Sun Ra
This artist isn’t to be taken too lightly – Sun Ra (‘Ra’ being the God of the sun in ancient Egypt), of the Angel Race from Saturn was a prolific jazz composer, cosmic philosopher and preacher of peace above all.
There is some disagreement as to Sun Ra’s date of birth. He stated that he had “arrived on Earth” on a number of dates. He was fond of showing his doubters his United States passport, which clearly gave the place of birth as the planet Saturn. 22nd May 1914 appeared on his passport, but other sources place his birth anywhere from 1910 to 1918; most sources support a birth year of 1914 or 1915. Before his teenage years, Sun Ra was creating original compositions and site reading music. He could also hear a big band performance once and be able to transcribe all of the bands songs.
His personal music collection contained over 10,000 discs, and he was constantly reviewing and studying. Many of his improvisational and compositional innovations were extensions of ideas from twentieth-century European composers. Sun Ra is responsible for having brought these ideas into jazz decades before many commercial artists popularised the same methods.
As ever, the music speaks better than words ever can:
TS
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