Sun Ra (Born Herman Poole Blount; legal name Le Sony'r Ra;[1] born May 22, 1914 in Birmingham, Alabama, died May 30, 1993
in Birmingham, Alabama) was an innovative jazz
composer, bandleader, piano
and synthesizer player, poet and philosopher known for his "cosmic philosophy", musical compositions and
performances.
He abandoned his birth name and took on the name and persona of Sun Ra (Ra being the ancient
Egyptian god of the Sun). Claiming that he was of the "Angel Race" and not from Earth, but from Saturn, Ra developed a complicated
persona of "cosmic" philosophies and lyrical poetry that made him a pioneer of Afrofuturism
as he preached "awareness" and peace above all.
He led The Arkestra (a deliberate mis-spelling of "orchestra"), an ensemble with an
ever-changing lineup and name (it was also called "The Solar Myth Arkestra," the "Blue Universe Arkestra," "The Jet Set Omniverse
Arkestra," and many other permutations; Ra asserted that the ever-changing name of his ensemble reflected the ever-changing
nature of his music.)
A prolific recording artist and frequent live performer, Sun Ra's music ranged from keyboard solos to big bands of 30-odd musicians; his music touched on virtually the entire history of jazz, from ragtime to swing music, from bebop to
free jazz; he was also a pioneer of electronic
music, space music[2] and free improvisation, and was one of the first
musicians, regardless of genre, to make extensive use of electronic keyboards.
He eschewed racism, and insisted his musicians avoid drug
abuse, but he rarely spoke directly about politics or any controversial subjects.
Biography
Early life
For decades, very little was known about Sun Ra's early life; much of it was obscured by Sun Ra himself: he routinely gave
evasive, contradictory or seemingly nonsensical answers to personal questions, and he even went so far as to deny his birth name.
Even his birthday was unknown, with years ranging from 1910 to 1918 being claimed for his birth. Only a few years before his
death, the date of Sun Ra's birth remained a mystery: Jim Macnie's notes for Blue Delight (1989) could only state that Ra
was believed to be about 75 years old.
However, Ra's biographer John F. Szwed[3] was able to
uncover a wealth of information about Ra's early life, including confirming a May 22,
1914 birthday.
Named after the popular vaudeville stage magician Black
Herman who'd deeply impressed his mother, Blount would speculate, only half in jest, that he was distantly related to
Elijah Poole, later famous as Elijah Muhammed, leader of the Nation of Islam. Blount was nicknamed "Sonny" from his childhood, and
had an older sister and half-brother, and was doted upon by his mother and grandmother.
At ten years old, Ra joined the Knights of Pythias, and remained a member until he
graduated from high school. His family was deeply religious, but was not formally associated with any Christian church or
sect.
Even as a child Blount was a skilled pianist. By 11 or 12 years old he was writing original songs,[4] and was able to sight read
sheet music. Birmingham was an important stop for touring musicians, and Blount saw famous
musicians like Fletcher Henderson, Duke
Ellington, Fats Waller, along with less-famous performers who were often just as
talented as their better-known peers, with Ra once stating "the world let down a lot of good musicians."[5] In his teen years, Blount demonstrated prodigious musical talents: many
times, according to acquaintances, he would see big band performances, and, from memory,
produce full transcriptions of the bands' songs.
Blount had few or no close friends in high school, but was remembered as kind-natured and
quiet, an honor roll student and a voracious reader. The Black Masonic Lodge was one of the few places in Birmingham where African-Americans had essentially unlimited
access to books, and the Lodge's many books on Freemasonry and other esoteric concepts made
a big impression on Blount.
By his mid-teens, Ra was performing semi-professionally as a solo pianist, or as a member of various ad hoc jazz and
R&B groups. He attended Birmingham's Industrial High School, where he studied under famed
music teacher John T. "Fess" Parker, a demanding disciplinarian who was widely respected and
whose classes produced many professional musicians.
Also by his teens, Ra suffered from cryptorchidism,[6] a chronic testicular hernia that left him with a nearly constant discomfort that sometimes flared into severe pain. The condition also
left him with a sense of shame and increased his sense of isolation.
Blount rejected the invitation to be his high school class valedictorian, writes Szwed,
because the young pianist "wanted nothing to do with leadership."[7]
Some people saw Sun Ra's speech and mannerisms as effeminate, and there was speculation that he was homosexual. Others, however, discounted such ideas, noting that Sun Ra seemed to have no interest in any
sort of romantic or sexual relationships. In a rare insight into his personal life, Blount wrote in a 1943 letter, "I have never
been able to think of sex as a part of my life though I have tried to but I just wasn't interested";[8] (see Asexuality). When asked directly why he
had never married, Sun Ra paraphrased the Gospel of St. Matthew, stating, "They
neither marry nor are given in marriage but are like angels that shine forth like the sun."
Early professional career and college
In 1934, Blount was offered his first full-time musical job when Industrial High School English teacher Ethel Harper organized
a band and decided to pursue a career as a singer. Blount joined a musicians' union, and
Harper's group toured through the U.S. southeast and Midwest. Harper left the group mid-tour to move to New York (she later was a
member of the modestly successful singing group the Ginger Snaps), and Blount took over
leadership of the group, renaming it the Sonny Blount Orchestra. They continued touring for several months before dissolving the
unprofitable group.
Though the first edition of the Sonny Blount Orchestra was not financially successful, they earned positive notice from fans
and other musicians, and Blount afterwards found steady employment in Birmingham.
The clubs of Birmingham often featured exotic trappings such as vivid lighting and murals with tropical or oasis scenes that were believed to have influenced Sun Ra's later
stage shows. The big bands also imparted a sense of pride and togetherness to black musicians: musicians were highly regarded in
the black community, and were expected to be disciplined and presentable, and in the segregated south, black musicians arguably
had the most acceptance in white society, often performing for white high society audiences (though they were typically forbidden
from associating with the audiences).
In 1936, Parker's intercession led to Blount being awarded a scholarship at Alabama A&M. He was a music
education major, studying composition, orchestration, and music theory, but after a year, he dropped out.
Blount's "trip to Saturn"
Finances and his increasing sense of isolation are believed to have been a factor in Blount's leaving college, but perhaps
more importantly, he claimed a visionary experience as a college student, a strange event that was to have a major long-term
influence on the young pianist. In 1936 or 1937, in the midst of deep religious concentration, Blount claimed that a bright light
appeared around him, and, as he later stated,
....my whole body changed into something else. I could see through myself. And I went up … I wasn't in human form … I landed
on a planet that I identified as Saturn … they teleported me and I was down on [a] stage
with them. They wanted to talk with me. They had one little antenna on each ear. A little antenna over each eye. They talked to
me. They told me to stop [attending college] because there was going to be great trouble in schools … the world was going into
complete chaos ... I would speak [through music], and the world would listen. That's what they told me."[9]
Ra said that this experience occurred in 1936 or '37, but according to Swzed, even Blount's closest associates cannot date the
story any earlier than 1952 (and Blount also stated that it occurred when he was living in Chicago, a town he did not regularly
inhabit until the late-1940s). With no substantial variations, Blount discussed the vision to the end of his life. The trip to
Saturn allegedly happened a full decade before flying saucers entered public
consciousness, about fifteen years before the contactees and their stories of benevolent
Space Brothers were publicized, and almost twenty years before sinister UFO abductions were a public concept. Szwed writes that in later years, Blount's experience would
classify as a "classic UFO-abduction story"[10]
Additionally, Szwed states,
...even if this story is revisionist autobiography … Sonny was pulling together several strains of his life. He was both
prophesying his future and explaining his past with a single act of personal mythology.[11]
Late 1930s: A new devotion to music
Even putting Blount's strange vision aside, after leaving college, he became known as perhaps the most singularly devoted
musician in Birmingham. He rarely slept, citing Thomas Edison, Leonardo Da Vinci and Napoleon as fellow highly
productive cat-nappers. He transformed the first floor of his family's home into a conservatory-cum-workshop, where he wrote
songs, transcribed recordings, rehearsed with the many musicians who were nearly constantly drifting in and out, and discussed
Biblical and esoteric concepts with whoever was interested; Szwed describes the Blount home as "a kind of pool hall for the
metaphysically minded."[12]
Blount became a regular at Birmingham's Forbes Piano Company, a white-owned company which -- astoundingly for a business in
the Deep South -- simply ignored the strict Jim Crow
laws of the racially segregated era. Blount visited the Forbes building almost daily to play music, swap ideas with staff
and customers, or copy sheet music into his notebooks.
He formed a new band, and, like his old teacher Parker, insisted on rigorous daily rehearsals. The new Sonny Blount Orchestra
earned a reputation as an impressive, disciplined band that could play "sweet" and "hot" music with equal skill.
Drafted and wartime experiences
In October, 1942, Blount received a selective service notification that he
had been drafted into the U.S.
Military. He quickly declared himself a conscientious objector, citing
religious objections to war and killing, his financial support of his great-aunt Ida, and his chronic hernia. His case was
rejected by the local draft board, and in his appeal to the national draft board, Blount wrote that the lack of Black men on the
draft appeal board "smacks of Hitlerism."[13] His family was deeply embarrassed by Sonny's refusal to join the military, and he was effectively
ostracized by many of his relatives.
Blount was eventually approved for alternate service at Civilian Public
Service camp in Pennsylvania. However, Blount didn't appear at the camp as scheduled
on December 8, 1942, and shortly thereafter, he was arrested in
Alabama.
In court, Blount declared that even alternate service was unacceptable to him, and he debated the judge on points of law and
Biblical interpretation. Though sympathetic to Blount, the judge also declared that he was clearly in violation of the law, and
was risking forcible induction into the U.S. Military. Blount declared that if he were inducted, he would use his military
weapons and training to kill the first high-ranking military officer he could. The judge sentenced Blount to jail (pending draft
board and CPS rulings), and then declared "I've never seen a nigger like you before;" Blount replied, "No, and you never will
again."[14] Szwed describes Blount's boldness as "brave
and audacious"[15] in a culture where black men were
routinely lynched.
In January, 1943, a desperate Blount wrote the U.S. Marshalls from the
Walker County, Alabama jail in Jasper.
He said he was facing a nervous breakdown due to the stress of imprisonment, that he
was suicidal, and that he was in constant fear of sexual
assault.
His conscientious objector status was eventually reaffirmed in February, 1943, and Blount was escorted to Pennsylvania where he conducted forestry work in the days and was allowed to play piano at night.
Psychiatrists there described him as "a psychopathic personality [and] sexually perverted"
but also as "a well-educated colored intellectual."[16]
In March, 1943, Blount was classified as 4-F due to his hernia. [1]. He returned to Birmingham
embittered and angered by his experiences. He formed a new band and quickly was playing professionally.
After his beloved great-aunt Ida died in 1945, Blount felt no reason to stay in Birmingham. He dissolved the band, and moved
to Chicago, part of the wave of southern African Americans who moved north during and after World
War II.
The Chicago Years (1945 to 1961)
In Chicago, Blount quickly found work, notably with blues singer Wynonie Harris, with
whom he made his recording debut on two 1946 singles: "Dig This Boogie/Lightning Struck the Poorhouse" and "My Baby's
Barrelhouse"/"Drinking By Myself;" "Dig This Boogie" was also Blount's first recorded piano solo. He performed with the locally
successful Lil Green band, and for months played bump-and-grind music for Calumet City strip clubs.
Blount earned a lengthy engagement at Club DeLisa, where he met bandleader and composer Fletcher Henderson. Blount had long admired Henderson, but Henderson's fortunes were fading (his band
comprised of middling musicians rather than the stars of earlier years) due in large part to his instability. Henderson hired
Blount as pianist and arranger. Ra's arrangements initially showed a degree of bebop influence,
but the band members largely resisted the new music, despite Henderson's encouragement.
In 1948, Blount performed briefly in a trio with saxophonist Coleman Hawkins and
violinist Stuff Smith, both preeminent swing-era
musicians. There are no known recordings of this trio, but a home-recording of a Blount-Smith duet from 1948 or 1949 appears on
Sound Sun Pleasure, and one of Sun Ra's final recordings was a rare sideman appearance on violinist Billy Bang's Tribute To Stuff Smith.
In addition to professional advancement, Chicago also changed Blount's personal outlook. The city was a center of African
American political activism and fringe movements, with Black Muslims, Black
Hebrews and others proselytizing, debating, and printing leaflets or books. Blount absorbed it all, and was fascinated
with the city's many ancient Egyptian-styled buildings and monuments. He read books like George G.M. James's Stolen Legacy
(which argued that classical Greek philosophy actually had its roots in ancient Egypt),
which convinced Blount that the accomplishments and history of Africans had been systematically suppressed and denied by European
cultures.
By 1952, Blount was leading the "Space Trio" with drummer Tommy "Bugs" Hunter and saxophonist Pat Patrick, two of the most
accomplished musicians he'd known. They performed regularly, and Ra was writing ever-more advanced songs.
On October 20, 1952 Blount legally changed his name to "Le Sony'r Ra", "in order to free himself from his past life" Swzed
writes.[17] Ra claimed[18] to have always been uncomfortable with his birth name of Blount, seeing it as a
slave name of a family that he was not really a member of. One observer has argued that this
change was similar to the way "Malcolm X and Muhammad
Ali ... [dropped] their slave names in the process of attaining a new self-awareness and self-esteem."[19]
Patrick left the group to move to Florida with his new wife; not long after, Patrick's friend John Gilmore (tenor sax) joined the group, and Marshall
Allen (alto sax) soon joined the fold. Patrick was in and out of the group until the end
