Space is the place : the lives and times of Sun Ra / John F. Szwed.
| Author/creator | Szwed, John F., 1936- |
| Format | Book |
| Edition | First edition. |
| Publication Info | New York : Pantheon Books, ©1997. |
| Description | xviii, 476 page 8 pages of plates : illustrations ; 25 cm |
| Subjects |
| Abstract | Sun Ra--a/k/a Herman Poole "Sonny" Blount--was born in Alabama on May 22, 1914. 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 1950s 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 above all a paragon of contradictions: profundity and vaudeville; technical pianistic virtuosity and irony; assiduous attention to arrangements and encouragement of collective improvisation; respect for tradition and celebration of the fresh. Some might have been bemused by his Afro-Platonic neo-hermeticism; others might have laughed at his egregious excesses. But Sun Ra was at once the last of the great romantic composers, one of the premier avant-gardists of the latter half of the twentieth century, and a black cultural nationalist who extended Afrocentrism from ancient Egypt to the heavens. |
| General note | Discography by Robert L. Campbell: pages 427-448. |
| Bibliography note | Includes bibliographical references (pages 409-425) and index. |
| Awards note | Association for Recorded Sound Collections Award, 1998. |
| LCCN | 96040414 |
| ISBN | 0679435891 |
Availability
| Library | Location | Call Number | Status | Item Actions |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Music | Closed Stacks - Ask at Circulation Desk | ML410.S978 S73 1997 | ✔ Available | Place Hold |