Some call me Mr. Ra

Some call me Mystery

But you can call me Mr. Mystery

To characterize jazz musician Sun Ra as “far out” would be an understatement. To declare that he was from Saturn would be a true assertion for some. Herman P. Blount may have been born on May 22, 1914 in Birmingham, Alabama, but when he died, he departed for parts far beyond this universe. Herman Blount or “Sun Ra” was a jazz composer, bandleader, piano and synthesizer player, poet and “cosmic philosopher,” most famous for his flamboyant musical performances and musical compositions. There never was and has not been anyone since quite like Sun Ra.

Named after the popular vaudeville magician Black Herman, who had quite impressed his mother, Sun Ra would later jokingly speculate that he was a distant relative of Elijah Poole, who later took the name of Elijah Muhammed, leader of the Nation of Islam. Herman’s father abandoned him when he was a child and he was raised mostly by his aunt and grandmother. “Sonny” (as he was then called) received a piano for his 7^th birthday, and with a little musical training, taught himself to read music.

By age 11 or 12, he was writing original songs. At that time, Birmingham was an important stop for touring bands in the south and he was able to see artists such as Fletcher Henderson, Duke Ellington, and Fats Waller, along with other lesser-known artists. Sonny remarked that the less-famous were just as talented and that “the world let down a lot of good musicians.”

By the time he was a teenager, he would listen and watch big band performances then produce transcriptions of the bands’ songs from memory. He formed his own band in high school and even at that time, a fellow student recalled that he was “able to get different rhythms and peculiar notes.”

While attending Birmingham’s Industrial High School and studying with the famed music teacher, John T. “Fess” Whatley, he was performing semi-professionally in nightclubs as a solo pianist or as a member of various jazz or R&B groups. Mr. Whatley was a strict disciplinarian in school and demanded respect from his students, which in time produced numerous professional musicians. It is believed that this background laid the groundwork for Sonny’s musical discipline and workmanship.

Sonny was diagnosed with a chronic testicular hernia that frequently made him uncomfortable and resulted in severe pain from time to time. Because of his condition, it is believed this left him feeling isolated and ashamed at times.

In 1934, while a student at Industrial High, one of the teachers, Ethel Harper, formed a band and decided to pursue a singing career. Sonny joined the musicians union, got his first full-time gig, and traveled through the southeast and Midwest with the band. Ms. Harper left the group in mid-tour and moved to New York City. Sonny then took over, renaming it the Sonny Blount Orchestra. They toured for several more months before eventually disbanding due to financial reasons. However, they were well-received by audiences and afterwards, Sonny went on to find other employment in Birmingham.

The nightclubs of that era in Birmingham were somewhat exotic, featuring colorful lighting and murals, with tropical scenes that were thought to have influenced Sonny’s later stage shows.

In 1936, Sonny was awarded a scholarship to Alabama A&M, where, as a music education major, studied composition, orchestration, and music theory. He also led the student band and transcribed the popular swing band tunes from the radio for his band. He dropped out of that school after a year and transferred to another musical school.

“Trip to Saturn”

It remains unclear exactly why Sonny left college. Some thought it was finances or a growing sense of isolation, but the reason he claimed is that he had a vision wherein 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.

Although Sonny claimed this experience occurred in 1936 or 1937, several variations place it at different times and places. However, with no other substantial variations, he discussed this vision to the end of his life. This “trip to Saturn” took place a full ten years before flying saucers ever became part of the public psyche and about 15 to 20 years before stories of UFO abductions ever came to press.

Rededication to His Music

After leaving college, he pursued his music with great energy. He rarely slept, citing other famous men such as Thomas Edison and Leonardo da Vinci as fellow artists who could exist on very little sleep, napping throughout the day. He converted part of the first floor of his family’s home into a workshop/studio where he transcribed recordings, rehearsed, and recorded music with an endless parade of musicians, discussing Biblical and musical concepts with whoever happened to be around. He formed a new band and developed a rigorous daily style of rehearsal--practicing nearly round the clock. This habit stayed with him throughout his career and became legendary in music circles. He recruited various musicians to whom he would give free music instruction if they were willing to show up on short notice and try out his arrangements. Gigs were not very plentiful at that time. The new Sonny Blount Orchestra earned a reputation as an impressive band that could perform a wide variety of styles.

The Forbes Piano Company in Birmingham, was a white-owned company which seemed to ignore the Jim Crow laws and allowed Sonny to visit the store daily to play music, copy music or swap ideas with its staff and customers.

The Draft and WWII

By the time WWII started, he was drafted by the military. Sonny declared himself a conscientious objector, citing religious reasons, his financial support of his great-aunt Ida and his chronic hernia. He was so absorbed in his music, research and the study of ancient black cultures that the thought of fighting in a war was inconceivable to him. His case was rejected by the local draft board. He appealed and was approved for alternate service at a Civilian Public Service camp in Pennsylvania, but he never appeared. After he was arrested in Alabama, he argued in court to the judge on points of law and biblical interpretations. Although sympathetic, the judge told him he was risking forcible induction into the military. Sonny said if he was, he would use his military weapons to kill the first high-ranking military officer he could. He was sentenced to jail with these words from the judge: “I’ve never seen a (*black man*) like you before.” To which Sonny replied, “No, and you never will again.” He was eventually classified as “4F” due to his hernia.

Going to Chicago

In 1945, after his beloved great-aunt Ida died, he left Birmingham for Chicago, which by then was a jazz hotbed.

He was hired as practice pianist at one of Chicago’s premier show club, The Club DeLisa, which had show girls, comedians, singers, and floor shows. He also had the opportunity to work with one of his idols, Fletcher Henderson, one of the “fathers of swing.” Sonny enjoyed a fairly long gig at the Club DeLisa, working as a pianist and arranger. Although encouraged by Henderson, the other band members resisted this new cat with the strange ideas, despite his smattering of bebop thrown into some of the new arrangements.

Chicago was a breeding ground of Afro-American politics and fringe groups, such as Black Muslims, Black Hebrews and others, which greatly influenced Sonny’s personal views. He also absorbed the culture of the Egyptian-influenced architecture, along with learning more about Greek philosophy.

By the time 1952 rolled around, Sonny was leading the “Space Trio” with Tommy “Bug” Hunter on drums and Pat Patrick on sax. He also began writing more advanced songs and arrangements with this group. He also legally changed his name to Le Sony’r Ra, stating that his surname “Blount” was a slave name.

Eventually the sax player, Pat Patrick, left the Space Trio, moving to Florida with his family. His spot was taken over by John Gilmore on tenor sax, along with Marshall Allen on alto sax. Although Patrick joined and re-joined the band over the years, Gilmore and Allen were two of the longest-running members of the Arkestra.

Ra also met Alton Abraham in Chicago, a very talented teenager in whom Ra found a kindred spirit. He was one of the band’s biggest boosters and became Sun Ra’s closest friend. He balanced Ra in the areas that he was lacking, Alton complemented him, eventually becoming his business manager. They also formed an independent record label called El Saturn Records in the mid-50s, turning out mostly 45 rpm singles of Sun Ra and artists related to him.

In the late 50s, the band adopted its Egyptian style and/or space costumes. There were two reasons for this: one, that it evidenced Sun Ra’s ongoing interest in ancient Egypt as well as the space age, and it also provided distinctive, memorable costumes for the Arkestra. He thought that avant garde musicians took themselves too seriously; this provided some on-stage comic relief.

New York

In the early 1960s, the central part of the Arkestra (Gilmore, Allen, Patrick, and Boykins) and Sun Ra moved to New York City. They had stopped in Montreal for a few months, but eventually settled in New York. Because they had trouble finding gigs in the city and found the cost of living to be much higher than Chicago, they chose to live communally. It was during this period that the music of the Arkestra underwent dramatic changes and was strongly influenced by the “free jazz” experimental period in jazz fueled by artists such as John Coltrane, Albert Ayler, and Cecil Taylor.

Within a few years, he had built the band back up to the level he had in Chicago, filling the spots with New York musicians. They finally began to attract attention and landed a weekly Monday night gig at “Slug’s Saloon.” Although they had some fans and a fair share of hecklers at these gigs, they also drew encouragement and praise from two of the “architects of bebop,” trumpeter Dizzy Gillespie, who said, “Keep it up, Sonny, they tried to do the same shit to me,” and pianist Thelonious Monk, who chastised another for saying that Sun Ra was too “far out” by stating, “Yeah, but it swings.”

Philly

They relocated to Pennsylvania when their NY building was sold. They remained in a house in the Germantown neighborhood which remained his base of operation until his death. Although there were some occasional noise complaints, for the most part, the neighbors supported the band because of their friendliness, drug-free lifestyle, and good rapport with the neighborhood children. Sax player Danny Thompson operated a nearby convenience store he named the Pharoah’s Den. At one time lightning struck a tree on their street with Sun Ra taking it as a good omen. One of the reed players, James Jacson, used the scorched tree trunk to fashion a drum which he christened the “Cosmic Infinity Drum.” The band continued to commute via rail to NYC to Slug’s and other clubs for gigs.

Recognition, Europe and Space

By late 1968, the band toured the West Coast for the first time. Although the hippie movement was in full flower at the time, the sight of this large band complete with dancers, fire-eaters, and wild costumes was somewhat bewildering even to the West Coast crowd! A good review of their concert at San Jose State College by Rolling Stone reviewer John Burks, led to Sun Ra being featured on the cover of the April 19, 1969 issue of Rolling Stone, which, for the first time, introduced Sun Ra to the legions of rock and roll fans.

The band toured Europe in the 70’s, visiting the UK, Germany and France. They even visited Egypt for a “spiritual vacation” and concert. John Gilmore later called that trip to the pyramids “The most beautiful experience I had on this earth. It made everything worthwhile.” As is the case for most jazz musicians, Sun Ra found he was much more acclaimed “across the pond” than on American soil. Unfortunately, however, these tours produced not much more income than what was necessary for expenses.

In early 1971, Sun Ra became artist-in-residence at the UC, Berkeley, teaching a course called “The Black Man in the Cosmos.” Few UCB students enrolled, however more residents of Berkeley took the class. One half-hour of the class comprised of a lecture (along with reading, homework assignments and handouts), followed by Sun Ra performing a keyboard solo. Reading lists included the works of Madame Blavatsky and Henry Dumas, the Book of the Dead, Alexander Hislop’s The Two Babylons, The Book of Oahspe and assorted books concerning African folklore and Egyptian hieroglyphs.

Hundreds of musicians came through the band over the years, some lasting a short time and others lasting decades, like John Gilmore. It was a demanding lifestyle for a musician. They never made a lot of money, Ra banned drugs, alcohol, women, and they had to be available for practice 24/7. As a bandleader, he demanded strict control and hard work. However, almost every musician that came through the Arkestra attested to how much they learned from Sun Ra.

When asked why he stayed with the band for 40 years, John Gilmore replied, “He was the first one to introduce me to the higher forms of music, past what Bird and Monk were doing. It’s unbelievable that anyone could write meaner intervals than those guys, but he did. When I realized that, I said, ‘Well, I guess I’ll make this the stop.’”

In 1972, San Francisco public TV station KQED produced an 85-minute feature entitled “Space Is the Place” which was filmed in Oakland and featured the Arkestra along with an ensemble of actors assembled by the production team. On May 20, 1978, Sun Ra and the Arkestra appeared on Saturday Night Live. They had finally “arrived.”

During his 40-year career, Sun Ra released over 100 self-produced records on the Saturn label, distributing them at his various gigs and in some record stores. These records were usually packaged in plain white sleeves with wild home-produced cover art, pressed from live recordings. One included a Halloween show where the salesman was dressed as a golden alien, and the LPs included a cover arrangement of “Somewhere Over the Rainbow.”

By the fall of 1979, they were essentially the “house band” at the Squat Theater in New York City, the avant garde performance house of a Hungarian theater troupe. Some performers included Debbie Harry, John Cale, and The Lounge Lizards, among others. Although the other musicians besides the Arkestra regarded his claims that he was from Saturn with skepticism, they respected his work ethic, genius, and the authority he held with his ensemble. Soft spoken and charismatic, he turned the theater into what one writer termed “a syncopated universe of big band space jazz backed by a floor show of writhing, sexy Jupiterettes” with Sun Ra directing and playing three synthesizers simultaneously.

In 1990, Sun Ra suffered a stroke, but it did not keep him from composing, performing and leading the Arkestra. Later he opened a few concerts for Sonic Youth. Sadly, however, he grew too ill to perform any longer and entrusted the leadership of the Arkestra with John Gilmore. Gilmore, who by then had emphysema (and which eventually claimed his life), left the command of the Arkestra to alto sax player Marshall Allen.

Sun Ra moved back to Birmingham to see his sister whom he had not seen in over 40 years. He later contracted pneumonia and died on May 30, 1993. He was placed in a powder-blue metal coffin (which some said looked like a spaceship) and laid to rest wearing a white robe and cap trimmed in black, an ankh made of interwoven strips of copper and brass resting on his chest. There was an evening service at the Sixth Avenue Baptist Church which included music performed by members of the Arkestra, testimonials by old friends, a few of his poems were read and a few songs were sung. At the end of the service, the mourners left singing “Space Is the Place.” A graveside service was held at the ElmwoodCemetery in Birmingham, Alabama. The Rev. Porter read from Ecclesiastes 3 and Tennyson’s “Crossing the Bar.” Finally, the Arkestra sang:

They’ll come back in ships of gold

With wisdom never told

A tough of myth-world’s splendor

Then they’ll take back the others

Who are not of earth’s dimension one

The others who are ready

Melody harmonic rhythmic planes,

Chromatic magic is eternal,

Outward on pleasant spheres,

Nothing is, yet everything is all

A splendid neverness…

His simple gravestone reads “Sonny Blount (aka [sic] Le Son’y [sic] Ra)”

Sun Ra’s philosophy or world view was based on logic and pragmatism. Many of the Arkestra’s members cite his teachings for inspiring such long-held devotion to the art that they knew would never make them much money. One writer (Martinelli) put it forth in this manner:

Sun Ra presents a unified conception, incorporating music, myth and performance into his multi-leveled equations. Every aspect of the Sun Ra experience, from business practices like Saturn Records to published collections of poetry to his 35-year career in music, is a manifestation of his equations. Sun Ra seeks to elevate humanity beyond their current earthbound state, tied to outmoded conceptions of life and death when the potential future of immortality awaits them. As Hall has put it, ‘In this era of ‘practical’ things men ridicule even the existence of God. They scoff at goodness while they ponder with befuddled minds the phantasmagoria of materiality. They have forgotten the path which leads beyond the stars.’