Sun Ra
Sign in to saveAmerican jazz composer and bandleader (1914–1993)
Person · Open Library
- Born
- 1914-05-22
- Died
- 1993-05-30
- 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
Listeners · Last.fm
- Listeners
- 528,614
- Total plays
- 9,180,769
Tags
jazzfree jazzAvant-GardeexperimentalAvant-Garde Jazz
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
Recent publications · Crossref
5 total works indexed
- Deep Residual Learning for Image Recognition
· 2016 · cited 165,047x
- Faster R-CNN: Towards Real-Time Object Detection with Region Proposal Networks
· 2017 · cited 33,015x
- Squeeze-and-Excitation Networks
· 2018 · cited 26,817x
- Chemical and isotopic systematics of oceanic basalts: implications for mantle composition and processes
· 1989 · cited 15,572x
- Delving Deep into Rectifiers: Surpassing Human-Level Performance on ImageNet Classification
· 2015 · cited 12,918x
via Crossref · CC0
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
Key dates
- Born
- 22 May 1914
- Died
- 30 May 1993
via Wikidata · CC0
Wikidata facts
- Instance of
- human
- Gender
- male
- Citizenship
- United States
- Place of birth
- Birmingham
- Place of death
- Birmingham
- Occupation
- instrumentalist
- Languages spoken
- English language
- Native language
- English language
- Award
- NEA Jazz Masters
- Field of work
- jazz
Article
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.
Gallery (2)
Connections
Categories
1914 births1993 deaths20th-century African-American male singers20th-century American jazz composers20th-century American keyboardists20th-century American male composers20th-century American male singers20th-century American pianists20th-century American singersAfrican-American jazz musiciansAfrican-American pianistsAfrofuturists