SPACE IS THE PLACE OF MANY SPACES!!!
May 29, 2014 2:52 AM   Subscribe

HELLO TO ALL YOU SATURNIANS, THIS CHANNEL IS DEDICATED TO JAZZ, TO SUN RA AND HIS JAZZ SPACE MUSIC. SPREAD THE WORD, PLEASE, BECAUSE THE SATURNIAN CULTURE ALWAYS HAS TO REMAINS ALIVE INSIDE US, SHARE MY VIDEOS, VOTE AND COMMENT. I HOPE YOU'LL ENJOY IT ALL.
It's Ascension Day in the Netherlands and what better way to celebrate a four day weekend than by watching a great slab of Afrofuturist jazz extravaganza, courtesy of Youtube channel Sun Ra Soul: the complete 1974 Sun Ra movie Space is the Place?
posted by MartinWisse (11 comments total) 33 users marked this as a favorite
 
This is so, so good. And in a cosmic coincidence, I'm seeing the arkestra this very evening...
posted by Pre-Taped Call In Show at 3:31 AM on May 29, 2014


Also coincedentally, I was just about to chime in with the recommendation to go see them. Sun Ra himself has long since made the journey to Saturn but Marshall Allen and co. are still going strong.
posted by saintjoe at 3:37 AM on May 29, 2014 [2 favorites]


Act Like You Know: Sun Ra (from NPR's coverage of the 100th anniversary of his arrival on Earth).
posted by Etrigan at 4:10 AM on May 29, 2014


Sun Ra (née Sonny Blount) and I both hail from the same city: Birmingham, Alabama. Here's a funny story:

Bassist Junie Booth, who played with the Sun Ra Arkestra for many years, said when they went to Birmingham for Sun Ra to be presented with the key to the city, midway during the ceremony Sun Ra turned to him and said "I hate this fuckin' town, that's why I always told people I was from Saturn".
posted by flapjax at midnite at 4:53 AM on May 29, 2014 [28 favorites]


This is SOOO worth watching if you are a Janelle Monae fan. So much of what she does has roots here.
posted by hippybear at 6:47 AM on May 29, 2014 [1 favorite]


When I met Sun Ra in the late eighties I called him 'Mister Mystery.'

I don't think I'd ever seen anyone grin that wide in my life. It warmed my cynical teenage heart.
posted by rock swoon has no past at 7:14 AM on May 29, 2014 [3 favorites]


Saw the movie in a theater and the Arkestra live, and I approve this post!
posted by languagehat at 7:49 AM on May 29, 2014 [1 favorite]


He used to play New Year's Eve in Atlanta a lot - I always wondered why - maybe he was visiting relatives in Alabama for the holidays?
posted by thelonius at 7:54 AM on May 29, 2014


I saw Sun Ra back in the late 60s. I didn't think anything could top that spectacle.

Until 30 minutes later when Arthur Brown came out with half his face white, half black, a sequined cape, and a headdress on fire!
posted by CrowGoat at 12:06 PM on May 29, 2014 [3 favorites]


Here's a longer article about Sun Ra.

I saw him a dozen times. Every performance was totally different.

You know how old people often return to early memories, talking to them near their endings? Well, the last Sun Ra performance was like that. He was back to playing the jump blues kinda stuff he started off with as a young man, but it was, of course, a wonderfully strange iteration of that genre.
posted by kozad at 4:15 PM on May 29, 2014


Sun Ra: A Joyful Noise 1980 documentary [60m]
posted by hippybear at 5:58 PM on May 29, 2014


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