Sun Ra, nato come Herman Poole Blount, dal 1952 Le Sony'r Ra , è stato un pianista, compositore, poeta e filosofo statunitense, fra le figure più controverse del jazz moderno, conosciuto per la sua "filosofia cosmica" e per le sue teorie sull'universo e sulla sua stessa vita.
Figura eccentrica ed enigmatica, per molto tempo le notizie sulla sua vita furono frammentarie e contraddittorie, in quanto lui stesso ha affermato di non essere originario di un luogo sulla terra ma di appartenere alla "razza degli angeli" e di provenire da Saturno. La sua filosofia era incentrata sulla pace universale ed è stata denominata "afrofuturismo", in quanto sosteneva la provenienza della gente afro-americana da un altro mondo e conteneva concetti tratti da diverse correnti di pensiero . Il suo stesso nome è composto da "sun" e "Ra" . Durante la sua vita ebbe però anche diversi altri nomi, fra i quali Le Sonra e Sonny Lee. Wikipedia
“I'll build a world of abstract dreams
And wait for you.”
Liner notes to Monorails and Satellites (1968)
Contesto: 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.
“In some far off place
Many light years in space
I’ll wait for you.”
Liner notes to Monorails and Satellites (1968)
Contesto: 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.
"The No Point", p. 256
Sun Ra : The Immeasurable Equation (2005)
"The No Point", p. 256
Sun Ra : The Immeasurable Equation (2005)
“It takes a motion to notion
and it takes a notion to motion.”
"Tomorrow is Never" (1972), p. 253
Sun Ra : The Immeasurable Equation (2005)
“Sometimes in the ignorance
I feel the meaning”
"The Differences" (1970), p. 132
Sun Ra : The Immeasurable Equation (2005)
Contesto: Sometimes in the ignorance
I feel the meaning
Invincible invisible wisdom,
And I commune with intuitive instinct
With the force that made life be
And since it made life be
It is greater than life
And since it let extinction be
It is greater than extinction.
I commune with feelings more than
prayer
“I'm not into division. I'm into coordination, discipline and tradition.”
As quoted in "Space is still the place" by W. Kim Heron in Metro Times (6 June 2007) http://www.metrotimes.com/editorial/story.asp?id=10582 <br class="br">Contesto: People have a lot more of the unknown than the known in their minds. The unknown is great; it's like the darkness. Nobody made that. It just happens. Light and all that — someone made that; it's written that they did. But nobody made the darkness. My music is about dark tradition. Dark tradition means a lot more about than black tradition. There's a lot of division in what they call black. I'm not into division. I'm into coordination, discipline and tradition.
As quoted in "Space is still the place" by W. Kim Heron in Metro Times (6 June 2007) http://www.metrotimes.com/editorial/story.asp?id=10582 <br class="br">Contesto: People have a lot more of the unknown than the known in their minds. The unknown is great; it's like the darkness. Nobody made that. It just happens. Light and all that — someone made that; it's written that they did. But nobody made the darkness. My music is about dark tradition. Dark tradition means a lot more about than black tradition. There's a lot of division in what they call black. I'm not into division. I'm into coordination, discipline and tradition.
"The No Point", p. 256
Sun Ra : The Immeasurable Equation (2005)
Contesto: When the person Myth meets the person Reality
The spirit of the impossible-strange appears
In dark disguise
It is always there where nothing inverts itself
and becomes something
Whatever is the imperative need
Interview with Jennifer Rycenga (2 November 1988)
Contesto: I probably do what I'm controlled to do. Something … made all this: some Impossibility without a name. That's what the world is controlled by: an Impossibility. It's controlled by someone they call "God" who never had a beginning and naturally had no end. And in a sense He doesn't exist, because of the standards of reality, because everybody knows something can't just happen — but if there is a God, that's what happened; just happened to be, and without ever having not been — they got to face that.
“Freedom of Speech is Freedom of Music.”
"The Neglected Plane of Wisdom" (1966), p. 250
Sun Ra : The Immeasurable Equation (2005)
“Music is not material. Music is Spiritual.”
"The Neglected Plane of Wisdom" (1966), p. 250
Sun Ra : The Immeasurable Equation (2005)
"The Neglected Plane of Wisdom" (1966), p. 250
Sun Ra : The Immeasurable Equation (2005)
“I think of myself as a complete mystery. To myself.”
Interview with Jennifer Rycenga (2 November 1988) http://www.plonsey.com/beanbenders/SUNRA-interview.html
As quoted in "Sun Ra : Stranger from Outer Space" by Mike Walsh at missionCreep http://missioncreep.com/mw/sunra.html
Liner notes for Cosmic Tones for Mental Therapy (1966)
Interview with Jennifer Rycenga (2 November 1988)
As quoted in a press release by A&M Records (1989) http://www.elrarecords.com/sunra.html
“Behold the pre-prophetic symbols of the planes of Never.
Behold, behold this thisness!
This isness.”
"Tomorrow is Never" (1972), p. 252
Sun Ra : The Immeasurable Equation (2005)
“I see them as they are to is
And not the seeming isness of the was.”
"The Differences" (1970), p. 132
Sun Ra : The Immeasurable Equation (2005)
“The future is never
Never comes tomorrow
Never is not”
"Tomorrow is Never" (1972), p. 252
Sun Ra : The Immeasurable Equation (2005)
As quoted in Sun Ra : Un noir dans le cosmos (2005) by Aurélien Tchiemessom
