1 00:00:00,960 --> 00:00:10,300 ♪♪ 2 00:00:27,130 --> 00:00:52,900 ♪♪ 3 00:00:52,900 --> 00:00:57,400 -♪ Imagination is a magic carpet ♪ 4 00:00:57,400 --> 00:01:01,000 ♪ Upon which we may soar ♪ 5 00:01:01,000 --> 00:01:05,730 ♪ To distant lands and climes ♪ 6 00:01:05,730 --> 00:01:10,300 ♪ And even go beyond the moon ♪ 7 00:01:10,300 --> 00:01:14,730 ♪ To any planet in the sky ♪ 8 00:01:14,730 --> 00:01:20,700 ♪ If we came from nowhere here ♪ 9 00:01:20,700 --> 00:01:23,630 ♪ Why can't we go somewhere there? ♪ 10 00:01:23,630 --> 00:02:05,430 ♪♪ 11 00:02:05,430 --> 00:02:08,760 -I believe that it is genuinely a mischaracterization 12 00:02:08,760 --> 00:02:11,560 to speak of one Sun Ra, right? 13 00:02:11,560 --> 00:02:14,760 At any given time there was a whole bunch more. 14 00:02:14,760 --> 00:02:24,560 ♪♪ 15 00:02:24,560 --> 00:02:31,130 Sun Ra the virtuoso, teacher, bandleader, the poet, 16 00:02:31,130 --> 00:02:35,260 the cosmologist, the historian, the Egyptologist, 17 00:02:35,260 --> 00:02:37,930 community leader, the patriarch, 18 00:02:37,930 --> 00:02:41,360 the mother, and that's just scratching the surface. 19 00:02:41,360 --> 00:02:48,660 ♪♪ 20 00:02:48,660 --> 00:02:51,560 -He was pretty fearless, 21 00:02:51,560 --> 00:02:53,900 and it would take a lot as a Black man 22 00:02:53,900 --> 00:02:57,700 to do all of the things he did with so much sovereignty, 23 00:02:57,700 --> 00:03:02,600 with no examples of anyone like him in existence at all. 24 00:03:02,600 --> 00:03:04,460 -I think of Sun Ra 25 00:03:04,460 --> 00:03:07,760 as one of the great visionaries of the 20th century. 26 00:03:07,760 --> 00:03:11,400 He's someone who made his life into a work of art. 27 00:03:11,400 --> 00:03:14,160 Every moment of his life feels like a performance 28 00:03:14,160 --> 00:03:17,530 and a provocation and a prophetic statement. 29 00:03:17,530 --> 00:03:19,460 You think you know where things stand, 30 00:03:19,460 --> 00:03:22,100 you think you know what the issues are, 31 00:03:22,100 --> 00:03:24,930 and then someone comes in who changes the frame 32 00:03:24,930 --> 00:03:26,600 of reference entirely. 33 00:03:28,900 --> 00:03:31,530 -Sun Ra is a pioneer in Afrofuturism. 34 00:03:31,530 --> 00:03:33,700 He influenced mainstream cats. 35 00:03:33,700 --> 00:03:36,160 He influenced underground cats, everybody. 36 00:03:36,160 --> 00:03:38,900 His influence is just that vast 37 00:03:38,900 --> 00:03:41,730 and he was making music for the future. 38 00:03:45,030 --> 00:03:47,630 -Sun Ra thought that if he could reorder our way 39 00:03:47,630 --> 00:03:49,660 of thinking through sound, 40 00:03:49,660 --> 00:03:52,600 he could prepare us for a different world. 41 00:03:52,600 --> 00:03:55,660 That was his goal. A different world. 42 00:03:55,660 --> 00:04:08,300 ♪♪ 43 00:04:08,300 --> 00:04:10,760 -Someone who is certain to be written up 44 00:04:10,760 --> 00:04:12,860 in the Black music history books. 45 00:04:12,860 --> 00:04:14,930 He is Sun Ra 46 00:04:14,930 --> 00:04:18,730 and he joins us today with his big band group, the Arkestra. 47 00:04:18,730 --> 00:04:23,030 I understand in reports that you believe you're an angel 48 00:04:23,030 --> 00:04:25,300 and that you were born on Saturn. 49 00:04:25,300 --> 00:04:27,100 Is that, uh -- Set us straight. 50 00:04:27,100 --> 00:04:29,700 Is that an act or do you really believe that? 51 00:04:29,700 --> 00:04:31,530 -Well, I wasn't born there. 52 00:04:31,530 --> 00:04:33,530 I came from there. I don't remember being born. 53 00:04:33,530 --> 00:04:34,930 I've dealt with eternal things. 54 00:04:34,930 --> 00:04:36,830 Eternal things are not born. 55 00:04:36,830 --> 00:04:39,300 -You came from Saturn? -Yes. 56 00:04:39,300 --> 00:04:41,530 -You are not a human being? -No. 57 00:04:41,530 --> 00:04:44,430 -What are you? -I'm an angel. 58 00:04:44,430 --> 00:04:48,260 I probably have been promoted to be an ark angel now. 59 00:04:48,260 --> 00:04:51,560 Not too much that a man or woman can do about this planet. 60 00:04:51,560 --> 00:04:53,360 It takes an angel. 61 00:04:53,360 --> 00:04:58,860 ♪♪ 62 00:04:58,860 --> 00:05:01,000 -In 1936, 63 00:05:01,000 --> 00:05:06,200 Sun Ra claimed he was in a white light lifted to another place 64 00:05:06,200 --> 00:05:08,460 that he recognized as Saturn. 65 00:05:08,460 --> 00:05:18,400 ♪♪ 66 00:05:18,400 --> 00:05:23,030 -My body was transmolecularized, 67 00:05:23,030 --> 00:05:24,260 that's what I call it. 68 00:05:24,260 --> 00:05:27,230 It became like light beams. 69 00:05:27,230 --> 00:05:30,130 I could see through myself and I went on up. 70 00:05:30,130 --> 00:05:36,100 ♪♪ 71 00:05:36,100 --> 00:05:38,100 -Aliens told him that through music 72 00:05:38,100 --> 00:05:40,200 he would be able to deliver this complex 73 00:05:40,200 --> 00:05:43,700 but beautiful message of peace to the world. 74 00:05:43,700 --> 00:05:48,430 And so he comes back down with this powerful sense of mission. 75 00:05:48,430 --> 00:05:57,460 ♪♪ 76 00:06:13,300 --> 00:06:20,500 ♪♪ 77 00:06:20,500 --> 00:06:24,460 -There's no stage persona called Sun Ra. 78 00:06:24,460 --> 00:06:26,260 That was him all the time. 79 00:06:26,260 --> 00:06:28,700 24/7. 80 00:06:28,700 --> 00:06:32,200 And for the longest time Sun Ra did a really good job 81 00:06:32,200 --> 00:06:36,830 of keeping his earthly origins a state secret or something. 82 00:06:36,830 --> 00:06:39,930 That wasn't consistent with who he wanted you to think he was 83 00:06:39,930 --> 00:06:42,130 and where he wanted you to think he was from. 84 00:06:42,130 --> 00:06:52,730 ♪♪ 85 00:06:52,730 --> 00:06:54,760 Birmingham, Alabama, 86 00:06:54,760 --> 00:07:01,260 also known as the Magic City, is where Sun Ra was born, in 1914, 87 00:07:01,260 --> 00:07:05,530 and his name was Herman Poole Blount. 88 00:07:35,330 --> 00:07:38,960 -Sun Ra was mentored by a man named Fess Whatley. 89 00:07:38,960 --> 00:07:42,700 Fess Watley was a great musician who lived in Birmingham 90 00:07:42,700 --> 00:07:44,560 and he helped develop a lot of the musicians 91 00:07:44,560 --> 00:07:47,560 that came out of Birmingham in that time. 92 00:07:51,400 --> 00:07:55,460 -Sun Ra rose to the top as a teenager. 93 00:07:55,460 --> 00:07:57,960 He was known as having the best band 94 00:07:57,960 --> 00:08:01,630 in a city as important in the Black South as Birmingham. 95 00:08:37,000 --> 00:08:42,730 ♪♪ 96 00:08:42,730 --> 00:08:45,330 -The bands were more than just performances, 97 00:08:45,330 --> 00:08:48,360 they were our communities. 98 00:08:48,360 --> 00:08:50,800 They were everything if you were a musician. 99 00:08:50,800 --> 00:08:53,800 Those 18, 20 people that you traveled with a lot, 100 00:08:53,800 --> 00:08:55,500 you were like a family. 101 00:08:57,900 --> 00:09:00,100 -Big band leaders consider themselves royalty. 102 00:09:00,100 --> 00:09:04,030 They call themselves counts, kings -- 103 00:09:04,030 --> 00:09:07,230 King Pleasure, Duke Ellington. 104 00:09:07,230 --> 00:09:09,000 -He would talk about how when he was young, 105 00:09:09,000 --> 00:09:11,700 Duke Ellington would come to Birmingham, 106 00:09:11,700 --> 00:09:13,860 like, he would take his music to Duke Ellington. 107 00:09:13,860 --> 00:09:15,930 He would say "Look at this," 108 00:09:15,930 --> 00:09:18,460 Duke would look at his music and say "Stay on it, keep on it." 109 00:09:33,330 --> 00:10:21,760 ♪♪ 110 00:10:21,760 --> 00:10:26,000 -He was an encyclopedia for movements in jazz. 111 00:10:26,000 --> 00:10:29,730 He felt that every phase of jazz from New Orleans 112 00:10:29,730 --> 00:10:34,230 to the present day should be respected. 113 00:10:34,230 --> 00:10:37,400 -Sun Ra's whole breadth of sonic expression 114 00:10:37,400 --> 00:10:39,460 comes out of our entire past. 115 00:10:39,460 --> 00:10:41,400 He's a master at it. 116 00:10:41,400 --> 00:10:44,030 [ Cheers and applause ] 117 00:10:49,530 --> 00:10:52,460 -Now the draft becomes the means of mobilizing 118 00:10:52,460 --> 00:10:55,730 the mightiest fighting force in United States history. 119 00:10:55,730 --> 00:11:02,900 ♪♪ 120 00:11:02,900 --> 00:11:05,130 -Sun Ra was 27 years old 121 00:11:05,130 --> 00:11:08,960 when the United States entered World War II in 1941. 122 00:11:11,360 --> 00:11:17,730 -Sun Ra had become anti-war by reading DuBois and Gandhi. 123 00:11:17,730 --> 00:11:20,830 The idea of going and killing somebody was just beyond him. 124 00:11:20,830 --> 00:11:24,700 So he declared himself as a conscientious objector. 125 00:11:24,700 --> 00:11:26,530 -This was by no means common, 126 00:11:26,530 --> 00:11:30,300 or well received for the masses of Black people. 127 00:11:30,300 --> 00:11:32,700 We were fighting to prove ourselves 128 00:11:32,700 --> 00:11:35,800 as soldiers within their army, 129 00:11:35,800 --> 00:11:37,900 and Sun Ra wasn't having that. 130 00:11:37,900 --> 00:11:50,930 ♪♪ 131 00:11:50,930 --> 00:11:56,200 -They arrested Sonny and they put him in jail. 132 00:11:56,200 --> 00:11:58,200 His incarceration separated him 133 00:11:58,200 --> 00:12:02,730 from his one love in life, music. 134 00:12:06,700 --> 00:12:10,200 He wrote letters from his confinement to authorities 135 00:12:10,200 --> 00:12:14,400 that he hoped could help him by relieving him of it. 136 00:12:14,400 --> 00:12:16,300 -The arranging and composing, 137 00:12:16,300 --> 00:12:20,230 the rehearsing, the developing of potential talent, 138 00:12:20,230 --> 00:12:25,200 that is my work and the only earthly pleasure I love. 139 00:12:25,200 --> 00:12:28,630 To separate me from music would be more cruel 140 00:12:28,630 --> 00:12:31,830 than standing me by a wall and shooting me. 141 00:12:31,830 --> 00:12:36,400 I think I would prefer the latter. 142 00:12:36,400 --> 00:12:41,330 -Sun Ra was jailed in Birmingham for being a draft resister, 143 00:12:41,330 --> 00:12:42,860 and eventually he was transferred 144 00:12:42,860 --> 00:12:46,960 to a camp in Pennsylvania. 145 00:12:46,960 --> 00:12:50,860 -His family disowns him. They never come to visit him. 146 00:12:50,860 --> 00:12:52,960 He's gone. 147 00:12:52,960 --> 00:12:54,560 He was sent back to Birmingham, 148 00:12:54,560 --> 00:12:57,900 but now Birmingham was abhorrent to him. 149 00:12:57,900 --> 00:13:02,200 -When he returned, people acted like they had forgotten him 150 00:13:02,200 --> 00:13:05,900 and like they didn't want to have anything to do with him. 151 00:13:05,900 --> 00:13:09,830 He hung out in Birmingham for a while, 152 00:13:09,830 --> 00:13:15,460 but he really felt a really profound sense of alienation. 153 00:13:15,460 --> 00:13:24,260 ♪♪ 154 00:13:24,260 --> 00:13:32,000 -♪ Dream, dreaming, dreaming, dreaming, dreaming ♪ 155 00:13:32,000 --> 00:13:36,660 -♪ Here I am dreaming again ♪ -♪ Here I am dreaming again ♪ 156 00:13:36,660 --> 00:13:40,060 -♪ Dreaming, dreaming, dreaming, dreaming ♪ 157 00:13:40,060 --> 00:13:42,030 -In the mid-'40s, 158 00:13:42,030 --> 00:13:46,960 Sun Ra migrates to Chicago like many African-Americans, 159 00:13:46,960 --> 00:13:50,760 sort of the tail end of that Great Migration. 160 00:13:50,760 --> 00:13:52,800 He arrives in a space 161 00:13:52,800 --> 00:13:55,900 that is possibly one of the most richest musical cultures 162 00:13:55,900 --> 00:13:57,560 at that particular moment. 163 00:13:57,560 --> 00:14:01,160 -♪ Dreaming, dreaming, dreaming, dreaming ♪ 164 00:14:01,160 --> 00:14:04,260 -He seeks out Fletcher Henderson, 165 00:14:04,260 --> 00:14:08,860 someone that Sun Ra just idolized as an organizer 166 00:14:08,860 --> 00:14:11,230 of sound and of people. 167 00:14:11,230 --> 00:14:13,860 Sun Ra gets a foot in the door 168 00:14:13,860 --> 00:14:16,100 and is basically a rehearsal pianist 169 00:14:16,100 --> 00:14:20,560 and then also a copyist and arranger. 170 00:14:20,560 --> 00:14:25,800 Fletcher seems to understand the promise of Sun Ra, 171 00:14:25,800 --> 00:14:30,260 but he's not exactly a seamless fit with the orchestra. 172 00:14:30,260 --> 00:14:32,300 He was wired a little differently. 173 00:14:34,960 --> 00:14:38,160 And so the musical ideas that he was setting to paper, 174 00:14:38,160 --> 00:14:40,560 the way that he was expressing them at the piano, 175 00:14:40,560 --> 00:14:44,600 there were members of the band that resisted his influence 176 00:14:44,600 --> 00:14:46,460 and in fact resisted him. 177 00:15:00,400 --> 00:15:06,960 ♪♪ 178 00:15:06,960 --> 00:15:09,030 -In Chicago, 179 00:15:09,030 --> 00:15:12,600 in the early years, Sun Ra is part of a scene 180 00:15:12,600 --> 00:15:15,130 that is not simply about musical performance 181 00:15:15,130 --> 00:15:18,530 but is about political activism. 182 00:15:18,530 --> 00:15:21,000 There's a place in the Southside of Chicago 183 00:15:21,000 --> 00:15:23,930 called Washington Park. 184 00:15:23,930 --> 00:15:26,930 What you see is people giving harangues, 185 00:15:26,930 --> 00:15:31,330 getting up on a soapbox and trying to attract an audience. 186 00:15:31,330 --> 00:15:33,960 Sun Ra had a soapbox, too. 187 00:15:46,060 --> 00:15:47,930 He brought these broadsheets. 188 00:15:47,930 --> 00:15:49,400 There are dozens of them. 189 00:15:49,400 --> 00:15:51,230 And they're making these really interesting connections 190 00:15:51,230 --> 00:15:54,800 among realms -- music, popular culture, politics, 191 00:15:54,800 --> 00:15:59,960 history, myth, and cosmology. 192 00:15:59,960 --> 00:16:03,060 -He represents a tradition of Black seekers 193 00:16:03,060 --> 00:16:07,330 who are autodidacts. 194 00:16:07,330 --> 00:16:11,830 And they teach themselves. They read their own books. 195 00:16:11,830 --> 00:16:15,030 Alternate bibles, different spiritual traditions, 196 00:16:15,030 --> 00:16:17,030 different magical traditions, 197 00:16:17,030 --> 00:16:19,400 and they take them all quite seriously as a way 198 00:16:19,400 --> 00:16:21,660 of creating narratives of Black identity, 199 00:16:21,660 --> 00:16:24,660 Black culture, and Black possibility. 200 00:16:24,660 --> 00:16:32,300 -If you're not a myth, whose reality are you? 201 00:16:32,300 --> 00:16:36,630 If you're not a myth, whose reality are you? 202 00:16:36,630 --> 00:16:40,200 If you're not a reality, whose myth are you? 203 00:16:43,160 --> 00:16:44,830 Whose reality are you? 204 00:16:49,030 --> 00:16:51,760 -He believed that Black people are sort of stripped 205 00:16:51,760 --> 00:16:53,760 of our mythology 206 00:16:53,760 --> 00:16:57,160 and he felt he was put here to bring back a mythology, 207 00:16:57,160 --> 00:17:01,130 create a realm in the Black imagination. 208 00:17:24,800 --> 00:17:27,900 He thought we don't have enough of a fantasy world, 209 00:17:27,900 --> 00:17:30,860 and our fantasy world is often vulgarized 210 00:17:30,860 --> 00:17:33,900 and pushed toward very carnal things -- 211 00:17:33,900 --> 00:17:36,260 sex, violence -- and myth 212 00:17:36,260 --> 00:17:39,500 allows this sort of breathless backing away 213 00:17:39,500 --> 00:17:41,530 from all the carnal world 214 00:17:41,530 --> 00:17:45,100 and to fantasize about what would it be like to be a god? 215 00:17:45,100 --> 00:17:46,730 Can he be a god and a king? 216 00:17:46,730 --> 00:17:48,560 What would it be like to wear a crown? 217 00:17:48,560 --> 00:17:50,260 He was able to really pick up on the fact 218 00:17:50,260 --> 00:17:51,930 that there wasn't anyone 219 00:17:51,930 --> 00:17:53,800 who was doing the actual grunt work 220 00:17:53,800 --> 00:17:56,930 of creating a Black mythological world. 221 00:17:59,600 --> 00:18:01,400 In Chicago, 222 00:18:01,400 --> 00:18:04,930 Herman Poole Blount decides to transform 223 00:18:04,930 --> 00:18:09,300 and change his name to Le Sony'r Ra, 224 00:18:09,300 --> 00:18:13,800 but publicly for his professional identity, Sun Ra. 225 00:18:13,800 --> 00:18:19,560 ♪♪ 226 00:18:19,560 --> 00:18:21,460 And in that, 227 00:18:21,460 --> 00:18:23,730 we see him beginning to coalesce the intellectual, 228 00:18:23,730 --> 00:18:27,230 the political, and the artistic into an identity 229 00:18:27,230 --> 00:18:30,330 that will become even more powerful later on. 230 00:18:34,200 --> 00:18:39,500 -My music concerns the cosmos and the greater universe. 231 00:18:39,500 --> 00:18:42,600 It also concerns the myth of things, 232 00:18:42,600 --> 00:18:45,530 in opposition to the reality of things. 233 00:18:45,530 --> 00:18:48,960 So it moves out beyond just music. 234 00:18:48,960 --> 00:18:52,700 -He begins to put together small groups of like-minded musicians 235 00:18:52,700 --> 00:18:56,300 who he could teach, who he could share his visions with. 236 00:19:00,660 --> 00:19:07,430 People like John Gilmore, Pat Patrick, Marshall Allen, 237 00:19:07,430 --> 00:19:10,600 musicians who would remain with him as long 238 00:19:10,600 --> 00:19:13,130 as he remained on the Earth. 239 00:19:13,130 --> 00:19:19,260 ♪♪ 240 00:19:19,260 --> 00:19:21,160 -He was the first one to really introduce me 241 00:19:21,160 --> 00:19:23,730 into higher forms of music. 242 00:19:23,730 --> 00:19:28,430 Past what you might say Bird and Monk and the fellows were doing. 243 00:19:28,430 --> 00:19:30,960 I didn't really think anyone was ahead of them 244 00:19:30,960 --> 00:19:33,930 until I met Sun Ra, you know? 245 00:19:33,930 --> 00:19:36,300 Very highly advanced, you know. 246 00:19:36,300 --> 00:19:38,330 So when I saw that I said, 247 00:19:38,330 --> 00:19:42,260 "Well, I think I'll make this the stop," you know? 248 00:19:42,260 --> 00:19:47,260 ♪♪ 249 00:20:02,730 --> 00:20:05,130 -When Marshall got in the band, he had to come to the house 250 00:20:05,130 --> 00:20:10,100 every day by himself for rehearsal. 251 00:20:10,100 --> 00:20:13,860 -Drill you, drill you, drill you, drill you, drill you. 252 00:20:13,860 --> 00:20:16,130 You couldn't get away with nothing, 253 00:20:16,130 --> 00:20:17,700 with all your slick stuff. 254 00:20:22,700 --> 00:20:26,060 And he didn't want that. 255 00:20:26,060 --> 00:20:28,560 He wanted this. 256 00:20:41,200 --> 00:20:44,900 -When he gets together, six, eight of these people, 257 00:20:44,900 --> 00:20:47,700 he realized he has an ensemble on his hands, 258 00:20:47,700 --> 00:20:51,030 and he calls that ensemble The Arkestra. 259 00:20:51,030 --> 00:21:36,600 ♪♪ 260 00:20:56,730 --> 00:21:36,600 ♪♪ 261 00:21:36,600 --> 00:21:40,030 -The newest sounds to come along in contemporary jazz 262 00:21:40,030 --> 00:21:42,030 are written by the composer, arranger, 263 00:21:42,030 --> 00:21:44,760 Le Sun Ra out of Chicago. 264 00:21:44,760 --> 00:21:47,230 Le Sun Ra, among other things, 265 00:21:47,230 --> 00:21:49,700 fuses the snakelike bebop melodies 266 00:21:49,700 --> 00:21:52,130 with colors of Duke Ellington, 267 00:21:52,130 --> 00:21:55,000 and the experimental changes of Thelonious Monk. 268 00:21:55,000 --> 00:21:56,960 Le Sun Ra says of his music, 269 00:21:56,960 --> 00:22:00,360 that it is a portrayal of everything the Negro really was, 270 00:22:00,360 --> 00:22:02,800 is, and is going to be, 271 00:22:02,800 --> 00:22:05,460 with emphasis focused on the Negro's triumph 272 00:22:05,460 --> 00:22:08,360 over the demonic currents of his experience. 273 00:22:08,360 --> 00:22:21,900 ♪♪ 274 00:22:21,900 --> 00:22:24,900 -♪ I have many names ♪ -♪ Many names ♪ 275 00:22:24,900 --> 00:22:28,960 -♪ Names of splendor ♪ -♪ Names of splendor ♪ 276 00:22:28,960 --> 00:22:32,930 -♪ Names of shame ♪ -♪ Names of shame ♪ 277 00:22:32,930 --> 00:22:35,900 -♪ Some call me Mr. Ra ♪ -♪ Some call me Mr. Ra ♪ 278 00:22:35,900 --> 00:22:39,830 -♪ Others call me Mystery ♪ -♪ Others call me Mystery ♪ 279 00:22:39,830 --> 00:22:44,430 -♪ You can call me Mr. Mystery ♪ -♪ You can call me Mr. Mystery ♪ 280 00:22:44,430 --> 00:22:48,600 -As Sun Ra told us, he has many names. 281 00:22:48,600 --> 00:22:52,260 Sun Ra. Sun Ra and his Arkestra. 282 00:22:52,260 --> 00:22:54,400 Sun Ra and his Myth-Science Arkestra. 283 00:22:54,400 --> 00:22:59,860 Sun Ra and his Solar-Myth Arkestra. 284 00:22:59,860 --> 00:23:02,300 Sun Ra and his Astro Intergalactic Research Arkestra. 285 00:23:02,300 --> 00:23:04,460 Sun Ra and his Year 2000 Myth Science... 286 00:23:13,500 --> 00:23:15,860 -Sun Ra is one of the first Black artists 287 00:23:15,860 --> 00:23:17,830 to own his own record label, 288 00:23:17,830 --> 00:23:21,100 Saturn Records, with his partner Alton Abraham. 289 00:23:21,100 --> 00:23:28,500 ♪♪ 290 00:23:28,500 --> 00:23:31,830 -How do you decide what's going to come out on Saturn Records? 291 00:23:31,830 --> 00:23:34,730 -Whatever I think people are not gon' to listen to. 292 00:23:34,730 --> 00:23:36,630 I always recorded it 293 00:23:36,630 --> 00:23:39,330 where it would take them some time maybe 20 years, 294 00:23:39,330 --> 00:23:41,400 30 years, 40 years before they'd really hear it. 295 00:23:44,700 --> 00:23:46,430 -You had different jazz musicians 296 00:23:46,430 --> 00:23:50,100 that were releasing music independently. 297 00:23:50,100 --> 00:23:53,730 Max Roach and Charles Mingus had a label together, 298 00:23:53,730 --> 00:23:56,630 but I think Sun Ra might've been the most robust example 299 00:23:56,630 --> 00:23:59,460 because he did it for so long. 300 00:23:59,460 --> 00:24:03,760 It's everything from swing to bebop to progressive, 301 00:24:03,760 --> 00:24:08,560 to music that doesn't even really sound like music. 302 00:24:08,560 --> 00:24:11,060 That's a lot of music to go through. 303 00:24:11,060 --> 00:24:14,530 A lot of Sun Ra fans that I know personally, 304 00:24:14,530 --> 00:24:15,960 I don't even think they've gotten through 305 00:24:15,960 --> 00:24:18,230 the whole catalog themselves. 306 00:24:18,230 --> 00:24:23,660 -He is both a dream and this headache for record collectors. 307 00:24:23,660 --> 00:24:31,260 ♪♪ 308 00:24:31,260 --> 00:24:35,160 -When an artist decides to make their own records for themselves 309 00:24:35,160 --> 00:24:37,830 and own the work, own the masters, 310 00:24:37,830 --> 00:24:40,760 that is, it's a breakthrough moment. 311 00:24:40,760 --> 00:24:43,000 It's a rejection of the system, 312 00:24:43,000 --> 00:24:46,200 of the plantation system that is a recorded industry, 313 00:24:46,200 --> 00:24:47,630 plain and simple. 314 00:25:05,700 --> 00:25:21,300 ♪♪ 315 00:25:21,300 --> 00:25:25,160 -As Sun Ra is ramping up Saturn records, 316 00:25:25,160 --> 00:25:27,360 one of the early statements 317 00:25:27,360 --> 00:25:29,860 that he makes as a composer-bandleader 318 00:25:29,860 --> 00:25:32,100 is "Jazz in Silhouette." 319 00:25:32,100 --> 00:25:37,130 And you get the sense of all of the musical language 320 00:25:37,130 --> 00:25:41,060 that Sun Ra has absorbed and mastered even 321 00:25:41,060 --> 00:25:46,860 as he is moving into a new area of expression. 322 00:25:46,860 --> 00:25:53,260 ♪♪ 323 00:25:53,260 --> 00:25:57,960 -On this album, "Ancient Ethiopia" is a beautiful song. 324 00:25:57,960 --> 00:25:59,960 It's very majestic. 325 00:25:59,960 --> 00:26:10,830 ♪♪ 326 00:26:10,830 --> 00:26:12,400 The flutes I love 327 00:26:12,400 --> 00:26:17,930 because it's like this really kind of free-spirited movement 328 00:26:17,930 --> 00:26:21,700 reflective of nature, 329 00:26:21,700 --> 00:26:24,700 and the melody connects with a lot of African music 330 00:26:24,700 --> 00:26:27,400 throughout the diaspora. 331 00:26:27,400 --> 00:26:30,160 He's really bringing in the sound of mystery 332 00:26:30,160 --> 00:26:32,400 because it's a far away land. 333 00:26:32,400 --> 00:26:35,100 It's not necessarily Ethiopia, 334 00:26:35,100 --> 00:26:38,200 but it's bringing our spirits back. 335 00:26:38,200 --> 00:27:06,430 ♪♪ 336 00:26:59,330 --> 00:27:06,430 ♪♪ 337 00:27:06,430 --> 00:27:09,030 -♪ Interplanetary ♪ 338 00:27:09,030 --> 00:27:11,230 ♪ Interplanetary, interplanetary music ♪ 339 00:27:20,700 --> 00:27:23,630 ♪ Interplanetary ♪ 340 00:27:23,630 --> 00:27:27,930 ♪ Interplanetary, interplanetary music ♪ 341 00:27:27,930 --> 00:27:34,160 ♪♪ 342 00:27:39,230 --> 00:27:50,430 ♪♪ 343 00:27:50,430 --> 00:27:52,630 -There's an outer space orchestra? 344 00:27:52,630 --> 00:27:56,660 -Mm-hmm. An organization called the Cosmic Space Jazz group 345 00:27:56,660 --> 00:27:59,900 conducted by Mr. Le Sun Ra. 346 00:27:59,900 --> 00:28:02,360 -Sounds like a philosopher, Le Sun Ra. 347 00:28:02,360 --> 00:28:06,160 -He is a philosopher. He's a poet and a pianist. 348 00:28:31,860 --> 00:28:38,900 ♪♪ 349 00:28:38,900 --> 00:28:40,800 -New York in the 1960s 350 00:28:40,800 --> 00:28:44,900 is wonderfully the weirdest place in the world. 351 00:28:44,900 --> 00:28:49,000 Poets and seers and mystics and artists. 352 00:28:49,000 --> 00:28:53,760 A space where jazz has moved into free jazz, 353 00:28:53,760 --> 00:28:56,460 which some people call also ecstatic jazz, 354 00:28:56,460 --> 00:28:59,460 because it really is about just this extreme, 355 00:28:59,460 --> 00:29:01,760 ecstatic expression of sound. 356 00:29:01,760 --> 00:29:09,160 ♪♪ 357 00:29:09,160 --> 00:29:14,300 New York in the sixties is a dream but even in that space, 358 00:29:14,300 --> 00:29:15,560 he's very different. 359 00:29:15,560 --> 00:29:17,500 -One, two. 360 00:29:17,500 --> 00:29:20,800 ♪♪ 361 00:29:20,800 --> 00:29:22,530 ♪ I am strange ♪ 362 00:29:22,530 --> 00:29:26,500 ♪ My mind is tinted with the colors of madness ♪ 363 00:29:26,500 --> 00:29:28,600 ♪ They fight in silent fury ♪ 364 00:29:28,600 --> 00:29:31,200 ♪ And left to assess each other ♪ 365 00:29:31,200 --> 00:29:33,560 ♪ I am strange ♪ 366 00:29:33,560 --> 00:29:35,460 ♪I have pushed a degree of love ♪ 367 00:29:35,460 --> 00:29:37,730 ♪ That is so unwise ♪ 368 00:29:37,730 --> 00:29:41,730 ♪ In one world that it is wisdom in another ♪ 369 00:29:41,730 --> 00:29:45,030 ♪ I am strange ♪ 370 00:29:45,030 --> 00:29:47,960 ♪ I no longer have respect for hate ♪ 371 00:29:47,960 --> 00:29:49,860 ♪ For I am stronger than hate ♪ 372 00:29:49,860 --> 00:29:53,860 ♪ I'm contemptuous of both those who hate and those who destroy ♪ 373 00:29:53,860 --> 00:29:57,400 ♪ I'm not a part of the world which hates and destroys ♪ 374 00:29:57,400 --> 00:30:00,060 ♪ I seek to live a better life ♪ 375 00:30:00,060 --> 00:30:05,530 ♪ I am strange ♪ 376 00:30:05,530 --> 00:30:08,060 -Sun Ra, I don't know how he did it, 377 00:30:08,060 --> 00:30:12,360 but he found a place and then we all moved in there. 378 00:30:12,360 --> 00:30:17,560 So we had a place to rehearse, 24 hours a day. 379 00:30:17,560 --> 00:30:22,130 -It was so jammed full of instruments and furniture, 380 00:30:22,130 --> 00:30:24,130 had I stopped to think, 381 00:30:24,130 --> 00:30:27,400 I would've thought I don't know how people could live like this 382 00:30:27,400 --> 00:30:30,260 because it was so cluttered. 383 00:30:33,800 --> 00:30:36,300 He had a huge collection of books. 384 00:30:36,300 --> 00:30:39,100 I could remember seeing J. A. Rogers' famous book, 385 00:30:39,100 --> 00:30:40,630 "Sex and Race." 386 00:30:42,830 --> 00:30:44,760 -There was something very practical 387 00:30:44,760 --> 00:30:47,530 to have this band under one roof, 388 00:30:47,530 --> 00:30:51,000 but there was also a utopian ideal. 389 00:30:51,000 --> 00:30:54,760 A notion that we are carving out 390 00:30:54,760 --> 00:30:58,760 a beautiful space for our lives 391 00:30:58,760 --> 00:31:01,730 and our art and our camaraderie 392 00:31:01,730 --> 00:31:05,560 and our imagination to coexist. 393 00:31:05,560 --> 00:31:34,600 ♪♪ 394 00:31:34,600 --> 00:31:37,330 -Back in those days it was a mixed bag critically, 395 00:31:37,330 --> 00:31:39,030 where Sun Ra was concerned. 396 00:31:42,700 --> 00:31:45,800 It didn't pass muster with the critics and the critical elite. 397 00:31:45,800 --> 00:32:12,960 ♪♪ 398 00:32:19,700 --> 00:32:24,500 ♪♪ 399 00:32:24,500 --> 00:32:28,100 -Sun Ra's music wasn't the sound of the time. 400 00:32:28,100 --> 00:32:32,160 Critics would've much rather listened to Miles, 401 00:32:32,160 --> 00:32:36,330 listened to Thelonious Monk, stuff that they could, 402 00:32:36,330 --> 00:32:41,360 for the lack of a better term, digest a little bit better. 403 00:32:41,360 --> 00:32:45,800 -He's interested in the idea of the avant-garde, 404 00:32:45,800 --> 00:32:52,230 using art, using culture to inspire new ways of being, 405 00:32:52,230 --> 00:32:57,230 which he thinks can be a way forward to Black freedom 406 00:32:57,230 --> 00:32:58,500 and Black liberation. 407 00:32:58,500 --> 00:33:07,160 ♪♪ 408 00:33:07,160 --> 00:33:09,800 -I was part of the writers workshop called Umbra, 409 00:33:09,800 --> 00:33:12,930 which I joined in 1963, 410 00:33:12,930 --> 00:33:17,800 and one of our contributors was Sun Ra, as a poet. 411 00:33:17,800 --> 00:33:20,930 The musicians like Sun Ra put a lot of pressure on us. 412 00:33:23,730 --> 00:33:28,760 They were able to write as well as perform on their instruments 413 00:33:28,760 --> 00:33:30,100 and compose music. 414 00:33:35,000 --> 00:33:40,660 One of Sun Ra's poems is entitled "I Am An Instrument." 415 00:33:40,660 --> 00:33:43,460 "I am an instrument. 416 00:33:43,460 --> 00:33:48,860 The timbre of my voice flies with the winds of heaven..." 417 00:33:51,760 --> 00:33:54,600 -I belong to one who is more than a musician. 418 00:33:54,600 --> 00:34:00,330 ♪♪ 419 00:34:00,330 --> 00:34:02,660 He's an artist. 420 00:34:02,660 --> 00:34:04,700 I live to be his pleasure. 421 00:34:04,700 --> 00:34:07,630 I do not flee from him when he comes to me. 422 00:34:07,630 --> 00:34:10,200 For instruments are not sufficient in themselves. 423 00:34:10,200 --> 00:34:12,530 They are cold and lifeless 424 00:34:12,530 --> 00:34:16,130 without the touch of hands and mind. 425 00:34:16,130 --> 00:34:20,200 The artist holds myself tenderly in his hands. 426 00:34:20,200 --> 00:34:24,960 First, he touches the strings of my heart, 427 00:34:24,960 --> 00:34:28,530 to find if they are in tune with the universe. 428 00:34:28,530 --> 00:34:31,030 Then suddenly vibrant thoughts strikes there 429 00:34:31,030 --> 00:34:35,400 and music from the world of time, 430 00:34:35,400 --> 00:34:38,030 and space is born. 431 00:34:38,030 --> 00:34:45,730 -Music that's part of his makeup. 432 00:34:45,730 --> 00:34:49,660 He's an instrument because he's driven by it. 433 00:34:49,660 --> 00:34:53,060 The music is playing him. 434 00:34:53,060 --> 00:34:56,300 Sun Ra's poetry I think is very private. 435 00:34:56,300 --> 00:34:59,930 His poetry reads more like notes or diaries 436 00:34:59,930 --> 00:35:03,130 and carry his ideas about humanity. 437 00:35:04,230 --> 00:35:09,330 ♪♪ 438 00:35:09,330 --> 00:35:11,100 -Now it is time 439 00:35:11,100 --> 00:35:14,330 for this nation to take a clearly leading role 440 00:35:14,330 --> 00:35:16,360 in space achievement, 441 00:35:16,360 --> 00:35:20,600 which in many ways may hold the key to our future on Earth. 442 00:35:24,360 --> 00:35:30,460 -Just before Apollo 11 goes to the moon in July 1969, 443 00:35:30,460 --> 00:35:33,900 Esquire magazine does this amazing feature called 444 00:35:33,900 --> 00:35:36,330 "Le Mot Juste for the Moon," 445 00:35:36,330 --> 00:35:40,130 which means the right word for the moon landing. 446 00:35:40,130 --> 00:35:43,200 [ Laughs ] 447 00:35:43,200 --> 00:35:48,060 The magazine frames it as a collection of helpful hints 448 00:35:48,060 --> 00:35:50,200 for Neil Armstrong who will be the first man 449 00:35:50,200 --> 00:35:51,960 to step on the moon. 450 00:35:51,960 --> 00:35:55,730 -10, 9, ignition sequence start... 451 00:35:55,730 --> 00:36:02,700 ♪♪ 452 00:36:02,700 --> 00:36:06,560 -They ask for suggestions from this remarkable range 453 00:36:06,560 --> 00:36:13,860 of figures -- Muhammad Ali, Bob Hope, Timothy Leary. 454 00:36:13,860 --> 00:36:17,730 Some of them are saying, "This is a moment of American triumph. 455 00:36:17,730 --> 00:36:19,730 We've beat the Soviets to the moon." 456 00:36:19,730 --> 00:36:21,160 Muhammad Ali says, 457 00:36:21,160 --> 00:36:22,900 "Bring me back a challenger 458 00:36:22,900 --> 00:36:25,200 because I've beaten everybody on Earth." 459 00:36:25,200 --> 00:36:27,900 And then they also ask Sun Ra, 460 00:36:27,900 --> 00:36:32,400 who they describe only as "the space-age jazz poet," 461 00:36:32,400 --> 00:36:37,430 and Sun Ra provides a poem that really sticks out -- 462 00:36:40,800 --> 00:36:45,330 -Reality has touched against myth / 463 00:36:45,330 --> 00:36:50,200 Humanity can move to achieve the impossible / 464 00:36:50,200 --> 00:36:54,930 Because when you've achieved one impossible the others / 465 00:36:54,930 --> 00:36:57,100 Come together to be with their brother, 466 00:36:57,100 --> 00:36:59,700 the first impossible / 467 00:36:59,700 --> 00:37:02,800 Borrowed from the rim of the myth / 468 00:37:02,800 --> 00:37:06,560 Happy Space Age To You... 469 00:37:06,560 --> 00:37:07,760 -Altitude 4,200 470 00:37:07,760 --> 00:37:10,260 -Houston, you're go for landing, over. 471 00:37:10,260 --> 00:37:12,660 We are looking great. 472 00:37:12,660 --> 00:37:14,500 -Reality touches myth. 473 00:37:14,500 --> 00:37:18,560 That's crucial when we do something that seems unreal. 474 00:37:18,560 --> 00:37:21,860 -The eagle has landed. 475 00:37:21,860 --> 00:37:25,660 -Because it shows us that we can do the impossible. 476 00:37:25,660 --> 00:37:29,030 -That's one small step for man 477 00:37:29,030 --> 00:37:32,730 and one giant leap for mankind. 478 00:37:32,730 --> 00:37:34,700 -There's not just one impossible, 479 00:37:34,700 --> 00:37:37,500 there's not just one step for mankind and we're done. 480 00:37:41,030 --> 00:37:43,760 There's other impossibles to come. 481 00:37:47,700 --> 00:37:52,360 -Ra at the core of his philosophy 482 00:37:52,360 --> 00:37:57,400 is an embrace of the impossibility, 483 00:37:57,400 --> 00:38:01,960 something that we have never really experienced. 484 00:38:01,960 --> 00:38:08,530 He's interested in making people feel unsettled 485 00:38:08,530 --> 00:38:12,660 in the service of getting them to imagine the world in a way 486 00:38:12,660 --> 00:38:15,230 that they may have never imagined it before. 487 00:38:15,230 --> 00:38:21,630 ♪♪ 488 00:38:21,630 --> 00:38:25,800 Someone who always tried to redefine 489 00:38:25,800 --> 00:38:27,230 the space that he was in. 490 00:38:27,230 --> 00:38:48,730 ♪♪ 491 00:38:48,730 --> 00:38:55,200 -Sun Ra was always looking for the new electronics 492 00:38:55,200 --> 00:38:57,160 that were coming out. 493 00:38:57,160 --> 00:39:00,300 Back in the '40s in Birmingham, 494 00:39:00,300 --> 00:39:03,730 he got this keyboard called the Solovox. 495 00:39:03,730 --> 00:39:09,100 It had effects on it that no other organ at that time had. 496 00:39:09,100 --> 00:39:16,060 ♪♪ 497 00:39:16,060 --> 00:39:18,000 Not only did he have the Solovox, 498 00:39:18,000 --> 00:39:21,060 he had one of the first wire recorders. 499 00:39:21,060 --> 00:39:26,230 A Sound Mirror, a Wurlitzer, then he had the Clavioline. 500 00:39:28,660 --> 00:39:30,700 Years later in the '60s, 501 00:39:30,700 --> 00:39:35,060 as Sun Ra continued his sonic exploration, 502 00:39:35,060 --> 00:39:37,900 he met Tam Fiofori. 503 00:39:37,900 --> 00:39:41,760 He was a photographer as well as a jazz writer. 504 00:39:41,760 --> 00:39:47,900 Tam introduced him to the great synthesizer inventor Bob Moog. 505 00:39:47,900 --> 00:39:51,100 -I called Sun Ra and I told Sun Ra to come over 506 00:39:51,100 --> 00:39:54,060 to Robert Moog's studio. 507 00:39:54,060 --> 00:39:58,900 Sun Ra sat down behind his portable Moog. 508 00:39:58,900 --> 00:40:02,200 Moog was completely flabbergasted. 509 00:40:02,200 --> 00:40:13,960 ♪♪ 510 00:40:13,960 --> 00:40:17,400 In the '60s and '70s, incorporating these keyboards, 511 00:40:17,400 --> 00:40:19,230 nobody was doing that yet. 512 00:40:19,230 --> 00:40:21,500 It was a whole different approach for jazz. 513 00:40:21,500 --> 00:40:23,730 Usually it was like rock bands 514 00:40:23,730 --> 00:40:25,500 that had picked up on the keyboards 515 00:40:25,500 --> 00:40:27,260 because they wanted to sound interstellar, 516 00:40:27,260 --> 00:40:28,860 but Sun Ra already pulled it 517 00:40:28,860 --> 00:40:30,560 into a whole different direction. 518 00:40:35,400 --> 00:40:39,730 -When Sun Ra gets his hands on a new piece of musical equipment, 519 00:40:39,730 --> 00:40:41,660 he doesn't think of it in terms of a palette. 520 00:40:41,660 --> 00:40:43,660 He thinks of it in terms of a portal. 521 00:40:46,600 --> 00:40:48,460 He's just like, 522 00:40:48,460 --> 00:40:51,200 "this is a shortcut to another dimension in sound." 523 00:40:51,200 --> 00:40:58,760 ♪♪ 524 00:40:58,760 --> 00:41:01,860 It's the next step in the musical progression. 525 00:41:01,860 --> 00:41:04,460 -Sound, not melody, not rhythm, 526 00:41:04,460 --> 00:41:07,600 but sound itself as a completely legitimate sphere 527 00:41:07,600 --> 00:41:11,530 of expression for his spiritual ideas, political ideas, 528 00:41:11,530 --> 00:41:17,630 distortion, and the kind of electronic chaos of that period. 529 00:41:17,630 --> 00:41:21,000 But it's also for those of us who listen to it enough, 530 00:41:21,000 --> 00:41:22,560 it's pleasurable, too. 531 00:41:22,560 --> 00:41:34,400 ♪♪ 532 00:41:34,400 --> 00:41:37,330 -♪ Jupiter, second stop ♪ 533 00:41:37,330 --> 00:41:42,300 ♪ Jupiter, second stop ♪ 534 00:41:42,300 --> 00:41:47,960 ♪ Jupiter, jup jup jup ♪ 535 00:41:47,960 --> 00:41:49,960 ♪ Jupiter... ♪ 536 00:41:49,960 --> 00:41:53,500 -As a band that has a reputation for being a little abstract, 537 00:41:53,500 --> 00:41:55,700 maybe a little abstruse, 538 00:41:55,700 --> 00:41:58,660 Sun Ra has a member of the Arkestra 539 00:41:58,660 --> 00:42:00,730 that I think many people listening to the band 540 00:42:00,730 --> 00:42:04,730 could relate to because of the clarity and charisma. 541 00:42:04,730 --> 00:42:13,160 ♪♪ 542 00:42:13,160 --> 00:42:18,500 June Tyson, the voice of the Sun Ra Arkestra, 543 00:42:18,500 --> 00:42:21,900 joins the band in the late 1960s. 544 00:42:21,900 --> 00:42:32,230 ♪♪ 545 00:42:32,230 --> 00:42:34,300 -The thing about June is that she had a voice 546 00:42:34,300 --> 00:42:36,730 that was not of this planet. 547 00:42:36,730 --> 00:42:41,560 Her voice was really somewhere else altogether. 548 00:42:41,560 --> 00:42:46,230 And her presence, she had this wonderful regal presence. 549 00:42:46,230 --> 00:42:49,760 -♪ Somebody else's ideas of somebody else's world ♪ 550 00:42:49,760 --> 00:42:53,530 ♪ Is not my idea of things as they are ♪ 551 00:42:53,530 --> 00:42:57,400 ♪ Somebody else's idea of things to come ♪ 552 00:42:57,400 --> 00:43:02,360 ♪ Need not be the only way to live ♪ 553 00:43:02,360 --> 00:43:06,500 -I think that Sun Ra gave June a lot of authority 554 00:43:06,500 --> 00:43:09,600 in a sense with the music. 555 00:43:09,600 --> 00:43:13,600 He gave her a lot of his poetry to interpret. 556 00:43:13,600 --> 00:43:17,800 She had kind of a natural sense of delivery. 557 00:43:17,800 --> 00:43:20,360 -♪ Simplicity, spontaneous ♪ 558 00:43:20,360 --> 00:43:22,560 ♪ Omnipresent duality ♪ 559 00:43:22,560 --> 00:43:26,600 ♪ Boldness standing undaunted unashamed ♪ 560 00:43:26,600 --> 00:43:28,860 ♪ Straight and tall ♪ 561 00:43:28,860 --> 00:43:30,100 ♪ Noble ♪ 562 00:43:32,130 --> 00:43:37,430 ♪ Point by point can make a straight line ♪ 563 00:43:37,430 --> 00:43:39,530 ♪ When drawn together ♪ 564 00:43:39,530 --> 00:43:46,060 ♪ I hope you understand ♪ 565 00:43:46,060 --> 00:43:50,760 -Sun Ra and June Tyson have this transcendent sort of agape love 566 00:43:50,760 --> 00:43:54,730 that defies notions of romantic love and filial love 567 00:43:54,730 --> 00:43:58,260 and even the family and creates a lifelong collaboration. 568 00:43:58,260 --> 00:44:01,130 -♪ I hope you understand ♪ 569 00:44:01,130 --> 00:44:13,830 ♪ I hope you understand ♪ 570 00:44:13,830 --> 00:44:22,600 ♪ I hope you understand when the Black man ruled this land ♪ 571 00:44:22,600 --> 00:44:27,560 ♪ Pharaoh was sitting on his throne ♪ 572 00:44:27,560 --> 00:44:32,030 ♪ When the Black man ruled this land ♪ 573 00:44:32,030 --> 00:44:34,360 -I saw Sun Ra last Saturday night in New York 574 00:44:34,360 --> 00:44:36,260 and his band played for a long time 575 00:44:36,260 --> 00:44:38,230 and they played really good music and everything, 576 00:44:38,230 --> 00:44:41,860 but why does he have to walk out with capes on? 577 00:44:41,860 --> 00:44:43,600 -He's been wearing those blue capes 578 00:44:43,600 --> 00:44:46,230 and playing electronic music since 1957. 579 00:44:46,230 --> 00:44:48,060 That's what I've been trying to tell all of you, man. 580 00:44:48,060 --> 00:44:49,360 He's the master of it. 581 00:44:49,360 --> 00:44:50,830 -They have a big set up 582 00:44:50,830 --> 00:44:52,330 and he had a lot of musicians in there 583 00:44:52,330 --> 00:44:54,000 and they're playing good rhythms and then he'd come walk out, 584 00:44:54,000 --> 00:44:56,900 like walk up and down smiling at everyone 585 00:44:56,900 --> 00:44:58,700 like he's a king or something like that. 586 00:44:58,700 --> 00:45:01,260 -He is a king, man. Can't he be a god and a king? 587 00:45:01,260 --> 00:45:02,960 Can't he be, man? Let him be. 588 00:45:02,960 --> 00:45:05,030 Artistically, he's being fulfilled, 589 00:45:05,030 --> 00:45:07,860 he puts on a cape and plays his electronic piano 590 00:45:07,860 --> 00:45:09,700 and walks up and smiles. 591 00:45:09,700 --> 00:45:12,360 He's a teacher and a great, great artist, man. 592 00:45:14,860 --> 00:45:19,960 -Sun Ra wears the most wonderful, flamboyant outfits, 593 00:45:19,960 --> 00:45:25,060 appreciates sparkle and glitter and gorgeous fabrics. 594 00:45:25,060 --> 00:45:28,530 -When I first got together with this group and he'd say, 595 00:45:28,530 --> 00:45:32,200 "All right, everybody put on their space uniforms." 596 00:45:32,200 --> 00:45:35,560 And I'm like, "What is this guy talking about"? 597 00:45:35,560 --> 00:45:38,630 Visually, Sun Ra had his whole concept 598 00:45:38,630 --> 00:45:43,460 of what became part of the music on the stage. 599 00:45:43,460 --> 00:45:45,360 He was Hendrix, Little Richard, 600 00:45:45,360 --> 00:45:50,600 all those cats before in terms of his dress. 601 00:45:50,600 --> 00:45:54,030 -He didn't conform to these forms of masculinity 602 00:45:54,030 --> 00:45:57,200 that were so associated with jazz music at the time. 603 00:45:57,200 --> 00:45:59,160 We had Miles Davis and John Coltrane, 604 00:45:59,160 --> 00:46:01,760 and Miles Davis would turn his back on the audience 605 00:46:01,760 --> 00:46:04,360 and all of these kinds of cool ways of being. 606 00:46:06,630 --> 00:46:10,800 -Sun Ra is one of those Black men at the outskirts, 607 00:46:10,800 --> 00:46:14,960 at the edges of those forms of masculinity. 608 00:46:14,960 --> 00:46:20,930 I think it's about a refusal of normativity in all its senses, 609 00:46:20,930 --> 00:46:25,100 being otherwise, being different, being strange. 610 00:46:25,100 --> 00:46:29,130 He performs that in his everyday life, 611 00:46:29,130 --> 00:46:31,260 as well as in his stage presence. 612 00:46:31,260 --> 00:47:03,730 ♪♪ 613 00:47:03,730 --> 00:47:07,060 -Sun Ra would call a tune on the piano 614 00:47:07,060 --> 00:47:10,630 and then, you know, who knows where it would develop, 615 00:47:10,630 --> 00:47:12,700 where it might lead us. 616 00:47:12,700 --> 00:47:26,760 ♪♪ 617 00:47:26,760 --> 00:47:30,830 There'd be one of the songs, maybe the hypnotic trancy thing. 618 00:47:30,830 --> 00:47:40,630 -♪ The world is waiting for the sunrise, for the sunrise ♪ 619 00:47:40,630 --> 00:47:44,700 ♪ The world is waiting for the sunrise ♪ 620 00:47:44,700 --> 00:47:46,860 -Then boom really uptempo, wow! 621 00:47:46,860 --> 00:47:56,600 ♪♪ 622 00:47:56,600 --> 00:48:01,030 -Sun Ra's performances entailed more than just the music. 623 00:48:01,030 --> 00:48:20,500 ♪♪ 624 00:48:20,500 --> 00:48:23,160 You just had to be alert 625 00:48:23,160 --> 00:48:26,330 and kind of in tune to what Sun Ra wanted. 626 00:48:29,100 --> 00:48:31,960 -I'm the physical expression of the music. 627 00:48:31,960 --> 00:48:34,000 Our bodies were the instrument. 628 00:48:34,000 --> 00:49:02,730 ♪♪ 629 00:49:02,730 --> 00:49:08,360 -He said that when musicians are not able to express themselves, 630 00:49:08,360 --> 00:49:11,300 sometimes you need the movements of the physical body 631 00:49:11,300 --> 00:49:14,130 to take the people to the next level. 632 00:49:14,130 --> 00:49:24,600 ♪♪ 633 00:49:24,600 --> 00:49:27,260 It's a sonic ritual, it's a meditation, 634 00:49:27,260 --> 00:49:30,400 it's a device to take you from one place to the next. 635 00:49:34,230 --> 00:49:36,500 It's rooted in the tradition and the blues 636 00:49:36,500 --> 00:49:38,400 and the doo wop and all the sounds 637 00:49:38,400 --> 00:49:40,630 that Sun Ra had to journey through. 638 00:49:40,630 --> 00:49:49,260 ♪♪ 639 00:49:49,260 --> 00:49:54,100 -Although there are performers whose music and performance 640 00:49:54,100 --> 00:49:56,460 has a ritualistic quality, 641 00:49:56,460 --> 00:49:59,430 Sun Ra takes that to the extreme, 642 00:49:59,430 --> 00:50:03,860 where his performances include dance, singing, 643 00:50:03,860 --> 00:50:09,560 sometimes poetic recitation, costume, in addition to music. 644 00:50:09,560 --> 00:50:11,660 That complete vision, 645 00:50:11,660 --> 00:50:13,930 where it's a multimedia aesthetic, 646 00:50:13,930 --> 00:50:16,730 is central to Sun Ra as a performer. 647 00:50:16,730 --> 00:50:23,400 ♪♪ 648 00:50:23,400 --> 00:50:27,500 -My music actually is reaching outwards, 649 00:50:27,500 --> 00:50:31,560 not being a part of the past or the present or the future. 650 00:50:33,630 --> 00:50:37,330 But rather what I call an alter destiny. 651 00:50:40,460 --> 00:50:44,200 -Sun Ra came with a mission to get us out of history, 652 00:50:44,200 --> 00:50:49,930 somebody else's story, and to move us into our alter destiny. 653 00:50:49,930 --> 00:50:51,530 He told us all the time. 654 00:50:51,530 --> 00:50:54,460 "Your survival depends on the unknown. 655 00:50:54,460 --> 00:50:57,630 So stop trying to remix what you have. 656 00:50:57,630 --> 00:50:59,160 It won't work." 657 00:51:48,230 --> 00:51:51,700 Alter Destiny. It's a negation. 658 00:51:51,700 --> 00:51:54,830 It's the thing you haven't thought of yet. 659 00:51:54,830 --> 00:51:59,230 It's a placeholder for an idea about utopia 660 00:51:59,230 --> 00:52:03,100 that is not connected to ideology. 661 00:52:03,100 --> 00:52:07,500 -The alter destiny is a very early articulation of the notion 662 00:52:07,500 --> 00:52:10,530 that the future is not only unfixed, 663 00:52:10,530 --> 00:52:14,400 but that we are trapped in notions of time 664 00:52:14,400 --> 00:52:18,030 that force us in places that we don't actually have to go. 665 00:52:18,030 --> 00:52:22,160 We can step out of time and create another trajectory. 666 00:52:22,160 --> 00:52:27,030 ♪♪ 667 00:52:27,030 --> 00:52:29,030 -Sun Ra understood 668 00:52:29,030 --> 00:52:33,100 that sound could be used to jolt people out of their complacency, 669 00:52:33,100 --> 00:52:36,400 to move people to another state of awareness. 670 00:52:36,400 --> 00:52:40,030 He had a device that he called the space chord, 671 00:52:40,030 --> 00:52:45,360 and the space chord was a seemingly random set of notes 672 00:52:45,360 --> 00:52:49,630 that he would call at particular points. 673 00:52:49,630 --> 00:53:05,930 ♪♪ 674 00:53:07,100 --> 00:53:08,860 -He brings you to these moments 675 00:53:08,860 --> 00:53:11,260 where things just seem to just lose themselves. 676 00:53:11,260 --> 00:53:13,100 That for him are these moments 677 00:53:13,100 --> 00:53:16,730 where you get to see and experience in his view 678 00:53:16,730 --> 00:53:18,730 a kind of liberating possibility. 679 00:53:18,730 --> 00:53:46,200 ♪♪ 680 00:53:46,200 --> 00:53:50,730 -In New York, Sun Ra is part of a Black avant-garde, 681 00:53:50,730 --> 00:53:54,830 but he's got a vision to preach. 682 00:53:54,830 --> 00:53:59,900 Sun Ra begins to seek out larger and larger venues. 683 00:54:03,100 --> 00:54:06,800 He books shows with almost any other kind of band 684 00:54:06,800 --> 00:54:07,960 that'll have him. 685 00:54:11,300 --> 00:54:14,960 He begins attracting more and more white people, 686 00:54:14,960 --> 00:54:16,760 playing pretty big venues 687 00:54:16,760 --> 00:54:22,800 sometimes with rock bands, MC5 in Detroit. 688 00:54:22,800 --> 00:54:26,000 This leads to an expansion of Sun Ra's audience 689 00:54:26,000 --> 00:54:30,330 and he gets a reputation as an alien, a guy 690 00:54:30,330 --> 00:54:35,760 who's playing experimental music that rockers can get to, too. 691 00:54:35,760 --> 00:54:39,700 Ultimately he lands on the cover of Rolling Stone. 692 00:54:40,360 --> 00:54:49,200 ♪♪ 693 00:54:49,200 --> 00:54:52,900 Check out the shades. 694 00:54:52,900 --> 00:54:55,030 The cover of Rolling Stone. 695 00:54:55,030 --> 00:54:56,600 I haven't held one in my hands, 696 00:54:56,600 --> 00:54:58,460 so this is a great moment for me. 697 00:54:58,460 --> 00:55:02,460 "You see infinity has a lot of different parts," 698 00:55:02,460 --> 00:55:03,900 and indeed it does. 699 00:55:03,900 --> 00:55:29,760 ♪♪ 700 00:55:29,760 --> 00:55:33,600 -We're sitting in the Sun Ra residence, 701 00:55:33,600 --> 00:55:40,330 also known as the Arkestral Institute of Sun Ra. 702 00:55:40,330 --> 00:55:46,460 Since 1968 this has been the headquarters for the Arkestra. 703 00:55:46,460 --> 00:55:51,260 -In New York, the building that they were renting was sold 704 00:55:51,260 --> 00:55:55,600 and they needed another place to land and Marshall Allen, 705 00:55:55,600 --> 00:55:58,330 his father was willing to sell them 706 00:55:58,330 --> 00:56:01,730 a building in Philadelphia for a dollar. 707 00:56:01,730 --> 00:56:06,900 ♪♪ 708 00:56:06,900 --> 00:56:11,760 -Sun Ra ran this house by African principles. 709 00:56:11,760 --> 00:56:15,200 He was the chief and the chief rules. 710 00:56:15,200 --> 00:56:17,160 -One, two, three, play. 711 00:56:17,160 --> 00:56:22,100 -No women, no alcohol, no drugs. 712 00:56:22,100 --> 00:56:24,360 Just music, that's what the house was for. 713 00:56:24,360 --> 00:56:42,400 ♪♪ 714 00:56:42,400 --> 00:56:45,630 -Sun Ra rehearsed all day every day. 715 00:56:45,630 --> 00:56:48,230 He would fall asleep in rehearsals. 716 00:56:48,230 --> 00:56:52,030 Oh, yeah, he was human. 717 00:56:52,030 --> 00:56:54,930 He'd be at the piano, fall asleep, 718 00:56:54,930 --> 00:56:58,460 and everybody would sneak out one by one. 719 00:56:58,460 --> 00:57:00,400 -He used to say, 720 00:57:00,400 --> 00:57:04,230 "A little birdie told me that you was over on Chew Avenue 721 00:57:04,230 --> 00:57:06,930 with so and so doing so and so." 722 00:57:06,930 --> 00:57:09,260 [ Laughs ] 723 00:57:09,260 --> 00:57:12,560 He would know the most uncanny things, 724 00:57:12,560 --> 00:57:15,430 but he wasn't judgmental. 725 00:57:15,430 --> 00:57:18,700 He wanted you to be focused on his goal. 726 00:57:18,700 --> 00:57:21,000 And his goal was to save our people. 727 00:57:21,000 --> 00:57:28,600 ♪♪ 728 00:57:28,600 --> 00:57:33,400 -We were supposed to be warriors of this sound. 729 00:57:33,400 --> 00:57:36,330 If he had his way, we would have nothing to do 730 00:57:36,330 --> 00:57:38,560 but do music all day, you know, 731 00:57:38,560 --> 00:57:44,460 no family, no responsibilities, just play music. 732 00:57:44,460 --> 00:57:46,660 -I wasn't gonna live in no room, no house, 733 00:57:46,660 --> 00:57:49,230 with no musty men, you know? 734 00:57:49,230 --> 00:57:51,030 No, no. It was like the Army. 735 00:57:51,030 --> 00:57:54,900 I said no, I joined the Army for that. 736 00:57:54,900 --> 00:57:59,600 -I say, "Sonny, can I go to take my girlfriend to the movies?" 737 00:57:59,600 --> 00:58:01,530 He said, "Well, perhaps, 738 00:58:01,530 --> 00:58:04,400 but we're fighting a battle on this planet. 739 00:58:04,400 --> 00:58:07,730 You got to be swinging on your horn, now play this." 740 00:58:07,730 --> 00:58:09,700 -He'd knock on the door, 741 00:58:09,700 --> 00:58:13,030 hand you a piece of music no matter what time it was. 742 00:58:13,030 --> 00:58:16,000 -♪ When the world was in darkness ♪ 743 00:58:16,000 --> 00:58:18,260 ♪ And darkness was ignorance ♪ 744 00:58:18,260 --> 00:58:21,200 ♪ Along came Ra ♪ 745 00:58:21,200 --> 00:58:23,160 -♪ Along came Ra ♪ 746 00:58:23,160 --> 00:58:25,860 -♪ When the world was in darkness ♪ 747 00:58:25,860 --> 00:58:28,200 ♪ And darkness was ignorance ♪ 748 00:58:28,200 --> 00:58:30,260 ♪ Along came Ra ♪ 749 00:58:30,260 --> 00:58:32,630 -♪ Along came Ra ♪ 750 00:58:32,630 --> 00:58:37,030 -♪ The living myth ♪ 751 00:58:37,030 --> 00:58:41,530 -He had a way of picking people who had devotion 752 00:58:41,530 --> 00:58:44,560 to what it was that he did, to the extent 753 00:58:44,560 --> 00:58:49,900 that many people would give up their own desire 754 00:58:49,900 --> 00:58:56,600 for a musical career to work within his particular realm. 755 00:58:56,600 --> 00:58:58,360 'Cause it's always about him. 756 00:58:58,360 --> 00:59:03,030 ♪♪ 757 00:59:03,030 --> 00:59:06,200 -I really was there just for the music. 758 00:59:06,200 --> 00:59:09,460 -♪ The living myth ♪ 759 00:59:09,460 --> 00:59:14,260 -And all of that space stuff was not really my thing. 760 00:59:14,260 --> 00:59:17,660 You know, if you wanna call them true believers. 761 00:59:17,660 --> 00:59:19,800 [ Laughs ] 762 00:59:19,800 --> 00:59:21,530 -It was almost like a cult. 763 00:59:24,200 --> 00:59:28,900 And I say that -- I'm trying to be diplomatic to find the words 764 00:59:28,900 --> 00:59:34,100 because I don't want that to be anything that's negative, 765 00:59:34,100 --> 00:59:37,160 but you had the people within the group 766 00:59:37,160 --> 00:59:42,500 who believed very much in his philosophy 767 00:59:42,500 --> 00:59:45,760 and they were deep in it. 768 00:59:45,760 --> 00:59:49,500 -I don't know what Sun Ra was. He was everything. 769 00:59:49,500 --> 00:59:51,900 He'd be a bad guy, good guy. 770 00:59:51,900 --> 00:59:54,330 He was just a special person 771 00:59:54,330 --> 00:59:58,330 and when that come in your life, 772 00:59:58,330 --> 01:00:02,660 you get what you can get, straighten your life out. 773 01:00:02,660 --> 01:00:04,530 -It wasn't a cult, it was a family. 774 01:00:04,530 --> 01:00:09,860 Sun Ra had a mother's love, not a father's love. 775 01:00:09,860 --> 01:00:12,660 A father's love is very judgmental. 776 01:00:12,660 --> 01:00:17,100 He had a mother's love, unconditional. 777 01:00:17,100 --> 01:00:20,260 He used to say, "When I see a person, I don't see them. 778 01:00:20,260 --> 01:00:25,330 When I look at you I don't see you, I see your potential." 779 01:00:29,630 --> 01:00:35,430 -♪ The Sound of Joy is Enlightenment ♪ 780 01:00:35,430 --> 01:00:41,200 ♪ Space, Fire, Truth is Enlightenment ♪ 781 01:00:41,200 --> 01:00:45,900 ♪ Space Fire, sometimes it's Music ♪ 782 01:00:45,900 --> 01:00:48,760 ♪ Strange Mathematics ♪ 783 01:00:48,760 --> 01:00:52,000 ♪ Rhythmic Equations ♪ 784 01:00:52,000 --> 01:00:55,160 -It's hard to keep a big band together. 785 01:00:55,160 --> 01:00:58,430 You have to have relationships with your musicians 786 01:00:58,430 --> 01:01:01,260 that they know that they can come to you 787 01:01:01,260 --> 01:01:04,300 in a bind and you'll help them out. 788 01:01:04,300 --> 01:01:07,800 So Sonny kept some money always 789 01:01:07,800 --> 01:01:11,060 so that if the musicians needed anything, 790 01:01:11,060 --> 01:01:14,530 somebody's horn needed repair, if you're hungry, 791 01:01:14,530 --> 01:01:17,800 "Look, I'm out of groceries in my place," 792 01:01:17,800 --> 01:01:19,760 he'd take care of you. 793 01:01:19,760 --> 01:01:24,060 But he could be frugal on the pay. 794 01:01:24,060 --> 01:01:25,960 -Every gig we played, he lost money. 795 01:01:25,960 --> 01:01:28,660 They told him bring 10 people, he brings 25. 796 01:01:28,660 --> 01:01:32,130 Drive the promoters crazy. And then when he paid you, 797 01:01:32,130 --> 01:01:34,630 he paid you with the deposits of the next gig, 798 01:01:34,630 --> 01:01:37,700 a gig six months down the road. 799 01:01:37,700 --> 01:01:40,260 -Sometimes there would be long periods 800 01:01:40,260 --> 01:01:43,000 where there were no gigs, nothing happening, 801 01:01:43,000 --> 01:01:47,860 but if gigs come up, you want to be able to also be available, 802 01:01:47,860 --> 01:01:52,500 and so that was kind of a struggle to balance. 803 01:01:52,500 --> 01:01:56,130 -Musicians I do have have stuck with me a long time, 804 01:01:56,130 --> 01:01:59,900 which is a compliment to man 805 01:01:59,900 --> 01:02:03,100 that you can have some people who will stick with a leader 806 01:02:03,100 --> 01:02:05,830 through thick and thin without the thought of money. 807 01:02:09,660 --> 01:02:11,660 -One time I said, 808 01:02:11,660 --> 01:02:13,860 "Sun Ra, we've been on the road for almost two weeks now, 809 01:02:13,860 --> 01:02:15,230 and I haven't gotten paid, 810 01:02:15,230 --> 01:02:17,500 and I would like to go pay some bills." 811 01:02:17,500 --> 01:02:21,000 And he went off on me, "[Bleep] damn it, 812 01:02:21,000 --> 01:02:24,830 I told you [bleep]damn musicians about asking me about money. 813 01:02:24,830 --> 01:02:26,530 I'm on a spiritual plane. 814 01:02:26,530 --> 01:02:29,460 Don't ask me about any [bleep] damn money." 815 01:02:29,460 --> 01:02:33,600 The manager came over to me and paid me a few hundred dollars, 816 01:02:33,600 --> 01:02:37,030 and said, "Sun Ra doesn't want you to play the first set." 817 01:02:37,030 --> 01:02:38,500 That's the Sun Ra jail. 818 01:02:38,500 --> 01:02:44,230 ♪♪ 819 01:02:44,230 --> 01:02:50,260 -Sun Ra's whole concept of payment was not equitable. 820 01:02:50,260 --> 01:02:55,860 Maybe, you know, you would get $20 for a gig. 821 01:02:55,860 --> 01:02:57,960 For the people who had families, 822 01:02:57,960 --> 01:03:03,660 I can't even imagine how they could explain that. 823 01:03:03,660 --> 01:03:05,860 -I've got expenses I've got to deal with. 824 01:03:05,860 --> 01:03:08,830 And he's doling out money in a miserly way. 825 01:03:08,830 --> 01:03:13,930 But it was the love that I think -- 826 01:03:13,930 --> 01:03:16,900 I know that I felt for him 827 01:03:16,900 --> 01:03:18,800 and for what it was that he was doing. 828 01:03:22,960 --> 01:03:26,830 I knew that there was a greater sense of purpose here. 829 01:03:26,830 --> 01:03:36,930 ♪♪ 830 01:03:56,000 --> 01:04:02,030 -Sun Ra woke up with the sun, and he sat down at the piano 831 01:04:02,030 --> 01:04:06,230 and he improvised a new piece of music. 832 01:04:06,230 --> 01:04:10,130 The band never played it, he never played it live. 833 01:04:10,130 --> 01:04:15,400 That was purely to give thanks to the Creator for his gifts. 834 01:04:15,400 --> 01:04:22,330 ♪♪ 835 01:04:22,330 --> 01:04:25,900 -He had a room, we called it the chaos room. 836 01:04:25,900 --> 01:04:28,400 He said, "This is where I hide my treasures." 837 01:04:28,400 --> 01:04:29,730 Music everywhere. 838 01:04:29,730 --> 01:04:34,500 ♪♪ 839 01:04:34,500 --> 01:04:37,460 He would always be writing music. 840 01:04:37,460 --> 01:04:40,160 We'd go on a train, he'd be writing music, 841 01:04:40,160 --> 01:04:42,060 in his room writing music. 842 01:04:42,060 --> 01:04:58,600 ♪♪ 843 01:04:58,600 --> 01:05:00,700 -There's no time you ever spoke to Sun Ra 844 01:05:00,700 --> 01:05:03,260 where he didn't mention the Creator. 845 01:05:03,260 --> 01:05:06,030 He said, "Everybody all over this planet 846 01:05:06,030 --> 01:05:08,760 is always asking the Creator for things. 847 01:05:08,760 --> 01:05:14,460 Nobody ever gives the Creator anything. 848 01:05:14,460 --> 01:05:18,730 So every morning I give the Creator a song." 849 01:05:18,730 --> 01:06:08,200 ♪♪ 850 01:05:55,760 --> 01:06:08,200 ♪♪ 851 01:06:23,930 --> 01:06:27,960 ♪♪ 852 01:06:54,630 --> 01:06:59,060 ♪♪ 853 01:06:59,060 --> 01:07:02,400 -One night we was in the room, me and Sun Ra, and he said, 854 01:07:02,400 --> 01:07:06,160 "Man, I just need me a big leg woman." 855 01:07:06,160 --> 01:07:07,460 I laughed. 856 01:07:07,460 --> 01:07:15,730 -♪ Sunrise, love everlasting ♪ 857 01:07:15,730 --> 01:07:20,160 ♪ Reaches outward to a love ♪ 858 01:07:20,160 --> 01:07:23,600 -I remember Sun Ra saying, "Yeah, I had a woman once." 859 01:07:23,600 --> 01:07:25,630 One time he said to me, "Craig, 860 01:07:25,630 --> 01:07:29,460 you need to stop that womanizing and get yourself a boyfriend." 861 01:07:29,460 --> 01:07:33,130 I'm like -- [ Laughs ] 862 01:07:33,130 --> 01:07:38,900 -I never saw him, like, involved with anybody. 863 01:07:38,900 --> 01:07:41,230 But every time we would go to Chicago, 864 01:07:41,230 --> 01:07:45,860 there was a Black gentleman, very flamboyant. 865 01:07:45,860 --> 01:07:48,360 Roland, I think that was his name. 866 01:07:48,360 --> 01:07:50,400 And he said, 867 01:07:50,400 --> 01:07:53,100 "Sometimes he gets a little uncomfortable when I'm around, 868 01:07:53,100 --> 01:07:55,430 but I know he's happy to see me." 869 01:07:59,900 --> 01:08:05,130 -Maybe it wasn't easy for Sun Ra to be in a world 870 01:08:05,130 --> 01:08:10,500 where sex is everywhere and all things. 871 01:08:10,500 --> 01:08:14,600 -It was not consistent with his mission, his purpose, 872 01:08:14,600 --> 01:08:18,000 his reason for being on the planet. 873 01:08:18,000 --> 01:08:23,130 And yet he was one of the most fertile beings 874 01:08:23,130 --> 01:08:27,130 that I've ever read about or encountered in all of time. 875 01:08:27,130 --> 01:08:28,860 Just fertility. 876 01:08:28,860 --> 01:08:31,560 He made things. He just didn't make people. 877 01:08:35,460 --> 01:08:39,360 -Music is a language, and my music speaks of everything. 878 01:08:39,360 --> 01:08:41,400 So in order to understand the music, 879 01:08:41,400 --> 01:08:44,160 you would have to know some of the things that I have studied. 880 01:08:44,160 --> 01:08:47,900 For instance, if you're studying something about Bach or Brahms 881 01:08:47,900 --> 01:08:50,700 and Beethoven, you need to study their life too. 882 01:08:53,000 --> 01:08:58,200 -In 1971, Sun Ra was invited to lecture at UC Berkeley, 883 01:08:58,200 --> 01:09:03,130 and he taught a class, "Black Man in the Cosmos." 884 01:09:03,130 --> 01:09:04,960 He was an intellectual 885 01:09:04,960 --> 01:09:07,900 and he was noticed by other intellectuals. 886 01:09:07,900 --> 01:09:09,860 -When you look at this course, 887 01:09:09,860 --> 01:09:13,860 you really see the kind of eclectic taste. 888 01:09:13,860 --> 01:09:15,130 On the one hand, 889 01:09:15,130 --> 01:09:17,930 you have Russian philosophers of language, 890 01:09:17,930 --> 01:09:19,830 on the other hand, 891 01:09:19,830 --> 01:09:23,430 you have advocates of Black power and Black militancy. 892 01:09:23,430 --> 01:09:26,700 He's thinking beyond either Eurocentric 893 01:09:26,700 --> 01:09:28,300 or Afrocentric approaches. 894 01:09:28,300 --> 01:09:31,360 He's thinking beyond race. 895 01:09:31,360 --> 01:09:35,130 -He's just deeply committed to a life of study, 896 01:09:35,130 --> 01:09:37,800 and the life of study to which he's committed 897 01:09:37,800 --> 01:09:42,830 is inseparable from his project of making the world better. 898 01:09:42,830 --> 01:09:44,730 And in the midst of that thinking, 899 01:09:44,730 --> 01:09:47,760 and in the midst of that work of bettering the world, 900 01:09:47,760 --> 01:09:51,000 we generate beauty. 901 01:09:54,630 --> 01:09:56,700 -[ Speaking Italian ] 902 01:09:59,500 --> 01:10:01,800 -[ Speaking Dutch ] 903 01:10:04,060 --> 01:10:06,460 -[ Speaking Spanish ] 904 01:10:06,460 --> 01:10:09,360 -[ Speaking Italian ] 905 01:10:09,360 --> 01:10:17,860 -♪ We travel the spaceways ♪ 906 01:10:17,860 --> 01:10:26,100 ♪ From planet to planet ♪ 907 01:10:28,760 --> 01:10:33,760 -Here in this country Sun Ra had an audience, 908 01:10:33,760 --> 01:10:36,500 but it wasn't a vast audience. 909 01:10:36,500 --> 01:10:39,100 Here, anything new had to be sanitized, 910 01:10:39,100 --> 01:10:41,930 and everything was more commercialized. 911 01:10:41,930 --> 01:10:43,960 In Europe, 912 01:10:43,960 --> 01:10:47,900 people looked at certain forms of music a lot differently. 913 01:10:47,900 --> 01:10:49,900 So you had many artists 914 01:10:49,900 --> 01:10:52,100 that had to leave this country just to go someplace else 915 01:10:52,100 --> 01:10:54,800 because people understood what they were doing. 916 01:10:56,900 --> 01:10:59,200 When I went to Europe with Sun Ra, 917 01:10:59,200 --> 01:11:03,200 it was a huge audience of people. 918 01:11:03,200 --> 01:11:11,530 -♪ We travel the spaceways ♪ 919 01:11:11,530 --> 01:11:16,560 ♪ From planet... ♪ 920 01:11:16,560 --> 01:11:18,860 -We had been on tour in Europe, 921 01:11:18,860 --> 01:11:21,560 and this was a large ensemble. 922 01:11:21,560 --> 01:11:24,800 I think we had five or six dancers with us 923 01:11:24,800 --> 01:11:28,500 and tons and tons of equipment. 924 01:11:30,830 --> 01:11:34,260 Nobody knew Sun Ra was negotiating with one 925 01:11:34,260 --> 01:11:36,760 of the festivals that we had performed in 926 01:11:36,760 --> 01:11:40,500 that they would take care of the tickets for us to go to Egypt. 927 01:11:40,500 --> 01:11:48,730 ♪♪ 928 01:11:48,730 --> 01:11:53,260 -♪ When the Black man ruled this land ♪ 929 01:11:53,260 --> 01:11:57,760 ♪ Pharaoh was sitting on his throne ♪ 930 01:11:57,760 --> 01:12:02,160 ♪ When the Black man ruled this land ♪ 931 01:12:02,160 --> 01:12:08,200 ♪ Pharaoh was sitting on his throne ♪ 932 01:12:08,200 --> 01:12:13,760 -Going to Egypt was a totally incredible experience. 933 01:12:13,760 --> 01:12:17,800 Seeing our history, it was all in the sculpture, 934 01:12:17,800 --> 01:12:19,130 it was all in the art. 935 01:12:19,130 --> 01:12:23,330 -♪ I hope you understand ♪ 936 01:12:23,330 --> 01:12:28,000 ♪ I hope you understand ♪ 937 01:12:28,000 --> 01:12:32,660 -His vision was futuristic, but at the same time 938 01:12:32,660 --> 01:12:38,330 it was rooted in an ancient culture and mythology 939 01:12:38,330 --> 01:12:42,300 which we had forgotten about or maybe never knew about. 940 01:12:45,400 --> 01:12:50,160 That was really very empowering. 941 01:12:50,160 --> 01:12:54,060 -Taking us there was like a gift. 942 01:12:54,060 --> 01:12:57,000 And he also considered himself a Pharaoh. 943 01:12:57,000 --> 01:13:01,160 And so to me that was like his fulfillment of something 944 01:13:01,160 --> 01:13:03,160 in himself for himself. 945 01:13:03,160 --> 01:13:07,130 -♪ Pharaoh was sitting on his throne ♪ 946 01:13:07,130 --> 01:13:09,560 -Several local mystics 947 01:13:09,560 --> 01:13:12,160 have predicted a landing from space this afternoon 948 01:13:12,160 --> 01:13:14,160 in the person of a Black musician and thinker 949 01:13:14,160 --> 01:13:15,700 named Sun Ra. 950 01:13:15,700 --> 01:13:17,800 And upon landing, he will reveal to the world 951 01:13:17,800 --> 01:13:22,700 his so-called plan for the salvation of the Black race. 952 01:13:22,700 --> 01:13:25,000 -I am the alter destiny. 953 01:13:25,000 --> 01:13:28,230 The presence of the living myth. 954 01:13:28,230 --> 01:13:34,630 -In the early 1970s, in a moment of despair, 955 01:13:34,630 --> 01:13:37,260 in a moment of impossibility, 956 01:13:37,260 --> 01:13:42,560 the promise of law and order is stomping out Black rebellion. 957 01:13:42,560 --> 01:13:47,660 Ra makes a film called "Space Is The Place," 958 01:13:47,660 --> 01:13:51,430 and it really is an attempt to capture his philosophy. 959 01:13:54,660 --> 01:13:58,100 -There's this moment I love in the film 960 01:13:58,100 --> 01:14:02,730 where Sun Ra seems to be beamed down into this community center 961 01:14:02,730 --> 01:14:06,430 in a Black neighborhood in the Bay Area in California, 962 01:14:06,430 --> 01:14:08,960 and he encounters these teenagers 963 01:14:08,960 --> 01:14:12,460 who seem to be non-professional actors. 964 01:14:12,460 --> 01:14:16,300 -Greetings, Black youth of planet Earth. 965 01:14:16,300 --> 01:14:18,900 What it is, what it is. 966 01:14:18,900 --> 01:14:20,860 I am Sun Ra, 967 01:14:20,860 --> 01:14:24,400 ambassador from the intergalactic regions 968 01:14:24,400 --> 01:14:28,130 of the counsel of outer space. 969 01:14:32,000 --> 01:14:33,600 -Walking around in all these funny clothes. 970 01:14:33,600 --> 01:14:35,130 [Bleep], I'd probably take off running, 971 01:14:35,130 --> 01:14:36,530 I see someone walking down the street, coming, 972 01:14:36,530 --> 01:14:37,900 talking all that mess to me, 973 01:14:37,900 --> 01:14:39,060 talking 'bout going to outer space. 974 01:14:39,060 --> 01:14:40,860 -Is he for real? 975 01:14:40,860 --> 01:14:43,730 -How do you know I'm real? -Yes. 976 01:14:43,730 --> 01:14:46,060 -I'm not real. I'm just like you. 977 01:14:46,060 --> 01:14:48,700 You don't exist in this society. 978 01:14:48,700 --> 01:14:52,730 If you did, your people wouldn't be seeking equal rights. 979 01:14:52,730 --> 01:14:53,960 You're not real. 980 01:14:53,960 --> 01:14:55,860 If you were, 981 01:14:55,860 --> 01:14:58,200 you'd have some status among the nations of the world, 982 01:14:58,200 --> 01:15:00,560 so we're both myths. 983 01:15:04,560 --> 01:15:07,000 -If someone's standing in front of you who says, 984 01:15:07,000 --> 01:15:10,730 "I come from another planet," 985 01:15:10,730 --> 01:15:15,160 he's making me think about my situation in the United States, 986 01:15:15,160 --> 01:15:17,030 as a kind of alien, 987 01:15:17,030 --> 01:15:20,100 as someone who might as well be from outer space. 988 01:15:20,100 --> 01:15:24,060 Even when he seems to be a bit of a trickster figure, 989 01:15:24,060 --> 01:15:28,560 saying things that seem like they're just throw offs, 990 01:15:28,560 --> 01:15:30,100 there's thought behind it. 991 01:15:30,100 --> 01:15:31,700 -Are there any whiteys up there? 992 01:15:31,700 --> 01:15:34,130 -They take frequent trips to the moon. 993 01:15:34,130 --> 01:15:37,760 I notice, none of you have been invited. 994 01:15:37,760 --> 01:15:39,360 -He understood the power of cinema 995 01:15:39,360 --> 01:15:43,500 to re-imagine the Black origin story. 996 01:15:43,500 --> 01:15:48,800 That feeling of seeing that type of spaceship land with us on it, 997 01:15:48,800 --> 01:15:50,560 playing music that way, 998 01:15:50,560 --> 01:15:52,630 and also announcing that we're not 999 01:15:52,630 --> 01:15:56,300 in this linear time construct that includes our subjugation, 1000 01:15:56,300 --> 01:15:59,560 it was a profoundly necessary piece of visual, 1001 01:15:59,560 --> 01:16:04,960 sonic, performative, comedic imagination. 1002 01:16:04,960 --> 01:16:07,600 -"Space Is The Place" was clear. 1003 01:16:07,600 --> 01:16:11,660 He was just giving the metaphor of what the music represented 1004 01:16:11,660 --> 01:16:16,130 to give us an alternative way of looking at life. 1005 01:16:16,130 --> 01:16:19,500 Because the space is inside here. 1006 01:16:35,460 --> 01:16:39,330 -Transmolecularization, right, would invoke the other world 1007 01:16:39,330 --> 01:16:43,230 through those intense musical relationships. 1008 01:16:43,230 --> 01:16:45,830 The effect of what the music would do. 1009 01:16:45,830 --> 01:16:51,400 We are transported and we are fundamentally changed. 1010 01:16:51,400 --> 01:16:53,260 And we can take that a number of ways. 1011 01:16:53,260 --> 01:16:58,830 It could be abstract, it could be a very concrete claim. 1012 01:16:58,830 --> 01:17:00,630 Who is he actually bringing with him? 1013 01:17:00,630 --> 01:17:05,460 Is it only Black people? Is it also white people? 1014 01:17:05,460 --> 01:17:08,160 He invites everybody to join him in the omniverse. 1015 01:17:10,900 --> 01:17:15,800 -One of Sun Ra's favorite songs was "Over the Rainbow," 1016 01:17:15,800 --> 01:17:18,160 coming from "The Wizard of Oz" 1017 01:17:18,160 --> 01:17:20,130 which is the narrative of another world, 1018 01:17:20,130 --> 01:17:22,300 of other possibilities. 1019 01:17:22,300 --> 01:17:23,430 It's utopian. 1020 01:17:23,430 --> 01:17:24,660 It all makes sense. 1021 01:17:27,630 --> 01:17:31,030 Sun Ra is known as the godfather of the movement 1022 01:17:31,030 --> 01:17:32,700 called Afrofuturism. 1023 01:17:35,230 --> 01:17:37,830 His ideas would take a much longer time 1024 01:17:37,830 --> 01:17:41,600 to sort of seep into the cultural bloodstream 1025 01:17:41,600 --> 01:17:44,400 and so we are lucky to have found a prophet 1026 01:17:44,400 --> 01:17:47,500 that is just so in sync with where people are right now. 1027 01:17:47,500 --> 01:17:49,030 -Sun Ra! 1028 01:17:49,030 --> 01:17:50,860 [ Cheers and applause ] 1029 01:17:50,860 --> 01:18:09,160 ♪♪ 1030 01:18:00,060 --> 01:18:09,160 ♪♪ 1031 01:18:09,160 --> 01:18:11,230 -♪ Space is the place ♪ 1032 01:18:11,230 --> 01:18:15,600 ♪ Space is the place ♪ 1033 01:18:15,600 --> 01:18:18,400 ♪ Yeah, space is the place ♪ 1034 01:18:18,400 --> 01:18:23,100 ♪ Outerspace, Outerspace ♪ 1035 01:18:23,100 --> 01:18:24,930 -♪ Space is the place ♪ 1036 01:18:24,930 --> 01:18:27,130 ♪ Yeah, space is the place 1037 01:18:27,130 --> 01:18:30,100 ♪ A place that's real ♪ 1038 01:18:30,100 --> 01:18:32,360 ♪ Space is the place ♪ 1039 01:18:32,360 --> 01:18:34,200 ♪ A place that's real ♪ 1040 01:18:34,200 --> 01:18:37,130 ♪ Space is the place ♪ 1041 01:18:59,300 --> 01:19:02,800 ♪♪ 1042 01:19:02,800 --> 01:19:05,660 -His way of working in the world 1043 01:19:05,660 --> 01:19:08,400 involved invoking our skepticism, 1044 01:19:08,400 --> 01:19:10,200 rather than running from it. 1045 01:19:10,200 --> 01:19:12,860 You know, you meet a guy and he hands you his business card 1046 01:19:12,860 --> 01:19:16,100 and he says "Look, I consort with ancient Egyptians 1047 01:19:16,100 --> 01:19:17,960 and I'm from outer space." 1048 01:19:17,960 --> 01:19:19,630 And you're supposed to take him seriously. 1049 01:19:19,630 --> 01:19:21,660 He's on a mission from the Creator. 1050 01:19:21,660 --> 01:19:24,500 You're supposed to take him seriously. Would you? 1051 01:19:24,500 --> 01:19:28,800 He doesn't want himself to be taken seriously in that way. 1052 01:19:28,800 --> 01:19:30,760 He wanted you to get the point -- 1053 01:19:30,760 --> 01:19:36,430 it's going to take change of a religious scope and scale. 1054 01:19:40,730 --> 01:19:45,230 Sun Ra's program was change and change radically. 1055 01:19:45,230 --> 01:19:47,230 Turn or burn. 1056 01:19:57,800 --> 01:20:00,960 [ Applause ] 1057 01:20:02,760 --> 01:20:26,060 ♪♪ 1058 01:20:26,060 --> 01:20:28,530 -Just I miss him. 1059 01:20:28,530 --> 01:20:30,960 You know? 1060 01:20:30,960 --> 01:20:33,400 He said, "I'm here to help mankind, 1061 01:20:33,400 --> 01:20:36,430 but I think I'm going to fail." 1062 01:20:36,430 --> 01:20:39,000 Mankind is on the right road, 1063 01:20:39,000 --> 01:20:40,930 we're going in the wrong direction. 1064 01:20:43,560 --> 01:20:47,100 -He said he was doing the music for the 21st century. 1065 01:20:47,100 --> 01:20:50,400 -♪ Love and light interested me so ♪ 1066 01:20:50,400 --> 01:20:54,600 ♪ That I dare to knock at the Door of the Cosmos ♪ 1067 01:20:54,600 --> 01:20:57,400 -I think that that's why this music is here, 1068 01:20:57,400 --> 01:21:00,400 it's here to awaken folks. 1069 01:21:00,400 --> 01:21:24,730 ♪♪ 1070 01:21:24,730 --> 01:21:28,530 -I really believed strongly in that alternate myth 1071 01:21:28,530 --> 01:21:31,730 that Sun Ra was talking about. 1072 01:21:31,730 --> 01:21:34,360 He had that power and that charisma, 1073 01:21:34,360 --> 01:21:38,500 but also he was offering something that nobody else was. 1074 01:21:38,500 --> 01:21:43,860 -♪ That I dare to knock at the Door of the Cosmos ♪ 1075 01:21:56,100 --> 01:22:04,260 ♪♪ 1076 01:22:05,700 --> 01:22:21,760 ♪♪ 1077 01:22:21,760 --> 01:22:26,800 -♪ We travel ♪ 1078 01:22:26,800 --> 01:22:30,500 -♪ The spaceways, the spaceways, the spaceways ♪ 1079 01:22:30,500 --> 01:22:38,060 ♪ From planet to planet ♪ 1080 01:22:38,060 --> 01:22:42,960 ♪ We travel, we travel ♪ 1081 01:22:42,960 --> 01:22:47,030 ♪ The spaceways, the spaceways, the spaceways ♪ 1082 01:22:47,030 --> 01:22:54,960 ♪ From planet to planet ♪ 1083 01:22:54,960 --> 01:22:58,860 ♪ We travel, we travel ♪ 1084 01:22:58,860 --> 01:23:01,860 ♪ The spaceways, the spaceways, the spaceways ♪