70 Facts About Sun Ra

Sun Ra soon abandoned his birth name, taking the name Le Sony'r Ra, shortened to Sun Ra.

Sun Ra's compositions ranged from keyboard solos to works for big bands of over 30 musicians, along with electronic excursions, songs, chants, percussion pieces, and anthems.

Sun Ra is widely considered an innovator; among his distinctions are his pioneering work in free improvisation and modal jazz and his early use of electronic keyboards and synthesizers.

Sun Ra was born Herman Blount on May 22,1914, in Birmingham, Alabama, as discovered by his biographer, John F Szwed, and published in his 1998 book, Space Is the Place: The Lives and Times of Sun Ra.

Sun Ra was named after the popular vaudeville stage magician Black Herman, who had deeply impressed his mother.

Sun Ra was nicknamed "Sonny" from his childhood, had an older sister and half-brother, and was doted upon by his mother and grandmother.

Sun Ra speculated, only half in jest, that he was distantly related to Elijah Poole, later known as Elijah Muhammad, leader of the Nation of Islam.

Only a few years before his death, the date of Sun Ra's birth was still a mystery.

Sun Ra once said, "The world let down a lot of good musicians".

Sun Ra attended Birmingham's segregated Industrial High School, where he studied under music teacher John T "Fess" Whatley, a demanding disciplinarian who was widely respected and whose classes produced many professional musicians.

Sun Ra took advantage of the Black Masonic Lodge as one of the few places in Birmingham where African Americans had unlimited access to books.

Some believe these influenced the elements Sun Ra incorporated in his later stage shows.

Sun Ra was a music education major, studying composition, orchestration, and music theory.

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 discussed the vision, with no substantive variation, to the end of his life.

Sun Ra was both prophesizing his future and explaining his past with a single act of personal mythology.

Sun Ra rarely slept, citing Thomas Edison, Leonardo da Vinci, and Napoleon as fellow highly productive cat-nappers.

Sun Ra transformed the first floor of his family's home into a conservatory-workshop, where he wrote songs, transcribed recordings, rehearsed with the many musicians who drifted in and out, and discussed Biblical and esoteric concepts with whoever was interested.

Sun Ra formed a new band, and like his old teacher Whatley, insisted on rigorous daily rehearsals.

Sun Ra quickly declared himself a conscientious objector, citing religious objections to war and killing, his financial support of his great-aunt Ida, and his chronic hernia.

Sun Ra was eventually approved for alternate service at Civilian Public Service camp in Pennsylvania, but he did not appear at the camp as required on December 8,1942.

Sun Ra did forestry work as assigned during the day and was allowed to play piano at night.

Sun Ra formed a new band and soon was playing professionally.

Sun Ra performed with the locally successful Lil Green band and played bump-and-grind music for months in Calumet City strip clubs.

Sun Ra claimed to have always been uncomfortable with his birth name of Blount.

Sun Ra considered it a slave name, from a family that was not his.

In Chicago, Sun Ra met Alton Abraham, a precociously intelligent teenager and something of a kindred spirit.

Sun Ra became the Arkestra's biggest booster and one of Sun Ra's closest friends.

Abraham's strengths balanced Ra's shortcomings: though he was a disciplined bandleader, Sun Ra was somewhat introverted and lacked business sense.

Sun Ra's popularity reached an early peak during this period, as the beat generation and early followers of psychedelia embraced him.

Sun Ra moved into a house on Morton Street that became the Arkestra's base of operations until his death.

When lightning struck a tree on their street, Sun Ra took it as a good omen.

Sun Ra became a fixture in Philadelphia, appearing semi-regularly on WXPN radio, giving lectures to community groups, or visiting the city's libraries.

Sun Ra was featured on the April 19,1969 cover of Rolling Stone magazine, which introduced his inscrutable gaze to millions.

Sun Ra continued playing in Europe almost to the end of his life.

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.

In 1971, Sun Ra traveled throughout Egypt with the Arkestra at the invitation of the drummer Salah Ragab.

Sun Ra returned to Egypt in 1983 and 1984, when he recorded with Ragab.

Recordings made in Egypt were released as Live in Egypt, Nidhamu, 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.

Sun Ra was disciplined and drank only club soda at the gigs, but did not impose his strict code on his musicians.

Sun Ra directed while playing three synthesizers at the same time.

Sun Ra had a stroke in 1990, but kept composing, performing, and leading the Arkestra.

When too ill to perform and tour, Sun Ra appointed Gilmore to lead the Arkestra.

In late 1992, Sun Ra returned to his birth city of Birmingham to live with his older sister, Mary Jenkins, who became his caretaker.

Sun Ra died in the hospital on May 30,1993, and was buried at the Elmwood Cemetery.

The first period occurred in the 1950s when Sun Ra's music evolved from big band swing into the outer-space-themed "cosmic jazz" for which he was best known.

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, about jazz" he chanted in concerts, framing the inclusion of pieces by Fletcher Henderson and Jelly Roll Morton.

Sun Ra incorporated smatterings of Disney musical numbers into many of his performances from then on.

Sun Ra was personally responsible for the vast majority of the constant changes in the Arkestra's lineup.

The name of the instrument arose from Bill Sebastian's collaboration with Sun Ra, who incorporated the OVC into the Arkestra from 1978 to 1980 and experimented on video applications from 1981 to 1987.

Sun Ra's equation was rarely 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.

Every aspect of the Sun Ra experience, from business practices like Saturn Records to published collections of poetry to his 35-year career in music, is a manifestation of his equations.

Sun Ra seeks to elevate humanity beyond their current earthbound state, tied to outmoded conceptions of life and death when the potential future of immortality awaits them.

Sun Ra drew on sources as diverse as the Kabbalah, Rosicrucianism, channeling, numerology, Freemasonry, Ancient Egyptian Mysticism, and Black nationalism.

Sun Ra's system had distinct Gnostic leanings, arguing that the god of most monotheistic religions was not the creator god, not the ultimate god, but a lesser, evil being.

Sun Ra was wary of the Bible, knowing that it had been used to justify slavery.

Sun Ra often re-arranged and re-worded Biblical passages in an attempt to uncover "hidden" meanings.

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.

Sun Ra 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 in his clothes and actions.

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.

Detroit's MC5 played a handful of shows with Sun Ra and were influenced by his works immensely.

Sun Ra was inducted into the Alabama Jazz Hall of Fame in 1979.

In 2022, a building at 5626 Morton Street known as the Arkestral Institute of Sun Ra was listed as a historic landmark in the Philadelphia Register of Historic Places.

One of its inhabitants, Marshall Allen, known for his work with The Sun Ra Arkestra, began living there in 1968.

Sun Ra's goal is to transport the American black community to a new planet he discovered while on his journey, and that he hopes to use as a home for an entirely black population.

Sun Ra wrote an enormous number of songs and material regarding his spiritual beliefs and music.

Sun Ra's collected poetry and prose is available as a book, published May 2005, entitled Sun Ra, The Immeasurable Equation.