Can't people hear just how deeply Sun Ra was rooted in the heart of jazz? It's so easy for people to either get off on or mindlessly criticize the space motifs, costumes, etc. and just overlook how much continuity there is between Sun Ra and everybody from Louis to Ellington to Mingus and to the most 'primitive' blues players. He was a walking, living, playing history of jazz. And he got some almighty sounds out of his musicians.
Most of Sun Ra's appeal isn't due to his musically ability, but his pop cultural ideals of creating an image for himself that clinches people's minds due to the absolute bizarreness of it all (Much like Lady Ga Ga and her meat dresses and flame throwing bras). Is Sun Ra a good musician? Yes? Would he have been able to make a name for himself based on his music alone? No! Solution to the problem: Be as bizarre as possible even if it means setting your own dick on fire...
Great post!! I really needed to hear this today. Sun Ra's vibrations had the power to heal and encourage creativity. A friend of mine had the honor of seeing Mr. Marshall Allen this past year and reported that the power from Mr. Allen horn made people fall to the ground or run out the building!! That's power!
@WiardvanderKooij a music journalist complained to Duke Ellington that his orchestra was out of tune, and he replied, I beg your pardon sir, but it is de-tuned.
@WiardvanderKooij you are truly ignorant,the folks in the arkestra know AND demonstrate more knowledge about music than you will ever know in many lifetimes.Any sound they made is a sound they wanted to make~~~you are the one who is out of tune!
Sun Ra in my opinion, and i consider my opinion to be fact, knew about other planets. He was talking about things that scientists had not created equations for until the eighties, like the string theory and parallel universes.
"Sun Ra never touched liquor, drugs or sex during his life, he would kick anyone out of his band if they did those kind of things." Yes, this is what I have heard as well. One wonders about the possibility of LSD, but I honestly think that his creativity is simply the result of his history - his life as a black man - the oppression he faced, etc...
There is a Ra quote that says: "What I'm dealing with is so vast and great that it can't be called the truth. It's above the truth.
none of this matters. only his music. Having said that.... he probably did shitloads of LSD as would anybody wanting to expand their consciousness and range of creativity. i know it did for me. I also (being sober) know fully well that that wasn't a hallucination. Oh my god there's a whole world outside my own - who would've THOUGHT!
The only guy in all of this mess who didn't do acid (or like enough to do again) is Miles, but Dave Holland and others have repeatedly told a close friend of mine that "the whole band except for Mileds was doing a lot of acid" during the early 70s one-side-of-an-album-long songs era
What's highly suspicious is how notorious jazz musicians are for using _hard_ drugs like heroin, and no one argues about that, but you mention acid and everyone gets their panties in a bunch. It speaks volumes...
If you believe people have to get stoned to be creative, that says more about you than about them. I've tried it both ways, and drugs do release a certain kind of creative freedom, but they also tend to diminish productivity and discipline. I helped Frank Zappa write The Real Frank Zappa Book, and I can confirm what 74elcamino says: FZ was totally anti-drug, yet was scarily creative. Unfortunately, the cigarettes probably did exacerbate the prostate cancer that did him in.
Read John Szwed's definitive bio of Sun Ra, "Space Is the Place." He makes it quite clear from extensive interviews with Sonny and others that Ra never used drugs, did not drink, and avoided sex of any kind. All that pranic energy he poured into his music, often composing and rehearsing the band for 10 to 16 hors a day. In that regard he resembles the lives of certain mystics more than most musicians.
@peteroak2009 what's wrong with you silly silly people who think that thew weirdest most out there jazz musicians didn't get high
Pink Floyd's biography says they didn't get high either
You think people who sit around and listen to records have more balls when it comes to getting high than people who spend all their sweat and sleepless nights making the music they listen to.. on coffee?
@74elcaminohef lol the only "well-known fact" is that I never mentioned Frank Zappa, whose music was utterly sardonic, sarcastic, facetious, and had none of the warm gut wrenching emotional content of Pink Floyd or beautiful jazz
so take your foot out of whatever orifice it's lodged in, "hef", and try doing some hefffft medicine and listening more closely
instead of reading books, written by people with their little-known agendas, about what you call well-known facts
@fatchants believe it or not people can be weird and out there all by themselves without and drugs, its all about having a free mind, not fucking your self up with drugs
@almanacofsleep It's all about being a sincere, natural being with an elevated consciousness and Sun Ra was a beautiful person and a wonderful jazz musician.
@jazzonthetube - Loplop: "Well, I'm here to telll you differently. (Laughs) Shit, he was a fiend! Used to wake up with a snort of coke before he had breakfast, ya know? And he LOVED psychedelics. We all did. Hash. Reefer. Acid. Maaaan...Personally, I think he was hooked on the coke. But, he had a special kind of love for LSD. (chuckles) The visions it gave him and all..."
@jazzonthetube - youtube won't allow me to post the link to the interview with Loplop. If you want it, give me your e-mail or something. He's talking about the 1961 period when Sun Ra and his gang went to Montreal - that is, when Loplop became part of the band for a short time. It's from Cadence Magazine and it's the ONLY reference you will find to Sun Ra's drug use.
@jazzonthetube - Of course, it's only a hoax.... sorry if that wasn't made clear ;-) You are absolutely right, there is no historical proof nor any testimony showing that Sun Ra ever took psychedelic drugs, and believe me, I've been around looking for that. While I have a hard time believing that a man as curious and experimental as Sun Ra never felt compelled to try LSD, being alive in the USA while LSD was entering the artistic scene at large.
@fatchants whats this stupid argument about LSD about. To be honest I'm here for the music, not to ponder over the artists drug habits. So what.
I think you have to be creative before taking the drugs though. So if your smoking weed/pot/whatever and think your some genius, there are about a hundred thousand other schmucks doing and thinking the same thing. It takes more than druga to get as good as Sun Ra.
@blackbook668 forgive me for the other pot smokers that make stupid comments ... they haven't reach the point yet. (It takes more than druga to get as good as) = agreed ! this is CREATION
@blackbook668 You're correct. Sun Ra was very much against taking drugs and drinking, he led a very simple life. The guys in his band also had to toe the line on those issues as well.
I really believe he went to the Saturn
michal23pl 1 week ago
I really believe he went to the Saturn
michal23pl 1 week ago
Man was that awesome!
Thekouder1 3 months ago
Can't people hear just how deeply Sun Ra was rooted in the heart of jazz? It's so easy for people to either get off on or mindlessly criticize the space motifs, costumes, etc. and just overlook how much continuity there is between Sun Ra and everybody from Louis to Ellington to Mingus and to the most 'primitive' blues players. He was a walking, living, playing history of jazz. And he got some almighty sounds out of his musicians.
pindaric 3 months ago
Most of Sun Ra's appeal isn't due to his musically ability, but his pop cultural ideals of creating an image for himself that clinches people's minds due to the absolute bizarreness of it all (Much like Lady Ga Ga and her meat dresses and flame throwing bras). Is Sun Ra a good musician? Yes? Would he have been able to make a name for himself based on his music alone? No! Solution to the problem: Be as bizarre as possible even if it means setting your own dick on fire...
wiserat4 4 months ago
@wiserat4 I don't think you know very much about Sun Ra...
RyLay 2 months ago
Thanks for posting this great video of the space master. Saw him in concert twice.
vacuumtube1954 5 months ago
Great video of the space master. Thank you. Wonderful music.
vacuumtube1954 5 months ago
This has been flagged as spam show
Great video of the space master. Thank you. Wonderful music.
vacuumtube1954 5 months ago
I used to watch that show.....hahaha good stuff.
I saw Christian Marclay on that show too.
AMOKIAN 6 months ago
John Gilmore on sax, the good stuff!
Hannes2k 7 months ago
the sun ra trip is so fascinating. I will never forget hearing the band at the five spot in the seventies. an experience never equalled.
Jadedjago 9 months ago
Great post!! I really needed to hear this today. Sun Ra's vibrations had the power to heal and encourage creativity. A friend of mine had the honor of seeing Mr. Marshall Allen this past year and reported that the power from Mr. Allen horn made people fall to the ground or run out the building!! That's power!
VRBPRO 9 months ago
face the music, music is the truth
genius!!
freakoutguitarsolo1 1 year ago
THIS MUSIC IS THE SOUND OF EVERYTHING AND NOTHING
PURE VIBRATIONS
PURE EXPRESSION
Sun Ra is truly different from all artist , fearless , bold and real.
manofhue 1 year ago 3
THIS MUSIC IS THE SOUND OF EVERYTHING AND NOTHING
manofhue 1 year ago 3
@WiardvanderKooij a music journalist complained to Duke Ellington that his orchestra was out of tune, and he replied, I beg your pardon sir, but it is de-tuned.
rinchenpalbar 1 year ago 4
@rinchenpalbar : Good response! I agree with you and Duke Ellington.
kearlstig1961 11 months ago
I really dig Sun Ra, but what's bothering me is the fact that the Arkestra is pretty often out of tune.
WiardvanderKooij 1 year ago
@WiardvanderKooij you are truly ignorant,the folks in the arkestra know AND demonstrate more knowledge about music than you will ever know in many lifetimes.Any sound they made is a sound they wanted to make~~~you are the one who is out of tune!
soundsdreamy 9 months ago
1:16 - "...And all musicians are an inspiration to me no matter what style they're playing...". Wow! How many would say such a thing?
mlredr 1 year ago
Doesn't get any better than this!!!!! Long live SUN!!!
mohomoho1 1 year ago
Sun Ra in my opinion, and i consider my opinion to be fact, knew about other planets. He was talking about things that scientists had not created equations for until the eighties, like the string theory and parallel universes.
ppc1989ark 1 year ago
"Sun Ra never touched liquor, drugs or sex during his life, he would kick anyone out of his band if they did those kind of things." Yes, this is what I have heard as well. One wonders about the possibility of LSD, but I honestly think that his creativity is simply the result of his history - his life as a black man - the oppression he faced, etc...
There is a Ra quote that says: "What I'm dealing with is so vast and great that it can't be called the truth. It's above the truth.
theSW1111TCHworks 1 year ago
@theSW1111TCHworks : Brilliant! I agree.
kearlstig1961 1 year ago
Allright people. All comments on this vid will now be screened. Can we PLEASE raise the level of conversation here!!!!!!!!
Hef
74elcaminohef 1 year ago 8
lsd is only a crutch for your mind, hypothetically you could have an acid flashback while never having taken the drug.
mrfarenheit411 1 year ago
@mrfarenheit411 Hypothetically, you are a moron.
74elcaminohef 1 year ago 5
@74elcaminohef at least it's obvious that mrfarenhiet doesn't know what he's talking about at all lol
theSW1111TCHworks 1 year ago
none of this matters. only his music. Having said that.... he probably did shitloads of LSD as would anybody wanting to expand their consciousness and range of creativity. i know it did for me. I also (being sober) know fully well that that wasn't a hallucination. Oh my god there's a whole world outside my own - who would've THOUGHT!
toadrush 1 year ago
@toadrush Sun Ra never touched liquor, drugs or sex during his life, he would kick anyone out of his band if they did those kind of things.
almanacofsleep 1 year ago
I woulda' turned it off a real long time ago...but I didin't wanna[' miss anything.
johnnyfarout 1 year ago
The only guy in all of this mess who didn't do acid (or like enough to do again) is Miles, but Dave Holland and others have repeatedly told a close friend of mine that "the whole band except for Mileds was doing a lot of acid" during the early 70s one-side-of-an-album-long songs era
What's highly suspicious is how notorious jazz musicians are for using _hard_ drugs like heroin, and no one argues about that, but you mention acid and everyone gets their panties in a bunch. It speaks volumes...
fatchants 1 year ago
If you believe people have to get stoned to be creative, that says more about you than about them. I've tried it both ways, and drugs do release a certain kind of creative freedom, but they also tend to diminish productivity and discipline. I helped Frank Zappa write The Real Frank Zappa Book, and I can confirm what 74elcamino says: FZ was totally anti-drug, yet was scarily creative. Unfortunately, the cigarettes probably did exacerbate the prostate cancer that did him in.
peteroak2009 1 year ago
Comment removed
fatchants 1 year ago
Comment removed
fatchants 1 year ago
pura magia!
minhotoarcuense 1 year ago
Read John Szwed's definitive bio of Sun Ra, "Space Is the Place." He makes it quite clear from extensive interviews with Sonny and others that Ra never used drugs, did not drink, and avoided sex of any kind. All that pranic energy he poured into his music, often composing and rehearsing the band for 10 to 16 hors a day. In that regard he resembles the lives of certain mystics more than most musicians.
peteroak2009 1 year ago
@peteroak2009 what's wrong with you silly silly people who think that thew weirdest most out there jazz musicians didn't get high
Pink Floyd's biography says they didn't get high either
You think people who sit around and listen to records have more balls when it comes to getting high than people who spend all their sweat and sleepless nights making the music they listen to.. on coffee?
That's just embarrassing.
fatchants 1 year ago
@fatchants It's a well known fact that Frank Zappa didn't use anything stronger than coffee and tobacco.
YOU are an embarrasment.
Hef
74elcaminohef 1 year ago
@74elcaminohef lol the only "well-known fact" is that I never mentioned Frank Zappa, whose music was utterly sardonic, sarcastic, facetious, and had none of the warm gut wrenching emotional content of Pink Floyd or beautiful jazz
so take your foot out of whatever orifice it's lodged in, "hef", and try doing some hefffft medicine and listening more closely
instead of reading books, written by people with their little-known agendas, about what you call well-known facts
embarrassment? lol
fatchants 1 year ago
Comment removed
fatchants 1 year ago
Comment removed
fatchants 1 year ago
@fatchants believe it or not people can be weird and out there all by themselves without and drugs, its all about having a free mind, not fucking your self up with drugs
almanacofsleep 1 year ago
@almanacofsleep It's all about being a sincere, natural being with an elevated consciousness and Sun Ra was a beautiful person and a wonderful jazz musician.
ppc1989ark 1 year ago
Comment removed
fatchants 1 year ago
Notice Sun Ra's pupils. They're almost completely dilated. An interesting side-effect from long-time use of psychedelics. LOL.
Verblose 1 year ago
@Verblose Sun Ra never used drugs. As hard as it may be, gotta accept the man for who he is. the is, is.
jazzonthetube 1 year ago
@jazzonthetube - Loplop: "Well, I'm here to telll you differently. (Laughs) Shit, he was a fiend! Used to wake up with a snort of coke before he had breakfast, ya know? And he LOVED psychedelics. We all did. Hash. Reefer. Acid. Maaaan...Personally, I think he was hooked on the coke. But, he had a special kind of love for LSD. (chuckles) The visions it gave him and all..."
Verblose 1 year ago
Comment removed
Verblose 1 year ago
@jazzonthetube - youtube won't allow me to post the link to the interview with Loplop. If you want it, give me your e-mail or something. He's talking about the 1961 period when Sun Ra and his gang went to Montreal - that is, when Loplop became part of the band for a short time. It's from Cadence Magazine and it's the ONLY reference you will find to Sun Ra's drug use.
Verblose 1 year ago
@jazzonthetube - Of course, it's only a hoax.... sorry if that wasn't made clear ;-) You are absolutely right, there is no historical proof nor any testimony showing that Sun Ra ever took psychedelic drugs, and believe me, I've been around looking for that. While I have a hard time believing that a man as curious and experimental as Sun Ra never felt compelled to try LSD, being alive in the USA while LSD was entering the artistic scene at large.
Verblose 1 year ago
Comment removed
fatchants 1 year ago
@fatchants whats this stupid argument about LSD about. To be honest I'm here for the music, not to ponder over the artists drug habits. So what.
I think you have to be creative before taking the drugs though. So if your smoking weed/pot/whatever and think your some genius, there are about a hundred thousand other schmucks doing and thinking the same thing. It takes more than druga to get as good as Sun Ra.
blackbook668 1 year ago 10
@blackbook668 Don't bother. Dudes got problems. For proof, just check out his channel. Total loser.
74elcaminohef 1 year ago
This has been flagged as spam show
@blackbook668 forgive me for the other pot smokers that make stupid comments ... they haven't reach the point yet. (It takes more than druga to get as good as) = agreed ! this is CREATION
TheUnknowKING 1 year ago
@blackbook668 You're correct. Sun Ra was very much against taking drugs and drinking, he led a very simple life. The guys in his band also had to toe the line on those issues as well.
YEP321S 1 year ago
lil jon being in the arkestra explains a lot about lil jon
jonesinforjon 2 years ago
This guy is craaazy, and i love him
zzalybyrd 2 years ago 3
crazzzzy, always wanted to see him live!
badaski82 2 years ago
!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
rezzki 2 years ago
Thank you! Reading the Szwed biography now.
mackeralPelog 2 years ago