Sun Ra?

[SilverShoes]

So any Sun Ra fans around here besides me? I'm presently listening to Strange Celestial Road, an album from the early 80's, and I'd actually forgotten how good this one is! I seemed to remember it being more conventional, but obviously I was somehow mistaken. Sure, the musical structures start off as being like conventional big band music crossed with funk, but there's plenty of "taking it into orbit" going on to suit me.

I dunno, maybe I just impatient in the past and wanted the "lunar orbit" to begin sooner rather than later. Maybe I didn't get into funky sound either. :dunno:

Anyway, I'm enjoying it right now.

I've been on a big Sun Ra kick for the last week, listening to all my Ra CD's (and I have quite a few, though nowhere near all of what's been reissued).

[JB86]

Is there any of their stuff on youtube? Sounds interesting and I'm always looking for new music to listen to!

[SilverShoes]

Is there any of their stuff on youtube? Sounds interesting and I'm always looking for new music to listen to!

Space Is The Place
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ef3rh2qRJvo

Calling Planet Earth
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8Un6pmJK_ZE

Angels And Demons At Play
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qw3Trh10Jr8

Lights On A Satellite
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fi9eT-KF6EY

Lanquidity
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zUjOlmk4Lh8

A piece from A Joyful Noise, a documentary from 1980
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tbkJ4FAJg14

Rocket Number 9 Take For The Planet Venus
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nuNpmyZ6za0

Organ solo (not for the faint hearted)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3SsBtfuSDxw

[Altres]

The man was fantastic, and from Saturn too.

Brian

[SilverShoes]

Another worthy point is that Sun Ra was perhaps one of the first musicians who operate his own low budget label. Saturn Records was the DIY outlet that Sun Ra and his business partner Alton Abraham put together when Ra proved to crazy and eccentric for more mainstream record labels.

And he's also responsible for possibly the greatest, strangest music film ever made: Space Is The Place. It's like a weirdo B movie that mixes concert performance with a sci fi plot revolving around Ra's plans to remove all the oppressed people from Earth before destroying the planet. And since it was made in 1973-4, there's a good healthy dose of blaxploitation mixed in, too. Strange film that everyone should see at least once.