Friday, May 31, 2013

But, Some Universes Are Way Cooler Than Others

It has been 20 years since the being whose name was officially listed on his American passport as Sun Ra left this universe. His birthplace according to his passport was the planet Saturn. Such was the absolute force of this being who managed to exist outside of any reality except his own. He was a true musician, he understood the rules of music as they were written and played jazz in big bands and small groups for years. He understood the reality of sonic physics as they existed in this universe, but he found another way, another path, another logic, another discipline, a gateway to his own own personal universe. This man and the noise he created changed my life many years ago. It still resonates and the echoes are still changing the way we hear and think about music. Even in Sun Ra's present universe, he still is influencing ours.
This is his 1974 movie, Space Is The Place, the entire movie...One of the greatest "cult films" ever made. 
Absolutely indispensible for the opening sequences alone, but the entire film is full of inventive low budget alternate reality wit, wisdom and music of another universe from the Master, Sun Ra.
Sun Ra began his sojourn on our planet in Birmingham, Alabama as Herman Poole Blount on May 22, 1914 and departed on May 30, 1993...I used to drive the Seligman Brothers crazy in their great record store on Sylvania Avenue in Toledo, Ohio in my quest for his music. Sun Ra's recordings were self issues. For years much of it was limited pressings with hand made covers sold out of the trunk of cars. The Seligman Brothers almost always came through for me!  

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