Sun ra jazz biography books

Space Is the Place: The Lives and Times of Sun Ra

Always riveting, Space Is the Place is the definitive biography of &#;one of the great big-band leaders, pianists, and surrealists of jazz&#; (New York Times)&#;unparalleled for his purposeful outlandishness, a man who exerted a powerful influence over a vast array of artists.

Sun Ra — a/k/a Herman Poole &#;Sonny&#; Blount — was born in Alabama on May 22, But like Father Divine and Elijah Muhammad, he made a lifelong effort to obscure many of the facts of his early life.

After years as a rehearsal pianist for nightclub revues and in blues and swing bands, including Wynonie Harris&#;s and Fletcher Henderson&#;s, Sun Ra set out in the s to find a way to impart his views about the galaxy, black people, and spiritual matters through the various incarnations of the Intergalactic Arkestra.

His repertoire ranging from boogie-woogie, swing, and bebop to free form, fusion, and whatever, Sun Ra was abov