Original Creators: Sun Ra

Each week we pay homage to a select "Original Creator"—an iconic artist from days gone by whose work influences and informs today's creators. These are artists who were innovative and revolutionary in their fields. Bold visionaries and radicals, groundbreaking frontiersmen and women who inspired and informed culture as we know it today. This week: Sun Ra.

Every once in a while a musician comes along whose artistic vision is so unique and profound that it not only drives their own artistic legacy, but also give rise to a variety of new music genres. That's the case with Sun Ra. His vast and fecund career spans genres from jazz to electronic to R&B, but it goes beyond music to include civil rights activism, mythology, and science fiction.

Herman Poole Blount, aka Sun Ra, was one of the most prolific, prodigious minds of jazz. Born and raised in Birmingham, Alabama, Ra began his career at an early age—he was just 11 years old when he composed his first original compositions. As a teenager, he performed as a professional solo pianist and played with several jazz and R&B bands in town before settling on the style that would come to define his career: bebop, a sub-genre of jazz that is distinctive for improvisation, instrumental virtuosity and swing, in addition to strong influence from world music and African jazz. But perhaps Ra’s greatest innovation in music was the pioneering use of primitive electric keyboards in his work.

Sun Ra actually started to study music in college, but he dropped out shortly after a trip to Saturn… or so he claims. "They talked to me and told me to leave college because there would be major problems with schools… the world would become complete chaos… I would speak [through music] and the world would listen… That's what they told me." Whether this revelation really was the product of an extraterrestrial experience or perhaps, as is more common on college campuses the world over, drug-induced prophetic delirium, it didn’t end up being too far from the truth.

After a few years and some disturbing experiences during World War II, Ra moved to Chicago, where he recorded his first singles with blues singer Wynonie Harris. Dig This Boogie was his first solo record as a pianist.

“Dig This Boogie” – Wynonie Harris and Sun Ra

In Chicago, Sun Ra hung out with great musicians and got all kinds of motivation and inspiration from several sub-genres of jazz and numerous instrumentalists. His ideas regarding music have always comprehended collective creation and collaborations have involved names such as Fletcher Henderson, Coleman Hawkins and Laurdine “Pat” Patrick.

In the early '50s, Ra began to establish the orchestra that would accompany him until the end of his days. Known as Arkestra, the orchestra is still currently performing. It was then that the visionary musician met a young Alton Abraham, a precocious artist just as Ra was in his day who, in addition to prompting the ensemble of the orchestra, became one of Ra’s closest friends. Together they founded an independent label known at the time as El Saturn Records. However, Sun Ra's first album was produced by Tom Wilson (Bob Dylan, Velvet Underground) in 1959, called Jazz by Sun Ra. The track below is a part of this first record.

“Street Named Hell” – Sun Ra and Arkestra

When he moved to New York in 1961 with some loyal Arkestra comrades, Ra’s cutting-edge music and prophetic messages started to reach new audiences and received accolades and encouragement from such kings of bebop as Dizzie Gillespie and Thelonius Monk.

Around this time, Ra visited Egypt, a land that would influence his aesthetics, ideas and even his name (Ra means “Sun” in the ancient Egyptian language). Ra's story was portrayed in a mythical plot written by the musician himself, involving nuances of science fiction and comedy, Space Is The Place, from 1974.

Opening scene from Space Is The Place

Sun Ra was one of the first musicians to use synth and electric keyboards in his music, creating sound amalgamations that were previously inconceivable. His experimentations unleashed new genres and sub-genres, and were wildly influential on electronic music, free jazz, space jazz, and noise.

“Astro Black” – Sun Ra

Without showing distinctions between high and low culture, Ra covered the song “Pink Elephants On Parade”, part of the soundtrack of the Disney classic Dumbo, from 1941.

Sun Ra passed away in 1993, leaving behind a huge music collection and one of the great legacies of jazz. Some of the names strongly influenced by Ra include Velvet Underground, George Clinton, Madlib, Flying Lotus, and Four Tet, and Yo La Tengo, who have actually covered some of his songs and performed with the Arkestra.