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Happy Arrival Day, Sun Ra!
brianlux
Moving through All Kinds of Terrain. Posts: 40,670
in Other Music
Musician, poet, composer, bandleader, philosopher, Sun Ra arrived on planet Earth on this day in 1914.
As Ra's "birthday" began to approach, it seemed to me that "arrival day" was a better description for when this amazing soul began his journey in this lifetime. That idea was affirmed when I came across this passage in John Szwed's excellent Sun Ra Biography, Space is the Place; The Lives and Times of Sun Ra: "We talk about people having "departed" from this world, but never say they have "arrived" here. The birthday should be the arrival day and what you call death should be the departure day."
Ra claimed on occasion that he came from Saturn on a mission of peace and described in consistent detail throughout his life a teleportation to Saturn:
"My whole body changed into something else. I could see through myself.
And I went up... I wasn't in human form... I landed on a planet that I
identified as Saturn... they teleported
me and I was down on [a] stage with them. They wanted to talk with me.
They had one little antenna on each ear. A little antenna over each eye.
They talked to me. They told me to stop [attending college] because
there was going to be great trouble in schools... the world was going
into complete chaos... I would speak [through music], and the world
would listen. That's what they told me."
These were not the words of a crazed druggie. Sun Ra was a brilliant individual who eschewed and abstained from drugs and rarely drank alcohol.
Ra was often misunderstood and maligned but people who did not understand his music and his band. Many who first hear his music find it odd at best, chaotic and undisciplined at worst. But Sun Ra's music is anything but haphazard and undisciplined. All of his music was written and charted for each member of his orchestra (or what he referred to as the Arkestra) and rehearsal time with his various band was quite extensive. Sun Ra was a gifted musician from an early age, learning to play piano, sight read and compose music at the age of 10 or 11.
Here are some excellent videos of Sun Ra and the Arkestra at work:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vAVXGWEumUc
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k341z3dsXy4Happy Arrival Day, Sun Ra!
“The fear of death follows from the fear of life. A man [or woman] who lives fully is prepared to die at any time.”
Variously credited to Mark Twain or Edward Abbey.
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Hey, thanks so much 78! I'll check it out. Never seen nor heard of that one.