Sun Ra, właśc. Herman Poole Blount – amerykański kompozytor jazzowy, pianista, bandlider, poeta i filozof, znany z oryginalnych koncepcji i występów w swoim zespole, The Arkestra. Laureat NEA Jazz Masters Award 1982.
„Ze wszystkich muzyków jazzowych, Sun Ra był prawdopodobnie najbardziej kontrowersyjny” – napisał krytyk Scott Yanow, odwołując się do nieortodoksyjnego stylu życia i eklektycznej muzyki klawiszowca. Sun Ra nigdy nie osiągnął wielkiego sukcesu komercyjnego, ale dzięki częstym koncertom, zmieniającym się od występów solo do 30-osobowych zespołów, zyskał swoje miejsce w prawie każdym elemencie historii jazzu – od ragtime'u i swingu do bebopu i free jazzu.
Dyskografia Ra jest jedną z największych w historii muzyki, klawiszowiec nagrał bowiem ponad sto albumów studyjnych. Większość z nich jest już dzisiaj niedostępna, bądź bardzo trudna do znalezienia. Założona przez Sun Ra wytwórnia El Saturn Records wydawała zwykle po 75 egzemplarzy każdego albumu, które sprzedawane były na koncertach. Co więcej, wiele z wczesnych albumów nagrywane były przez muzyka w jego własnym domu.
Spośród ogromnego materiału nagraniowego, najbardziej przystępnymi albumami Suna Ra są zdaniem krytyków: Atlantis, Jazz In Silhouette, Space Is the Place, The Magic City, Super-Sonic Jazz, Interstellar Low Ways, Lanquidity, The Nubians of Plutonia, Secrets of the Sun, The Heliocentric Worlds of Sun Ra, Mayan Temples i Cosmic Tones for Mental Therapy. Wszystkie te nagrania dostępne są na płytach CD. Wikipedia
“I'll build a world of abstract dreams
And wait for you.”
Liner notes to Monorails and Satellites (1968)
Kontekst: 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.”
Liner notes to Monorails and Satellites (1968)
Kontekst: 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.
"The No Point", p. 256
Sun Ra : The Immeasurable Equation (2005)
"The No Point", p. 256
Sun Ra : The Immeasurable Equation (2005)
“It takes a motion to notion
and it takes a notion to motion.”
"Tomorrow is Never" (1972), p. 253
Sun Ra : The Immeasurable Equation (2005)
“Sometimes in the ignorance
I feel the meaning”
"The Differences" (1970), p. 132
Sun Ra : The Immeasurable Equation (2005)
Kontekst: 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.”
As quoted in "Space is still the place" by W. Kim Heron in Metro Times (6 June 2007) http://www.metrotimes.com/editorial/story.asp?id=10582 <br class="br">Kontekst: 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. Light and all that — someone made that; it'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's a lot of division in what they call black. I'm not into division. I'm into coordination, discipline and tradition.
As quoted in "Space is still the place" by W. Kim Heron in Metro Times (6 June 2007) http://www.metrotimes.com/editorial/story.asp?id=10582 <br class="br">Kontekst: 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. Light and all that — someone made that; it'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's a lot of division in what they call black. I'm not into division. I'm into coordination, discipline and tradition.
"The No Point", p. 256
Sun Ra : The Immeasurable Equation (2005)
Kontekst: 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
Interview with Jennifer Rycenga (2 November 1988)
Kontekst: 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.
“Freedom of Speech is Freedom of Music.”
"The Neglected Plane of Wisdom" (1966), p. 250
Sun Ra : The Immeasurable Equation (2005)
“Music is not material. Music is Spiritual.”
"The Neglected Plane of Wisdom" (1966), p. 250
Sun Ra : The Immeasurable Equation (2005)
"The Neglected Plane of Wisdom" (1966), p. 250
Sun Ra : The Immeasurable Equation (2005)
“I think of myself as a complete mystery. To myself.”
Interview with Jennifer Rycenga (2 November 1988) http://www.plonsey.com/beanbenders/SUNRA-interview.html
As quoted in "Sun Ra : Stranger from Outer Space" by Mike Walsh at missionCreep http://missioncreep.com/mw/sunra.html
Liner notes for Cosmic Tones for Mental Therapy (1966)
Interview with Jennifer Rycenga (2 November 1988)
As quoted in a press release by A&M Records (1989) http://www.elrarecords.com/sunra.html
“Behold the pre-prophetic symbols of the planes of Never.
Behold, behold this thisness!
This isness.”
"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.”
"The Differences" (1970), p. 132
Sun Ra : The Immeasurable Equation (2005)
“The future is never
Never comes tomorrow
Never is not”
"Tomorrow is Never" (1972), p. 252
Sun Ra : The Immeasurable Equation (2005)
As quoted in Sun Ra : Un noir dans le cosmos (2005) by Aurélien Tchiemessom
