Sun Ra Arkestra, and, as of 2018, continues performing under the leadership of veteran Ra sideman Marshall Allen.) Though his mainstream success was limited, Sun Ra was a prolific recording artist and frequent live performer, and remained both influential and controversial throughout his life for his music and persona. He is now widely considered an innovator; among his distinctions are his pioneering work in free improvisation
11853694
Michael Ray (trumpeter)


Michael Ray (born December 24, 1952) is an American jazz trumpeter. He tours extensively with Sun Ra and the successor Sun Ra Arkestra under Marshall Allen's direction following Sun Ra's passing. For a period from the mid-1990s to the present he leads his own band, Michael Ray and the Cosmic Krewe. His playing with Sun Ra and independently has incorporated funkjazz, R & B, electronica and fusion genres. He is originally from Trenton, New Jersey and was born December 24, 1952. His professional start was
3457493
When Sun Comes Out


"For the song by Harold Arden and Ted Koehler, see When the Sun Comes Out" When Sun Comes Out is an album by the American Jazz musician Sun Ra and his Myth Science Arkestra. The album was originally released on Ra's own record label, Saturn, in 1963, and was the fifth album by the Arkestra to be put out, after "Jazz by Sun Ra" (1957), "Super-Sonic Jazz" (also 1957), "Jazz in Silhouette" (1959) and "
22090821
Eugene Chadbourne


Hello Ceausescu", and covers, such as Nick Drake's "Thoughts of Mary Jane", and Floyd Tillman's "This Cold War With You". Chadbourne invented an instrument known as the electric rake by attaching an electric guitar pickup to a rake. He played a duet of electric rake and classical piano with Bob Wiseman on Wiseman's 1991 album "Presented by Lake Michigan Soda". He also played the instrument on a Sun Ra tribute album. With Noël Akchoté With Evan Johns With Henry Kaiser With John Zorn
20215478
Strange Strings


with a tunnel voice. But to say that the instruments seem out of tune misses the point, since there is no "tune", and in any case the Arkestra did not know how to tune most of the instruments...' John F Szwed All songs by Sun Ra Side A: Side B: Recorded New York, 1966 except "Door Squeak", 1967. “I’m painting pictures of things I know about, and things I’ve felt, that the world just hasn’t had the chance to feel
22148105
Hathor


ideology of kingship. She was one of many goddesses to take the role of the Eye of Ra, a feminine personification of the disk of the sun and an extension of Ra's own power. Ra was sometimes portrayed inside the disk, which Troy interprets as meaning that the Eye goddess was thought of as a womb from which the sun god was born. Hathor's seemingly contradictory roles as mother, wife, and daughter of Ra reflected the daily cycle of the sun. At sunset the god entered the body of the
11788152
Sun Ra and his Solar Arkestra Visits Planet Earth


Sun Ra and his Solar Arkestra Visits Planet Earth is a jazz album by the American musician Sun Ra and his Solar Arkestra. Recorded between late 1956 and 1958, the album was originally released on Ra's own Saturn label in 1966, and has since been reissued on CD by Evidence in 1992. In keeping with many Saturn releases, one side features cuts from the arkestra c.1958, whilst the other side comes from the 1956 sessions originally intended for "Sound of Joy" but still unreleased in 1966. All songs by Sun
13037018
Ra (Utopia album)


modestly successful, peaking the Billboard Top 200 at #79. A number of test pressings and a very limited amount of vinyl and 8 track tape (cassette release unknown) pressings were pressed using a rejected master tape that includes an alternate mix of the album. The songs "Communion with the Sun" and "Sunburst Finish" are almost entirely different takes. "Communion with the Sun" has a more aggressive drum track, alternate vocals and instrument solos. On "Sunburst Finish," lead vocals are similar but backing
18853676
Night Sun


Led Zeppelin style rock, with a characteristic "heavy progressive" instrumentation of lead guitar, organ, bass and drums. The album was produced by Konrad Plank (whose production credits include Kraftwerk's early output and Ash Ra Tempel) at the Windrose Studio, Hamburg. With their sudden shifts of rhythm structures, guitar-with-organ riffing style and some studio effects, particularly phasing, Night Sun never went too close to the ordinary boogie and rock'n'roll trap. Their sound consisted of many elements, all of which will be
7207622
Yo La Tengo


". In 2001, Yo La Tengo recorded an instrumental score for eight short undersea documentaries by Jean Painlevé, entitled "The Sounds of the Sounds of Science". The program debuted at the San Francisco Film Festival and has been performed live approximately twelve times. The band also released an EP with covers of Sun Ra's "Nuclear War" in late 2002. The band's tenth LP, "Summer Sun", was released in 2003. Although the album received generally favorable reviews, some critics found the album's
9504917
Jazz by Sun Ra


Jazz By Sun Ra (later titled Sun Song) is the debut album by Sun Ra. The record label for the first pressing says "07-12-56", presumably when it was recorded. The LP originally appeared on Tom Wilson's short-lived "Transition Records". In the mid-1960s it was purchased (along with much of the Transition catalog) by Delmark Records owner Bob Koester, finally being reissued in 1967. When originally released, it came with an extensive booklet featuring words and photos of Sun
10489177
New Steps


hands). There are two standards amongst a program of Ra originals, and things get started with a stellar version of "My Favorite Things." The music quickly takes its only sharp turn toward outer space as Ra introduces listeners to "Moon People," the only track where Ra emphasizes synthesizer over piano. "Sun Steps" is a slow tune featuring some beautiful piano playing from Sun Ra. In fact, the remainder of the album is on the mellow side ("When There Is No Sun" is the
8540059
RAF Edzell


RAF Edzell and, when the runway was extended, again from RAF Dyce until disbandment on 10 March 1957, on the same day as all other flying units of the RAuxAF. Motto: Vigilando custodimus - 'We stand guard by vigilance' Squadron Codes: DJ Jul 1939 - Sep 1939 WL Sep 1939 - Aug 1943 8W Jul 1944 - Jul 1945, 1949 - Apr 1951 RAS May 1946 - 1949 1954 - The airfield was still packed full of Lancaster & Lincoln Bombers that had returned to UK from one of the last
19380912
Ra


The holiday of "The Receiving of Ra" was celebrated on May 26 in the Gregorian calendar. Ra's local cult began to grow from roughly the Second Dynasty, establishing him as a sun deity. By the Fourth Dynasty, pharaohs were seen as Ra's manifestations on earth, referred to as "Sons of Ra". His worship increased massively in the Fifth Dynasty, when Ra became a state deity and pharaohs had specially aligned pyramids, obelisks, and sun temples built in his honor. The rulers of the Fifth
7285249
Incredible Expanding Mindfuck


Mindfuck was mentioned as a related project). Wilson's work with I.E.M. is in part a continuation of the experimental psychedelic sound which he initially mastered with Porcupine Tree before steering the band towards a more mainstream rock direction with the "Stupid Dream" album. He has also cited "the cosmic jazz of artists like Sun Ra" as an influence on the music. I.E.M.'s work is more experimental in nature than that of Porcupine Tree, and is almost entirely instrumental. Almost all instruments on I.E.M. recordings are played by Wilson
8197056
Solar deity


"solar bark", "solar barque", "solar boat" and "sun boat", a mythological representation of the Sun riding in a boat) is found in the later myths of ancient Egypt, with Ra and Horus. Predynasty Egyptian beliefs attribute Atum as the sun-god and Horus as a god of the sky and Sun. As the Old Kingdom theocracy gained power, early beliefs were incorporated with the expanding popularity of Ra and the Osiris-Horus mythology. Atum became Ra-Atum, the rays
7767813
Sun Ra


Allen, Knoel Scott, Tyrone Hill and Danny Thompson. Adams has joined the Arkestra as their pianist on several tours, most recently during a February 2016 tour of cities in the US southeast. Detroit's MC5 played a handful of shows with Sun Ra and were influenced by his works immensely. One of their songs from their premiere album "Kick Out the Jams" featured a track called "Starship", which was based on a poem by Ra. Sun Ra was inducted into the Alabama Jazz Hall of Fame in 1979
11853768
We Travel the Space Ways


We Travel the Space Ways is an album by the American jazz musician Sun Ra and his Myth Science Arkestra. Recorded mostly in 1960, the album was released in 1967, on Sun Ra's own label Saturn. The album brings together a number of eras and personnel of the Arkestra, and was probably mostly recorded by Ra himself during rehearsals. The earliest recording, "New Horizons", was recorded at Balkan Studio, Chicago, April 13, 1956, and predates the version on Jazz by Sun Ra. "Velvet
20740843
Cosmic Tones for Mental Therapy


Cosmic Tones for Mental Therapy is an album by the American Jazz musician Sun Ra and his Myth Science Arkestra. Recorded in 1963, but not released until 1967 on Sun Ra's own "Saturn" label, the record has become one of the most discussed of Ra's New York recordings. The record was reissued on compact disc by Evidence in 2000. 'Cosmic Tones functions as a kind of blueprint for the sort of large-scale jazz weirdness that would inform much of Sun-Ra's subsequent works, featuring the
22112882
Sun Ra


, "Secrets of the Sun" and "Other Planes of There". During their third period, beginning in the 1970s, Sun Ra and the Arkestra settled down into a relatively conventional sound, often incorporating swing standards, although their records and concerts were still highly eclectic and energetic, and typically included at least one lengthy, semi-improvised percussion jam. Sun Ra was explicitly asserting a continuity with the ignored jazz tradition: "They tried to fool you, now I got to school you, about jazz, all
11853751
Sunrise in Different Dimensions


ensemble covers as "ragged and eccentric". Among the songs singled out from the track list for special examination in "Landing on the Wrong Note" are "Light from a Hidden Sun" and "Big John's Special". Heble points out the alterations Sun Ra makes to the latter, which expand the big band sound, and suggests that Sun Ra's homage to the jazz composer Horace Henderson is part of Sun Ra's attempt to "reclaim" the "misrepresented history" of swing music, which had become
13175097
Sun Ra


during the late 1940s. He soon abandoned his birth name, taking the name Le Sony'r Ra, shortened to Sun Ra (after Ra, the Egyptian God of the Sun). He developed a complex persona and an idiosyncratic, myth-based credo that would make him a pioneer of Afrofuturism. He claimed to be an alien from Saturn on a mission to preach peace, and throughout his life he publicly denied ties to his prior identity. His widely eclectic and avant-garde music echoed the entire history of jazz,
11853692
Sun Ra


Tommy "Bugs" Hunter and saxophonist Pat Patrick, two of the most accomplished musicians he had known. They performed regularly, and Sun Ra began writing more advanced songs. On October 20, 1952, Blount legally changed his name to Le Sony'r Ra. Sun Ra claimed to have always been uncomfortable with his birth name of Blount. He considered it a slave name, from a family that was not his. David Martinelli suggested that his change was similar to "Malcolm X and Muhammad Ali... [dropping] their slave
11853717
Sleeping Beauty (Sun Ra album)


Sleeping Beauty is an album by jazz composer, bandleader and keyboardist Sun Ra and his Intergalactic Myth Science Solar Arkestra recorded in 1979 and originally released on Ra's Saturn label and rereleased on CD on Art Yard in 2008. The Allmusic review by Sean Westergaard awarded the album 4½ stars stating "This is the great late-night Sun Ra chillout album you never knew about. The band had been working in a more groove-oriented setting off and on for over a year, as evidenced by the albums "Lanquidity" and
8988595
Wurlitzer electric piano


heaviest Wurlitzer ever produced. The Wurlitzer is emulated in several modern digital keyboards, though its electromechanical sound production is difficult to emulate in a synthesized instrument. The Korg SV1 has been critically praised for its accurate emulation of a Wurlitzer. The Nord Stage includes several different Wurlitzer patches. The first commercial recording of a Wurlitzer was the jazz pianist Sun Ra, who used it for his album, "Angels and Demons at Play". It was subsequently used by Ray Charles and Joe Zawinul. The instrument was used extensively by Supertramp
16691085
Sound Sun Pleasure!!


Sound Sun Pleasure!! is an album by the American Jazz musician Sun Ra and his Astro Infinity Arkestra. Recorded March 6, 1959, it wasn't released until 1970 on Sun Ra's Saturn label. Recorded at the same time and with the same personnel as Jazz in Silhouette, the album is unusual amongst early Ra albums for predominantly featuring jazz standards. The album has been reissued on CD by Evidence with 7 tracks taken from the 1973 Saturn album "Deep Purple" recorded between 1953 and 1957. Side A:
12848820
Transparency (record label)


first punk groups in Los Angeles including The Germs and 45 Grave and he brought Throbbing Gristle to Los Angeles in 1981. In September 2011 Transparency published "Sun Ra-The Eternal Myth Revealed Vol. 1: 1914-1959" a box with 14 CDs containing 45 years of Sun Ra music. The realization of this document was launched by Michael D. Anderson, executive director of Sun Ra Music Archive in a press release in which Anderson himself said that "has produced this historically extensive work to bring to the attention of Sun
15999625
Radium-223


an unmet medical need, based on its ability to extend overall survival as shown its Phase III trial. This study also led to approval in the European Union on Sep. 19, 2013 Ra also showed promising preliminary results in a phase IIa trial with bone metastases resulting from breast cancer that no longer responds to endocrine therapy. The data showed that Ra reduced the levels of bone alkaline phosphatase (bALP) and urine N-telopeptide (uNTX), key markers of bone turnover associated with bone metastases in breast cancer. The most
16133001
Matet boat


In Egyptian mythology the Matet Boat was the first of two boats traveled in by Ra, the sun god as he traveled the sky daily with the sun on his head. During the period between dawn and noon, Ra occupies the Matet (growing stronger) boat. During the period between noon and dusk Ra travels in the Sektet (growing weaker) boat. Ra travels the underworld during the night where he encounters and battles many foes. Matet and Sektet seem to have many different spellings and Ra himself is often mixed with
21805725
Prince Ra-Man


investigating the coming Sheeda menace. It is unclear if he is the same person as Prince Ra-Man or another more alien entity from his home dimension which is now referred to as the Interreality of Ra. He vowed that he would assume his 'Wrathful Battle Aspect' and fight the Sheeda. The 'six-sided sun jewel' of the original Ra-Man has now been replaced by the actual cube-shaped sun which, he points out, only looks hexagonal from a distance, which shines over Ra-
9937221
Sun Ra


act. On May 20, 1978, Sun Ra and the Arkestra appeared on the TV show "Saturday Night Live". In New York City in the fall of 1979, Sun Ra and the Arkestra played as the "house band" at the Squat Theatre on 23rd Street, which was notorious as the performance venue of the avant-garde Hungarian theater troupe. Janos, their manager, transformed the theater into a nightclub while most of the troupe was away that season performing in Europe. Debbie Harry, The Velvet Underground
11853735
Iusaaset


's soul from the tomb to the starry heavens, associating him with the heavens, and in particular the greatest heavenly object in Egyptian thought: the Sun. By the time of the New Kingdom, the myth of Atum had merged with that of Ra, who was likewise described as a creator deity and a solar deity as his cult arose. Their two identities were joined together to form Atum-Ra. After they were combined, Ra came to be seen as the sun at midday and Atum as the sun when it
12271002
Eye of Ra


often referred to the sun and the moon as the "eyes” of particular gods. The right eye of the god Horus, for instance, was equated with the sun, and his left eye equated with the moon. At times the Egyptians called the lunar eye the "Eye of Horus", a concept with its own complex mythology and symbolism, and called the solar eye the "Eye of Ra"—Ra being the preeminent sun god in ancient Egyptian religion. However, in Egyptian belief, many terms and concepts are fluid
16039043
Eye of Ra


" in Egyptian, "jrt", resembles another word meaning "do" or "act". The presence of the feminine suffix "-t" in "jrt" may explain why these independent eyes were thought of as female. The Eye of Ra, in particular, is deeply involved in the sun god's creative actions. In Egyptian mythology, the sun's emergence from the horizon each morning is likened to Ra's birth, an event that revitalizes him and the order of the cosmos. Ra emerges from the
16039047
Sun Ra


," preferring to take cash before performing or delivering records. In early 1971, Sun Ra was appointed as artist-in-residence at University of California, Berkeley, teaching a course called "The Black Man In the Cosmos". Few students enrolled, but his classes were often full of curious people from the surrounding community. One half-hour of each class was devoted to a lecture (complete with handouts and homework assignments), the other half-hour to an Arkestra performance or Sun Ra keyboard solo.
11853732
Sun Ra


the same time. In those days, "Space Is The Place" was the space at Squat. The Arkestra continued their touring and recording through the 1980s and into the 1990s. Sun Ra had a stroke in 1990, but kept composing, performing, and leading the Arkestra. Late in his career, he opened a few concerts for the New York–based rock group Sonic Youth. When too ill to perform and tour, Sun Ra appointed Gilmore to lead the Arkestra. (Gilmore was frail from emphysema; after
11853737
Sun Ra


His equation was rarely (if ever) explained as a whole; instead, it was related in bits and pieces over many years, leading some to doubt that he had a coherent message. However, Martinelli argues that, when considered as a whole, one can discern a unified world view that draws upon many sources, but is also unique to Sun Ra, writing: He drew on sources as diverse as the Kabbalah, Rosicrucianism, channeling, numerology, Freemasonry, Ancient Egyptian Mysticism, and black nationalism. Sun Ra
11853758
Sun Ra


on Columbia. Sun Ra had given NRBQ's Terry Adams a copy of the song on 45 and told him, "This is especially for you," which Adams reported inspired him to reform the band after a period of inactivity. The band still includes Sun Ra's compositions in their performances, and besides "Rocket #9" have released recordings of "We Travel the Spaceways" and "Love in Outer Space." Several members of the Arkestra have toured with NRBQ over the years, including Pat Patrick, Marshall
11853767