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Sun Ra and his Intergalactic Harmonies

Sun Ra was born on the planet Saturn, ages ago, and spent some time on Earth using the power of music to demonstrate the virtues of discipline and harmony to members of this planet. Or, if you prefer a more straightforward approach to your musical biographies, Sun Ra was born Herman P. Blount in Birmingham, Alabama in 1914. Whichever way you choose to look at matters, some things are not in doubt : Sun Ra arrived on this planet via Birmingham on May 22, 1914, left this planet on May 30, 1993, and spent the majority of his time here working with groups of musicians to leave behind an amazingly large, diverse, diffuse, and beautiful catalogue of recordings and live performances the likes of which has never been seen before.It is impossible, given the breadth and depth of Ra's work, as well as the fact that most of the albums which he recorded are out-of-print and owned only by a select few collectors, to attempt to trace Ra's career with any thoroughness in less than a hundred pages or so. I'll attempt here to provide some overview to Sun Ra's life as well as providing my own opinion and perspective on some of the Sun Ra titles currently in print.

Ra played piano in jazz bands (in Birmingham - known as "The Magic City") while in high school. He worked in Alabama clubs under the name "Sonny Lee" and worked with the leading swing bands in the state. There are no existing recordings of Ra (not yet found in this galaxy, anyway) up until a Herman "Sonny" Blount was recorded in 1946 playing piano on two singles recorded for the Bullet Label by singer Wynonie Harris. In 1946 Ra made a move up to Chicago, where he went on to work with Fletcher Henderson and with Red Saunders. He also did some playing with Coleman Hawkins and with jazz violinist Stuff Smith; an eerie and worthwhile duet between Ra and Smith did survive and is available on Evidence's reissue of the Sound Sun Pleasure!! collection (the track "Deep Purple," thought by some to date back to 1948 or 1949).

Ra formed his own band at some point in this time frame, and accompanied singers and instrumentalists as well as providing the occasional background bump and grind for strippers (later memorialized in the Space is the Place film). Ra worked on his music, and began to add members to his band, for the next few years. In 1952 he underwent what has been referred to as a spiritual crisis, and legally changed his name to Le Sony'r Ra. Meanwhile, he continued to arrange and play on Red Saunders' recordings as well as those of some other artists. Three brilliant horn players who would contribute greatly to Ra's music came out of the Army and into Ra's "Arkestra" - John Gilmore (a major influence on John Coltrane, and a classic tenor saxophone player) in 1953.

Marshall Allen (capable of crazed alto saxophone as intense as any other from this earthly sphere, and a very flexible player who played a number of instruments for Ra [including much lovely flute] and played them well) in 1954, and Pat Patrick (whose baritone sax was a primary color in the tonal palette of the Arkestra) also in 1954. Ra woodshedded his Arkestra while also working with some vocal and doo-wop groups who recorded on the new Saturn label run by Alton Abraham in some confluence with his friend Sun Ra.