Jazz Video Guy Meets Sun Ra
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- Опубліковано 13 жов 2024
- I had several memorable encounters with Sun Ra and detail them here in this video. Undoubtedly, in my life, one of the most unique individuals I've ever encountered and I'm lucky to have met a number of remarkable creators. But Sun Ra was in a different zone. Certainly the only six hour interview I've ever done. I loved his music, as well. I was lucky to hear the Sun Ra Arkestra a number of times. Not surprisingly, alto saxophonist Marshall Allen, now in his 90s, still leads the group. Space is the place!
I heard Sun Ra and his Arkestra at Carnegie Hall in the 1960s.What an experience!
I can dig it
Sun Ra is what got me into Jazz, always know about him but one night it just clicked, stayed up all night listening to everything I can find and bought an alto saxophone the next morning
Ra was a one of a kind! I got to play with and study from him in Philadelphia back in the 1980's. I will never forget him ))
Very remarkable man
Thank you,Bret.(Longtime Ra fan here).
I appreciate that!
Great interview Bret. Sun Ra was a great showman.First time I saw him was in Liverpool UK and his band and there were fire-eaters,dancers, films etc. Second time was in Manchester with a smaller unit but with THREE bass players!
Glad you were lucky to hear him live.
The Jazz Video Guy's films are an essential UA-cam offering!
I believe Sun Ra's real name was Sonny Blount. Had an early recording, I think from '56. It was great and I was I still had it. He had some excellent musicians in his bands and the fact that they made the decision to play with him indicates that it was not a con. That was the way he, and they, expressed themselves and the wonderful, fucking world of jazz - based on improvised thought - was his universe.
Yes, Herman "Sonny" Blount.
I was bless to open for Marshall and the fellas once in Knoxville, TN with my band "Rocket Number Nine" I saw Sunny twice alive. He's on Saturn looking down at us!
Hi Bret! I know this was posted a year ago, but I wanted to share that I saw Sun Ra several times at the Left Bank Jazz Society in Baltimore's Famous Ballroom. I was working in radio back then--the late 70s--and once did an interview with Larry Bright, who was Sun Ra's drummer for a while. I was a lousy interviewer then, but Larry was very kind. He described living with Sun Ra in Philly, and it was just as you said, a bunch of musicians all sharing a single roof. What a place that must have been...
Love this! Thank you
glad you dig
I used to see the Arkestra at the Squat Theatre on Tuesdays . It was spectacular in many ways. John Gilmore- wow
What a great story about such an enigmatic musical icon. Amazing experience for you. Thanks for sharing.
Our pleasure!
"Space is the place" - Sun Ra 🪐🛸
We travel the spaceways from planet to planet.
I saw Sun Ra in the late '80s in an outdoor setting on a bill with David Grisman. There were dancers, etc., but what I remember most is the whole area
vibrating as Ra began with a rumbling crescendo like an earthquake.
That was Sun Ra!
Fantastic vid of a man as eccentric as I thought… you caught real history.
Fascinating reminiscences. Thanks.
Glad you enjoyed it
Love this! Sun Ra was brilliant!
He was
Amazing story and testimonial. Thanks for this!
Thank you for this!. I got a chance to see him in the eighties in La Jolla California and he and the band really took us on a journey. They had this drummer playing a standup drum with an African style beater where a piece of wood has been bent in a question mark shape. His drum was made out of a tree-log and there hieroglyphics carved all over it. Also where a limb had once emerged from the trunk and been cut off, he had hollowed it out and stretched on a rawhide head which he played as well. They took a break and being a drummer myself, I approached the guy and told him how much I dug his playing and would he please tell me about the beautiful, intriguing drum. He was friendly and told me that a bolt of lightening had felled the tree in front of his house and that he dragged it into his garage where it could dry out and cure for a year. After that he began to work at hollowing it out, take the bark off, etc.. When asked about the symbols carved into the exterior he claimed he was an Egyptologist. I found his story to be so apropos to the context of the group...a bolt of lightening for heavens sake!
You were so lucky!
I saw Ra as a Kid at Penns Landing . It was Time and mind altering .
truly
Oh yeah! I had the Sun Ra experience some time in the old BIM-huis, late 70s or early 80s. This was some experience during which the concept of time came unstuck for those who were present. ;)
I can dig it
He must cross the bridge!
Is that the Jazz Video Guy's reaction to the recent Pentagon report? Intelligence officials have acknowledged the sightings of one full gross of UAPs (Unidentified Aerial Phenomena), that's about the size of Le Sony'r Ra's UAP discography (Utterly Amazing Productions).
ha!
TRUE STORY: 🪐🛸
Did you hear the story that Brother Ah said about Sun ra? He said that Sun ra had build some devise that had a antenna or some kind copper wire around it, the devise was spinning and when it stop spinning Sun ra said go look out side the house and look up 🛸
Some kind of UFO was hovering over Sun Ra House!
@@astrojazzman I wouldn't doubt it
@@JazzVideoGuy The video is online with Brother Ah talking about it.
Lucky duck!
JVG...amazing remembrances...did you record the 6-hour interview answer? Would be a treasure trove for the Sun Ra researchers among us!
That was way back in the days of cassettes, 1978, I brought a ninety minute tape with me, which ran out, during the six hour interview. I wish I still had that tape, and the others of that period. But I don't. I wish I had my old baseball cards, too.
I read in John F. Szwed's biography of Sun Ra that Sonny was a vegetarian and didn't drink, yet here you say he ordered a cocktail and a steak dinner. Have you heard anything about him being a vegetarian? Or do you know if he stopped it at some point in his life? Thanks JVG!
Didn't discuss that with him. But he certainly enjoyed his drink, a Manhattan, and his fillet mignon.
@@JazzVideoGuy haha thanks for the insight :)
I have been trying to get or understand his sound for the longest. I think I am trying to hear without listening. I am not giving up until I feel enough to have and opinion.
Listen to lanquidity for a more subdued sun ra.
"God is more than love could ever be" is a good one.
Night of the purple noon is more funky, almost pop sun ra. Lots and lots of options with him.
I could never get into his music, too much for me. I consider John Gilmore to be one of the best tenors of all time, along with Harold Land and Benny Maupin. I didn't understand why Gilmore joined his group.
Re upload seen this video already?
It's oldie but goodie, which I reposted for new audiences