I grew up in Baltimore. Sun Ra was based in Philly during alotof of my adult yrs there. He played in Baltimore fairly often. There was a club on N Charles St called the Famous Ballroom. Sun Ra & the Arkestra played there. It was dark, w/ one of those "disco balls" - those multi-faceted things that spin & have light reflecting off them. It wasn't a big place but the stage cd manage to hold the Arkestra. I have a very fond memory (that must be around 30 yrs old by now) of sitting at the Ballroom at a round table witnessing the Arkestra playing in full force - w/ dancers & whatnot. At the end, Sun Ra came out into the audience (it was up-close & personal) leading a snake-dance & tilting a "rain-stick" by people's ears so they cd hear the sand pouring from one end to the other of the bamboo tube. He did it to me. If I didn't love him for 10 zillion other reasons I think I might just love him for that alone. They sold records at the concerts - white ones w/ hand-done covers of their more 'far-out' stuff & black ones of the more traditional stuff. Lardy knows I was dirt-poor in those days but I still managed to buy one of each - as I recall, they weren't that expensive. What an incredible person! What incredible music! What incredible philosophy! What incredible imagination! What incredible humor! When I think of all the sadness & trouble that the people I respect have gone thru it makes me ever so angry. Sun Ra, I wish there were a paradise for you to go to where yr immense creativity cd flourish even more than it did on this shithole of a human cesspit that some people have the audacity to call "society". If ever a person has deserved bliss in my bk, it's certainly you & yrs!! ( )

"His first UK performance... was one of the most spectacular concerts ever held in this country. Not spectacular so much in terms of effects, which were low on budget but high on strange atmosphere; spectacular in terms of presenting a complete world view, so occult, so other, to all of us in the audience that the only possible responses were outright dismissal or complete intuitive empathy with a man who had chosen to discard all possibilities of a normal life, even a normal jazz life, in favor of an unremitting alien identity." -David Toop

"Don't have nothin' to do with that. Stand your ground." -Sun Ra

Such an exciting, literate, well-researched and beautiful biography. ( )

Sun Ra, wrapped in the mythology of ancient Egypt and glittering with the sheen of space-age technology, seemed too far out. He claimed to come from Saturn, and he was at least three planets distant from Earth: as an African American (Mars), a jazz musician (Jupiter) and an avant-gardist (there’s Saturn). And then there is his personal vision. Ra was a brilliant musician who mixed and melded music from the entire history of jazz with classical, African and electronics. His performances were unforgettable multi-media extravaganzas that featured chanting, dancing, wild costumes, poetry and fabulous music.

Ra was no fool. He built a big band and kept it working for fifty years, long after the more famous bands had folded up. He was perhaps the first African American to own his own label – Saturn. He controlled his own publishing and distribution (mostly). He made two films, one of which has become a cult classic (Space is the Place).

This collection by John Sinclair, former manager of MC5 and a producer of many of Ra’s concerts offers a tantalizing introduction to Sun Ra. Memoirs by the Arkestra, reviews of major concerts, essays on the Ra’s place in cultural history will send you running to find the music. Interviews with Sun Ra himself both mystify and demonstrate the originality of his thinking. Ra-inspired poetry by Amiri Baraka (Leroy Jones, prose by DJ Steve Fly Agaric 23, and a collection of graphic art add other dimensions.

Sun Ra remains a fascinating figure, a composer and performer whose work is becoming better known through the release of new compilations and restored recordings. This book is both inspired and inspirational and offers important insights into the work of this unjustly neglected artist.