
Sun Ra: ‘I’m Everything and Nothing’ - tintinnabula
https://www.nybooks.com/articles/2020/07/23/sun-ra-everything-nothing/
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LB232323
Sun Ra is part of the pride of Alabama. A lot of the esoteric and mystical
aspects of his music come from the time he spent growing up and studying at
the local masonic library in Birmingam. At the time, masonic libraries were
one of the only places where black folks had full access to literature.

In fact, some of the most famous jazz musicians were masons. I reject the
author's notion that he was a god. The writer seems devoutly obsessed, almost
worshipful to his cult of personality.

However, I can agree that he was undoubtedly a legendary musician with an
informed talent for creating myth and interpreting mystical concepts into his
music. His music is challenging and experimentally mind-expanding. He lies
buried next to Bear Bryant in a cemetery that holds a dear friend of mine, so
the name always catches the eye.

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tmountain
For any Sun Ra fans in the crowd, please check out Phil Cohran. He was best
known for playing trumpet in the Sun Ra Arkestra in Chicago from 1959 to 1961,
but he has some really amazing solo material. His catalog is somewhat limited,
but it's uniformly excellent. Two of his records, "on the beach", and "the
spanish suite" are streamable in their entirety on youtube. For a quick
introduction, check out his single, "frankiphone blues" (also on youtube).

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lioeters
The documentary mentioned in the article is delightful. It captures a feel for
the strange, magical culture ("reality distortion field") he wove around
himself and the group of artists with him.

Sun Ra: A Joyful Noise -
[https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0270677/](https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0270677/)

This "afro-cosmic" vision was carried on, and taken further by George Clinton
and the Parliament Funkadelic.

[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Parliament-
Funkadelic](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Parliament-Funkadelic)

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uncletaco
I think there's a spectrum between admiring and fetishising and this article
moves too close to the latter for my taste. Even the quote in the article's
title had to clean up the author's quote from Space is The Place which --maybe
I'm misremembering-- featured a Sun Ra who enunciated every word.

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ericzawo
Sun Ra is absolutely worth looking into. Easily one of the most innovative
American musicians of the last 100 years.

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drdeadringer
Last year I went to the San Francisco Museum Of Modern Art because they had an
exhibit regarding space architecture (both real and from film).

Among the space suits and models were film clips denoting different creativity
and functionality in space -- buildings, clothing, interiors, exteriors,
vehicles, &c.

One of the film clips was from Sun Ra's 'Space Is The Place'. When I got home
I found it on Youtube to watch more. It's a trip.

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twirlip
What a marvelous Nabokov quote! The epigraph is a lens for the article--a book
review of photographs of Sun Ra, but actually about Sun Ra's extra-terrestrial
vision of himself and Black America--and serves as a good introduction of Sun
Ra to the uninitiated. The writer tries to describe the sublime which cannot
be explained, only understood, but does a good job nonetheless.

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jackfoxy
I saw the Arkestra in the late 70s at a venue on Broadway in San Francisco. I
was amazed at the number of musicians. How could he pay this many people to
play this small venue and cheap tickets? Amazing show. I think they played
until 1 AM. Followed by the Dead Kennedies, who we weren’t interested in
seeing.

About 6 years later I saw a much smaller Archestra in Camp Hill, PA. Small
crowd. About half of them walked out.

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8bitsrule
Well-written bio and insights into Ra and his impact.

Here's a hand-made and annotated, and equally well-constructed Ra discography
(links only 2 years old)

[https://www.metafilter.com/174248/A-plethora-of-Sun-Ras-
four...](https://www.metafilter.com/174248/A-plethora-of-Sun-Ras-four-decades-
of-baffling-dazzling-mystical-jazz)

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zeruch
I live in the same neighborhood as Arkestra member Eddie Gale (who just
recently passed away). Gale was a local treasure and an incredibly talented
fellow, who definitely came from the Sun-Ra orbit.

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meatsock
I feel like the Outer Space Employment Agency could give people a hand up in
these times

~~~
082349872349872
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cyeUGo1k1R4&t=126](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cyeUGo1k1R4&t=126)

"Hey, what does this job pay?" "Nothing."

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sjm
I saw the Arkestra play live in Berlin once and it was an incredible
experience. Loved this article and the photos; keen to see more of Ming
Smith's work.

