Check nearby libraries
Buy this book
Sun Ra - a/k/a Herman Poole "Sonny" Blount - was born in Alabama on May 22, 1914. But like Father Divine and Elijah Muhammad, he made a lifelong effort to obscure many of the facts of his early life.
After years as a rehearsal pianist for nightclub revues and in blues and swing bands, including Wynonie Harris's and Fletcher Henderson's, Sun Ra set out in the 1950s to find a way to impart his views about the galaxy, black people, and spiritual matters through the various incarnations of the Intergalactic Arkestra.
His repertoire ranging from boogie-woogie, swing, and bebop to free form, fusion, and whatever, Sun Ra was above all a paragon of contradictions: profundity and vaudeville; technical pianistic virtuosity and irony; assiduous attention to arrangements and encouragement of collective improvisation; respect for tradition and celebration of the fresh.
Some might have been bemused by his Afro-Platonic neo-hermeticism; others might have laughed at his egregious excesses. But Sun Ra was at once the last of the great romantic composers, one of the premier avant-gardists of the latter half of the twentieth century, and a black cultural nationalist who extended Afrocentrism from ancient Egypt to the heavens.
Check nearby libraries
Buy this book
Previews available in: English
Subjects
Biography, Jazz musicians, Biographies, Musiciens de jazz, Sun Ra, Sun Ra, 1914-1993, New York Times reviewedPeople
Sun RaPlaces
United StatesShowing 3 featured editions. View all 3 editions?
Edition | Availability |
---|---|
1
Space is the place: the lives and times of Sun Ra
1998, Da Capo Press
in English
- 1st Da Capo Press ed.
0306808552 9780306808555
|
aaaa
Libraries near you:
WorldCat
|
2
Space is the place: the lives and times of Sun Ra
1997, Pantheon Books
in English
- 1st ed.
0679435891 9780679435891
|
zzzz
Libraries near you:
WorldCat
|
3 |
zzzz
Libraries near you:
WorldCat
|
Book Details
Edition Notes
Includes bibliographical references (p. 409-425) and index.
Discography: p. 427-448.
Previously published: New York : Pantheon Books, 1997.
Classifications
The Physical Object
ID Numbers
Source records
Scriblio MARC recordLibrary of Congress MARC record
Internet Archive item record
Internet Archive item record
Library of Congress MARC record
Better World Books record
Links outside Open Library
Community Reviews (0)
Feedback?August 7, 2024 | Edited by MARC Bot | import existing book |
August 6, 2021 | Edited by New York Times Bestsellers Bot | Add NYT review links |
February 14, 2020 | Edited by MARC Bot | remove fake subjects |
June 29, 2019 | Edited by MARC Bot | import existing book |
December 9, 2009 | Created by WorkBot | add works page |