I've been reading a terrific biography of the visionary jazz musician Sun Ra by the formidable writer and historian John F. Szwed. Space is the Place: The Lives and Times of Sun Ra (1998) both ably contextualizes and unearths so much fascinating information on this "unearthly" figure, arguably one of the most mysterious of the twentieth century. Sun Ra was such an intriguing self-taught amalgam of different things: exacting, disciplined musical arrangements and free-form individualistic expression, Biblical study and Egyptology, poetry and pacifism (he was a conscientious objector during the Second World War), communal living and health food, extravagant theatricality and cosmic obscurantism. Here are just a handful of the many documentaries and videos on this great artist.
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