File:Sun_Ra_(1973_publicity_photo_-_Impulse_ABC_Dunhill).jpg · Wikimedia Commons · See Wikimedia Commons
Sun Ra
Sign in to saveAlso known as Sonny Blount, Herman Blount, Herman Poole Blount, Le Sony'r Ra, Le Sun Ra, Sonny Bourke, Le Sun-Ra, Herman Lee
American jazz composer and bandleader (1914–1993)
OverviewAI-generated
Sun Ra, born Herman on May 22, 1914, in Birmingham, Alabama, was an American jazz musician, composer, conductor, and bandleader. He was an African American male who began his work period in 1934 and was educated at Alabama A & M University. Ra played the organ, piano, synthesizer, and cello, performing in genres including jazz, jazz fusion, bebop, and experimental music. He recorded for A&M Records, BYG Records, and ESP-Disk.
His musical career spanned several decades, with his death occurring on May 30, 1993, due to pneumonia. Ra’s notable written works include *Space is the place*, *Prophetika*, *God is more than love can ever be*, *Of abstract dreams*, and *My brother the wind*. He spoke and wrote in English.
Synthesized by Vinony from 43 facts across 9 sources: Wikidata, OpenAlex, Open Library, MusicBrainz, Crossref, Last.fm, TMDb, Wikiquote, Vinony graph. Generated from structured data (not the Wikipedia text) and checked against those facts — may still contain errors.
Person · Open Library
- Works
- 11
Top works
- The immeasurable equation
- Space is the place
- Prophetika
- God is more than love can ever be
- Of abstract dreams
via Open Library + Wikidata
Film & TV
Acting · Birmingham, Alabama , U.S.
Sun Ra (born Herman Poole Blount, legal name Le Sony'r Ra; May 22, 1914 – May 30, 1993) was an American jazz composer, bandleader, piano and synthesizer player, poet and philosopher known for his experimental music, "cosmic philosophy," prolific output, and theatrical performances. For much of his career, Ra led "The Arkestra", an ensemble with an ever-changing name and flexible line-up.
Known for
- Sun Ra: Do the Impossible — Self (archive footage)2025
- Ladies & Gentlemen... 50 Years of SNL Music — Self (archive footage)2025
- The Magic City: Birmingham according to Sun Ra — Self2025
- Betye Saar: Drifting Toward Twilight2023
- Rebirth Is Necessary — Self (Archive Footage)2017
- I Don't Feel at Home in This World Anymore: Film, Stories & Images from the Mississippi Records and Alan Lomax Archive — Himself2013
- Jazz Evolution — Self - Organ2008
- Sun Ra: Brother From Another Planet — Self2005
- Mystery Mister Ra — Self1984
- Sun Ra: A Joyful Noise — Himself1980
via TMDB
Music · MusicBrainz
- Type
- Person
- Gender
- Male
- Country
- United States
- Active from
- 1914
- Active to
- 1993
Discography
via MusicBrainz · CC0
Listeners · Last.fm
- Listeners
- 528,614
- Total plays
- 9,180,769
Tags
Sun Ra (1914 – 1993) was an innovative jazz composer, bandleader, piano and synthesiser player, who came to be known as much for his Cosmic Afro-futurist Philosophy as for his phenomenal musical compositions and performances. He claimed that he was of the "Angel Race", not from Earth but from Saturn. Some of his most notable influences were African and African-American theatre, theosophy, and masonic Afro-futurism. His interest in these art forms <a href="https://www.last.fm/music/Sun+Ra">Read
via Last.fm · Sun Ra
Academic profile · OpenAlex
- Works
- 405
- Cited by
- 10,127
Research areas
Most cited works
- Exosome engineering for efficient intracellular delivery of soluble proteins using optically reversible protein–protein interaction module2016 · 573 cit
- ADAPTIVE ROLES OF PROGRAMMED CELL DEATH DURING NERVOUS SYSTEM DEVELOPMENT2006 · 390 cit
- Complete Dissociation of Motor Neuron Death from Motor Dysfunction by Bax Deletion in a Mouse Model of ALS2006 · 388 cit
- Rapid induction and long-term self-renewal of primitive neural precursors from human embryonic stem cells by small molecule inhibitors2011 · 385 cit
- Adrenal peripheral clock controls the autonomous circadian rhythm of glucocorticoid by causing rhythmic steroid production2008 · 314 cit
via OpenAlex · CC0
Recent publications · Crossref
5 total works indexed
- Deep Residual Learning for Image Recognition
· 2016 · cited 170,465x
- Faster R-CNN: Towards Real-Time Object Detection with Region Proposal Networks
· 2017 · cited 34,372x
- Squeeze-and-Excitation Networks
· 2018 · cited 28,159x
- Chemical and isotopic systematics of oceanic basalts: implications for mantle composition and processes
· 1989 · cited 15,853x
- Delving Deep into Rectifiers: Surpassing Human-Level Performance on ImageNet Classification
· 2015 · cited 13,178x
via Crossref · CC0
Quotes
- “Proper evaluations of words and letters in their phonetic and associated sense can bring the people of earth to the clear light of pure cosmic wisdom.”
- “In some far off place Many light years in space I’ll wait for you. Where human feet have never trod, Where human eyes have never seen. I'll build a world of abstract dreams And wait for you.”
- “I think of myself as a complete mystery. To myself.”
- “Well, actually, I'm a psychic being, and you know, we don't concern ourselves with being born; we concern ourselves with being eternal; we deal with the spirit.”
- “I never wanted to be a part of planet Earth, but I am compelled to be here, so anything I do for this planet is because the Master-Creator of the Universe is making me do it. I am of another dimension. I am on this planet because people need me.”
- “What I'm dealing with is so vast and great that it can't be called the truth. It's above the truth.”
via Wikiquote · CC BY-SA
Key facts
- Also known as
- Le Sony'r Ra ( legal name )
- Born
- Herman Poole Blount , ( 1914-05-22 ) May 22, 1914, Birmingham, Alabama , U.S.
- Died
- May 30, 1993 (1993-05-30) (aged 79), Birmingham, Alabama, U.S.
- Genres
- Jazz experimental space avant-garde
- Occupations
- Bandleader composer arranger artist poet
- Instruments
- Keyboards vocals
- Years active
- 1934–1993
- Labels
- El Saturn Thoth Intergalactic Impulse! MPS ESP-Disk Black Saint A&M Leo Rounder
via Wikipedia infobox
~40 min read
Encyclopedic overview
Le Sony'r Ra (born Herman Poole Blount, May 22, 1914 – May 30, 1993), better known as Sun Ra, was an American jazz composer, bandleader, piano and synthesizer player, and poet known for his experimental music, "cosmic" philosophy, prolific output, and theatrical performances. For much of his career, Ra led The Arkestra, an ensemble with an ever-changing name and flexible line-up.
Born and raised in Alabama, Blount became involved in the Chicago jazz scene during the late 1940s. He soon abandoned his birth name, taking the name Le Sony'r Ra, shortened to Sun Ra (after Ra, the Egyptian god of the Sun). Claiming to be an alien from Saturn on a mission to preach peace, he developed a mythical persona and an idiosyncratic credo that made him a pioneer of Afrofuturism. Throughout his life he denied ties to his prior identity saying, "Any name that I use other than Ra is a pseudonym." His widely eclectic and avant-garde music echoed the entire history of jazz, from ragtime and early New Orleans hot jazz, to swing music, bebop, free jazz and fusion. His compositions ranged from keyboard solos to works for big bands of over 30 musicians, along with electronic excursions, songs, chants, percussion pieces, and anthems.
Excerpted from Wikipedia’s “Sun Ra” article, available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 licence.