Sun Ra Quotes

Le Sony'r Ra , better known as Sun Ra, was an American jazz composer, bandleader, piano and synthesizer player, and poet known for his experimental music, "cosmic" philosophy, prolific output, and theatrical performances. For much of his career, Ra led "The Arkestra", an ensemble with an ever-changing name and flexible line-up.

Born and raised in Alabama, Blount became involved in the Chicago jazz scene during the late 1940s. He soon abandoned his birth name, taking the name Le Sony'r Ra, shortened to Sun Ra . He developed a complex persona and an idiosyncratic, myth-based credo that would make him a pioneer of Afrofuturism. He claimed to be an alien from Saturn on a mission to preach peace, and throughout his life he publicly denied ties to his prior identity.His widely eclectic and avant-garde music echoed the entire history of jazz, from ragtime and early New Orleans hot jazz, to swing music, bebop, free jazz and fusion. His compositions ranged from keyboard solos to works for big bands of over 30 musicians, along with electronic excursions, songs, chants, percussion pieces, and anthems. From the mid-1950s until his death, Ra led the musical collective The Arkestra . Its performances often included dancers and musicians dressed in elaborate, futuristic costumes inspired by ancient Egyptian attire and the Space Age. Though his mainstream success was limited, Sun Ra was a prolific recording artist and frequent live performer, and remained influential throughout his life for his music and persona. He is now widely considered an innovator; among his distinctions are his pioneering work in free improvisation and modal jazz and his early use of electronic keyboards and synthesizers. Over the course of his career, he recorded dozens of singles and over one hundred full-length albums, comprising well over 1,000 songs, making him one of the most prolific recording artists of the 20th century.



Wikipedia  

✵ 22. May 1914 – 30. May 1993
Sun Ra: 22 quotes0 likes

Famous Sun Ra Quotes

“Freedom of Speech is Freedom of Music.”

Sun Ra

"The Neglected Plane of Wisdom" (1966), p. 250
Sun Ra : The Immeasurable Equation (2005)

“Music is not material. Music is Spiritual.”

Sun Ra

"The Neglected Plane of Wisdom" (1966), p. 250
Sun Ra : The Immeasurable Equation (2005)

Sun Ra Quotes

“I'll build a world of abstract dreams
And wait for you.”

Sun Ra

Liner notes to Monorails and Satellites (1968)
Context: In some far off place
Many light years in space
I’ll wait for you.
Where human feet have never trod,
Where human eyes have never seen.
I'll build a world of abstract dreams
And wait for you.

“In some far off place
Many light years in space
I’ll wait for you.”

Sun Ra

Liner notes to Monorails and Satellites (1968)
Context: In some far off place
Many light years in space
I’ll wait for you.
Where human feet have never trod,
Where human eyes have never seen.
I'll build a world of abstract dreams
And wait for you.

“Out of nowhere they come like embers suddenly aflame
With living reach
Spiral infinity
Being. Yes. Out of nowhere they come from the no point.”

Sun Ra

"The No Point", p. 256
Sun Ra : The Immeasurable Equation (2005)

“It takes a motion to notion
and it takes a notion to motion.”

Sun Ra

"Tomorrow is Never" (1972), p. 253
Sun Ra : The Immeasurable Equation (2005)

“Sometimes in the ignorance
I feel the meaning”

Sun Ra

"The Differences" (1970), p. 132
Sun Ra : The Immeasurable Equation (2005)
Context: Sometimes in the ignorance
I feel the meaning
Invincible invisible wisdom,
And I commune with intuitive instinct
With the force that made life be
And since it made life be
It is greater than life
And since it let extinction be
It is greater than extinction.
I commune with feelings more than
prayer

“I'm not into division. I'm into coordination, discipline and tradition.”

Sun Ra

As quoted in &quot;Space is still the place&quot; by W. Kim Heron in Metro Times (6 June 2007) http://www.metrotimes.com/editorial/story.asp?id=10582 <br class="br">Context: People have a lot more of the unknown than the known in their minds. The unknown is great; it&#x27;s like the darkness. Nobody made that. It just happens. Light and all that — someone made that; it&#x27;s written that they did. But nobody made the darkness. My music is about dark tradition. Dark tradition means a lot more about than black tradition. There&#x27;s a lot of division in what they call black. I&#x27;m not into division. I&#x27;m into coordination, discipline and tradition.

“People have a lot more of the unknown than the known in their minds. The unknown is great; it's like the darkness. Nobody made that. It just happens.”

Sun Ra

As quoted in &quot;Space is still the place&quot; by W. Kim Heron in Metro Times (6 June 2007) http://www.metrotimes.com/editorial/story.asp?id=10582 <br class="br">Context: People have a lot more of the unknown than the known in their minds. The unknown is great; it&#x27;s like the darkness. Nobody made that. It just happens. Light and all that — someone made that; it&#x27;s written that they did. But nobody made the darkness. My music is about dark tradition. Dark tradition means a lot more about than black tradition. There&#x27;s a lot of division in what they call black. I&#x27;m not into division. I&#x27;m into coordination, discipline and tradition.

“When the person Myth meets the person Reality
The spirit of the impossible-strange appears
In dark disguise”

Sun Ra

"The No Point", p. 256
Sun Ra : The Immeasurable Equation (2005)
Context: When the person Myth meets the person Reality
The spirit of the impossible-strange appears
In dark disguise
It is always there where nothing inverts itself
and becomes something
Whatever is the imperative need

“I probably do what I'm controlled to do. Something … made all this: some Impossibility without a name. That's what the world is controlled by: an Impossibility.”

Sun Ra

Interview with Jennifer Rycenga (2 November 1988)
Context: I probably do what I'm controlled to do. Something … made all this: some Impossibility without a name. That's what the world is controlled by: an Impossibility. It's controlled by someone they call "God" who never had a beginning and naturally had no end. And in a sense He doesn't exist, because of the standards of reality, because everybody knows something can't just happen — but if there is a God, that's what happened; just happened to be, and without ever having not been — they got to face that.

“I think of myself as a complete mystery. To myself.”

Sun Ra

Interview with Jennifer Rycenga (2 November 1988) http://www.plonsey.com/beanbenders/SUNRA-interview.html

“Behold the pre-prophetic symbols of the planes of Never.
Behold, behold this thisness!
This isness.”

Sun Ra

"Tomorrow is Never" (1972), p. 252
Sun Ra : The Immeasurable Equation (2005)

“I see them as they are to is
And not the seeming isness of the was.”

Sun Ra

"The Differences" (1970), p. 132
Sun Ra : The Immeasurable Equation (2005)

“The future is never
Never comes tomorrow
Never is not”

Sun Ra

"Tomorrow is Never" (1972), p. 252
Sun Ra : The Immeasurable Equation (2005)

“What I'm dealing with is so vast and great that it can't be called the truth. It's above the truth.”

Sun Ra

As quoted in Sun Ra : Un noir dans le cosmos (2005) by Aurélien Tchiemessom

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