Space Is the Place: The Lives and Times of Sun Ra

by John F. Szwed

Always riveting, Space Is the Place is the definitive biography of "one of the great big-band leaders, pianists, and surrealists of jazz"  (New York Times)--unparalleled for his purposeful outlandishness, a man who exerted a powerful influence over a vast array of artists.

Sun Ra--a/k/a Herman Poole "Sonny  Blount--was born in Alabama on May 22, 1914. But like Father Divine and Elijah Muhammad, he made a lifelong effort to obscure many of the facts of his early life. After years as a rehearsal pianist for nightclub revues and in blues and swing bands, including Wynonie Harris's and Fletcher Henderson's, Sun Ra set out in the 1950s to find a way to impart his views about the galaxy, black people, and spiritual matters through the various incarnations of the Intergalactic Arkestra. His repertoire ranging from boogie-woogie, swing, and bebop to free form, fusion, and whatever, Sun Ra was above all a paragon of profundity and vaudeville; technical pianistic virtuosity and irony; assiduous attention to arrangements and encouragement of collective improvisation; respect for tradition and celebration of the fresh.

Some might have been bemused by his Afro-Platonic neo-hermeticism; others might have laughed at his egregious excesses. But Sun Ra was at once one of the great avant-gardists of the latter half of the twentieth century and a black cultural nationalist who extended Afrocentrism from ancient Egypt to the heavens.

Genres: Music, Biography, Jazz, Nonfiction, History, Biography Memoir, Art

476 pages, Hardcover

Published July 8, 1997

Reviews

[Tentatively, Convenience · Rating 4 out of 5]

I grew up in Baltimore. Sun Ra was based in Philly during alotof of my adult yrs there. He played in Baltimore fairly often. There was a club on N Charles St called the Famous Ballroom. Sun Ra & the Arkestra played there. It was dark, w/ one of those "disco balls" - those multi-faceted things that spin & have light reflecting off them. It wasn't a big place but the stage cd manage to hold the Arkestra. I have a very fond memory (that must be around 30+ yrs old by now) of sitting at the Ballroom at a round table witnessing the Arkestra playing in full force - w/ dancers & whatnot. At the end, Sun Ra came out into the audience (it was up-close & personal) leading a snake-dance & tilting a "rain-stick" by people's ears so they cd hear the sand pouring from one end to the other of the bamboo tube. He did it to me. If I didn't love him for 10 zillion other reasons I think I might just love him for that alone. They sold records at the concerts - white ones w/ hand-done covers of their more 'far-out' stuff & black ones of the more traditional stuff. Lardy knows I was dirt-poor in those days but I still managed to buy one of each - as I recall, they weren't that expensive. What an incredible person! What incredible music! What incredible philosophy! What incredible imagination! What incredible humor! When I think of all the sadness & trouble that the people I respect have gone thru it makes me ever so angry. Sun Ra, I wish there were a paradise for you to go to where yr immense creativity cd flourish even more than it did on this shithole of a human cesspit that some people have the audacity to call "society". If ever a person has deserved bliss in my bk, it's certainly you & yrs!!

[Gerhard · Rating 5 out of 5]

“Did you see Star Wars?” Sonny once asked writer Francis Davis. “It was very accurate.”

Asked the man in the space hat. Review to follow.

[Andy · Rating 5 out of 5]

I don't know if this book de-mystifies Sun Ra or confirms his weirdness, but one thing's for certain: this is a great book that entertains like only the best jazz can. Many members of his big band remained loyal to him for over thirty years, and it's easy to see why.
Sun Ra started out emulating Duke Ellington until he got hooked into the Martin Denny lounge groove while constantly experimenting with (then)new keyboards and exotic arrangements; his movie "Space Is The Place" is a combination of El Topo, Dolemite, and Star Wars. One of the best jazz bios around.

[Eddie Watkins · Rating 4 out of 5]

Sun Ra was fascinating and inspiring (and more than a little weird, though not as weird as his persona might proclaim, which is to say for all his cosmic out-thereness he was grounded), and this book gives a nicely detailed view into how he managed to keep a marginal big band jazz outfit alive and thriving for forty years or more. It also provides lots of information on his particular philosophy and how he developed it.

Sun Ra was like an alien Duke Ellington in tinsel who managed, through luck or cosmic fate, to be right there in the thick of developments in jazz at a time when many major developments were happening, but who did it on absolutely his own terms with not much recognition from the mainstream. He was a slightly warped encyclopedia of all things jazz; his playbook consisted of everything from tight classic jazz to the freest jazz anyone has put out to psychedelically warped moog fantasias. But even with his strangeness he managed to procure two (short-lived) university gigs, strange to think, in Montreal and Berkeley.

I feel a particular connection to Sun Ra for a few reasons, besides aspects of his philosophy and his music - I live in Philly (which her termed the City of Brotherly Shove) where he was based for the last 20-30 years of his life. We're also both Geminis and he died on my birthday in 1993. For a while I even reckoned my age from 1993 instead of 1965, as if I were born anew when Sun Ra passed on and ascended to Saturn; which would make me at the moment a youthful and confused 19 years old. I don't usually go in for astrology stuff, but in Sun Ra's case I find it significant, with of course an ironical touch.

I never actually saw him play but his Arkestra is still around Philly and they still tour and play quite a bit.

[Jeff · Rating 3 out of 5]

John Szwed's Space is the Place is a decent biography of the enigmatic bandleader and composer Sun Ra. The author wisely avoids trying to set the record straight, and allows the subject and his contemporaries to speak on their own terms, keeping the many contradictions unresolved. This is the best possible approach to a biography of Ra, since the musician was either born in 1914 in Birmingham, Alabama with the birth name Herman Poole Blount, or he was born at an unknown time on the planet Saturn with the name Le Son'y Ra: the reader has to choose which narrative path will take them where they want to go.

Sun Ra had much to say in music and in words, and to aid in my own understanding of the text, I've quoted the most critical passages below.

From chapter 1 (direct quote from Ra):

And this is exactly what I want to teach everybody: that it is important to liberate oneself from the obligation to be born, because this experience doesn't help us at all. It is important for the planet that its inhabitants do not believe in being born, because whoever is born has to die.

From chapter 2 (Szwed's words):

With music he would reach across the border of reality into myth; with music he could build a bridge to another dimension, to something better; dance halls, clubs, and theaters could be turned into sacred shrines, the sites of dramas and rituals, and though people would be drawn to hear the music, it was they who would become the instrument on which it would resonate, on which he would create the sound of silhouettes, the images and forecasts of tomorrow...all of it disguised as jazz.

From chapter 4 (direct quote from Ra):

A race without a sense of humor is in bad shape. A race needs clowns. In earlier days people knew that. Kings always had a court jester around. In that way he was always reminded how ridiculous things are. I believe that nations too should have jesters, in the congress, near the president, everywhere....You could call me the jester of the Creator. The whole world, all the disease and misery, it's all ridiculous.

From chapter 5 (direct quote from Ra):

Reality equals death, because everything which is real has a beginning and an end. Myth speaks of the impossible, of immortality. And since everything that's possible has been tried, we need to try the impossible.

[Aaron · Rating 5 out of 5]

Sun Ra, a man of many names throughout his life, is an excellent subject for a biography. John Szwed captures his interstellar essence perfectly throughout this wonderful biography. Szwed uses Sun's various names throughout the book, using that as a framing device to explore his different eras.

If you couldn't tell from his music, Sun Ra was extremely weird. He may have literally believed he was from outer space. He definitely believed we all should go to outer space to reach some kind of higher plane. He was extremely strict with his band--almost militarily so--and somehow managed to retain some members for literal decades. He may have been asexual, but was definitely sexist (he virtually wouldn't allow women near him, and pretty much completely refused to work with them until later in his career when he allowed them to dance on stage). His composing philosophy helped to establish free/avant-garde jazz in a big band context and to expand the vocabulary of jazz astronomically. He also was a philosophical nutjob whose philosophy on the world was mostly incomprehensible but always fascinating.

Szwed does an amazing job of helping to bring you into the world of Sun Ra. The whole thing felt kind of mysterious and otherwordly. It seems Szwed had a masterful hold on Sun Ra's personality and he takes us with him into the void of Sun's consciousness. I was spellbound throughout watching Sun's life and music develop.

I find with biographies, they can become less interesting when covering periods of an artist's life when they are not making great art. Sun Ra, like most artists, dropped off in quality at one point in his life. However, Szwed somehow manages to make this a fascinating read from start to finish.

If you want to know how to get to space, start here.

[flannery · Rating 5 out of 5]

"His first UK performance... was one of the most spectacular concerts ever held in this country. Not spectacular so much in terms of effects, which were low on budget but high on strange atmosphere; spectacular in terms of presenting a complete world view, so occult, so other, to all of us in the audience that the only possible responses were outright dismissal or complete intuitive empathy with a man who had chosen to discard all possibilities of a normal life, even a normal jazz life, in favor of an unremitting alien identity." -David Toop

"Don't have nothin' to do with that. Stand your ground." -Sun Ra

Such an exciting, literate, well-researched and beautiful biography.

[Kojo Baffoe · Rating 4 out of 5]

Over the last two years, I have been submerging myself in the music of Sun Ra. Space may be the place but I do feel there continues to be a space for his music, even today.

Sun Ray’s music is hard to get your head around because his teachings are also hard to get one’s head around but the book Space Is The Place does an admirable job of unpacking his views. The sections were the author shares is interpretation of Sun Ra’s views were hard to grasp and probably warrant some rereading but the book definitely does him justice.

[Mixter Mank · Rating 4 out of 5]

On the final page of this biography, Szwed calls Sun Ra "difficult to follow and hard to believe," and that pretty much sums him up. Sun Ra resists definition — a black nationalist who was evicted from a Black Panthers-owned house, a theologist who undermined religion, an avant-garde composer who paid homage to big band swing, a serious intellectual (who lectured at UC Berkeley) with a gift for humor and word play. Reading this book won't answer too many questions about what Sun Ra was actually like, but it can, through its many inexplicable stories, entertain and inspire.

[Wes Freeman · Rating 5 out of 5]

Certainly the best biography of an unbiographiable person, maybe the best biography of a musician ever. Telling the story of a man who spent his adulthood trying to outdistance his own humanity is a tall order. The most concrete things Swzed has to go on are government documents, Ra's notebooks (the parsing of same requiring at the very least a slide rule, etymological dictionary and a library of pre-Civil Rights era books on Black Nationalism), and offhanded comments from the man that might hint at his essentially terrestrial nature. (If you're not knowing Sun Ra, dude said he was from space.) In the end, the most comprehensive document anyone has is his music, and there seems to be almost no approach to it that isn't largely intuitive, so it's a lucky thing that Szwed seems to have amassed so much information and so many useful insights to it. This book got good marks from critics, but it's still an underrated achievement.

[Scott · Rating 5 out of 5]

The most inspiring book I've read while unemployed and feeling completely uncreative. Very glad somebody with a background in Afro-American cultural studies wrote a book about Le'Sony Ra. Instead of exoticizing Herman P. Blount like most of the musical world has, Szwed contextualizes Sun Ra in a continuum of Black American occult and futurist philosophers, authors, musicians, and artists.

[Derek · Rating 4 out of 5]

Great, very sympathetic biography. Szwed takes Sun Ra's music, writings and public statements seriously, and does a great job identifying and referencing the sometimes very obscure thinkers and texts whose works influenced Ra's singular worldview. There are about 10 books referenced in this book that I want to read immediately.

[Dr H · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is one of the best biographies of a jazz musician that I've ever read. Sun Ra is a difficult subject, at best; one of the most misunderstood, maligned, and mocked characters in the field -- and at the same time one of the most influential.

I first encountered Sun Ra in a pamphlet on the information table in the music department while in college. The pamphlet listed various musicians and persons in the musical field who were available for lectures, performances, and master classes at colleges and universities. It listed name, affiliation, some representative works, list of topics, location, and a brief biography, and a photo. There I found such staid, upright people as Morton Feldman, Morton Subotnick, Steve Reich, David Amram, Ron Carter, Anthony Braxton, and a host of others, from various parts of the country, many affiliated with institutions of higher education. All posed in respectable looking suits or leisure attire.

Then I flipped the page to a picture of a man in flowing, shimmering robes, an Egyptian nemes covering his head, in front of an almost vertical keyboard.

Name: "Sun Ra"
Affiliation: Intergalactic Myth Science Arkestra
Works: Jazz In Silhouette; Cosmic Tones For Mental Therapy; Space Is The Place
Topics: Music of outer space; Chaldaean numerology; Performance themes for astronauts
Location: Saturn

After picking my jaw up from the floor, I went looking for some music by this character, found "Space is the Place" (a quadrophonic vinyl album, no less!), and was hooked. I became a collector of Arkestra albums, and was fortunate enough to see Mr. Ra himself in several live concerts, on both coasts of the continent.

Yet for years, most of what I knew about this man came from cryptic liner notes on his albums and brief, mostly dismissive references in various jazz reference books.

Finally, here is a biography of this iconoclastic genius, who went off the beaten path with a vengeance, stuck to it with superhuman (or maybe extraterrestrial) tenacity, and lured a fair number of high-caliber musicians along with him. Szwed explores the extraordinary life of this musical visionary in depth, with sensitivity and humor. At last, Sun Ra is placed in context, and we're given the background to understand why -- for all the wackiness -- Sonny's music is still being listened to 30 years after his death; some of it 70 years after it was recorded.

Here we not only find documentation of the achievements of a pioneer -- who was playing free-jazz before there was a name for it, and exploring multimedia while Coltrane was still practicing his modal scales -- but we see how these things were embedded in, and in some ways arose from the African-American experience of the day. If you really want to make sense of the music, the philosophy, ethnopoetry, the Egyptian costumes, the outer space connection, and all the rest, this book is essential reading for those interested in the life of one whom many consider to be the founder of Afrofuturism. Well-researched, respectful, insightful, and entertaining.

[Devin · Rating 5 out of 5]

John F. Szwed's superbly researched biography of Sun Ra brings a sense of chronological order to the ears and mind long fascinated by the persona and massive recorded output of the man from Saturn. Szwed manages to add another dimension of insight into this already colorful character.

The evolutionary development of Ra was particularly interesting. I hadn't realized that his house rehearsal habits had already begun before he'd left Birmingham. The experiences that shaped him on his course from Chicago to New York and eventually to Philadelphia trace a journey through the core of so many important jazz centers. His excursions to Montreal (in between his time in Chicago and New York), Europe and Egypt offer up stories that further explain the absurdities and earnest artistic realities of his life.

But the most astonishing part of _Space Is the Place_ for me was the period when Sun Ra was teaching as a guest lecturer at Berkeley College. John F. Szwed gets into the strange content of Ra's lectures and his reading list. And before you know it the pages begin to speak with the voice of Sun Ra articulating his unique (and passionate) views on race and spirituality. Drawing that close to the Sun is both disconcerting and enlightening. His invented theology is incredibly attractive and repulsive at the same time. The ability to draw the reader into that thought process makes for a reading experience that nearly transcends its subject. Which is entirely appropriate when that subject is the man from Saturn.

[Cwn_annwn_13 · Rating 5 out of 5]

I always found Sun Ra's music and off the wall worldview/persona interesting. I thought it was more or less a put on but from what I get out of this book apparently it wasn't. He was a fanatical reader who cobbled together Afrocentricism/Black Nationalism with a mish mash of UFology, numerology, science fiction, Egyptian Paganism, Kabbalism, Freemasonry and various other odd influences. What he believed was total non sense but he was the type of guy that would have made a greatly entertaining guest on Art Bells radio show.

With his music he said he was trying to create a bridge to another dimension. What he was really doing in my opinion was trying to teach the ignorant masses of blacks to use their imagination by weaving his own personal mythology into his music. In a sense it was escapism. The irony is he probably had more white fans than black. He also held his "Arkestra" up to high standards of self discipline. Not just musicly but also no drinking, drugs or womanizing was allowed. For what its worth he apparently never had sex or any interest in women his whole life either. He truly believed he was some sort of emissary of other worlds and was above it apparently. Between Sun Ra being such an interesting character and the guy who put this book together doing such a great job I have to give it 5 stars.

[Tom · Rating 5 out of 5]

Very well done biography on a difficult and enigmatic subject. One slight disappointment is that the later years of Ra's life (esp. last 15 years, much of which he spent touring Europe) are treated quite tersely compared to the earlier years, with fewer insights added by the author. And, maybe it's just my opinion, but I would have liked to see more interviews with Arkestra musicians explaining why they stayed with Ra despite low remuneration, rigorous practice sessions, etc. For instance, there's one vignette late in the book where Ra thanks someone, and it was the first time the observer could remember him doing so, but there was no further elaboration.
Still, Szwed does thorough and quality research and I will likely reread the book. The production and editing standards are high (which can't be said of all books nowadays), though my copy had some annoying wavy print and obscured characters in the last 25 or so pages.

[Zachary Littrell · Rating 5 out of 5]

I reckon any book that can not only get me really interested in a person I hadn't heard of before, but in Jazz in general, is pretty darn good! I really liked Szwed's take on the biography: he doesn't try to get in Sun Ra's head (lord help us if he could), but gave the avant-garde musician in his full historical position -- not just in music or society, but even philosophy. What books Sun Ra read, what people he met, where he was and when, and what library he wasn't allowed to bring a milkshake into.

Szwed makes barely any, if any at all, conjectures but manages to paint a vivid picture of what it would be like to know Sonny Blunt. It's the sort of energy, research, and focus you'd expect for a fella like Julius Caesar, but instead Szwed takes the deep dive into a musician with strong opinions, some transcendent, progressive, or borderline cuckoo, on how to live, the mystical purpose of life, and role music had to play in human progress. I kinda miss reading about Sun Ra already.

[Scott · Rating 4 out of 5]

it's after the end of the world - don't you know that yet?

[Allen Houston · Rating 5 out of 5]

Fascinating peek behind the curtain at Sun Ra's music and the philosophy that drove his beliefs.

[Chris · Rating 5 out of 5]

Does justice to one of the most interesting and original musicians of the 2oth century. A great anecdote and/or interesting quote on virtually every page.

[Louis Molyneux · Rating 4 out of 5]

Scholarly and entertaining and suitably out to lunch. I'm sure it's not easy to write a biography about someone who claimed to never have been born, to be from Saturn and was part of an alternate ancient Egyptian race. To what extent did Sun Ra actually believe these things about himself I'm not sure. Szwed does a good job of providing biographical details without cynically tearing down this mythology, like Sun Ra he appreciates the power and utility of mythology.

'The living myth' was how he would be introduced on stage, at least 5 of the 20 something names for the Arkestra would contain the word myth.

Dylan said that life isn't about finding yourself, it's about creating yourself, which has probably never been more true about a person. An isolated, impotent, conscientious objector, self-styled intellectual, theologian, black nationalist, poet, raised in segragated south, it's easy to see why such self mythologising might seem preferable to reality.

If you're tempted to write him off as a crackpot it's worth considering he kept a large, disciplined collective of musicians together for 40+years while creating some of the most groundbreaking music ever made. He would influence many of the 20th centuries greatest musicians from John Coltrane to Miles Davis to Pharaoh Sanders. His cosmic mythologising and afro-futurist aesthetic would go on to influence people like George Clinton, probably the most direct descendant of Sun Ra. Sun Ra himself was influenced less by other artists than he was by nature, he cited as his inspiration the wind, rivers, the planets.

For a man who's music might be thought of as the furthest example of open mindedness, I was surprised to learn he was a somewhat conservative guy, probably a result of his southern upbringing, he was born in Birmingham not on Saturn, and had some outdated views on women and viewed discipline as the greatest virtue.

Similar to The Fall, Sun Ra's discography is chaotic, deep and anachronistic, its not unusual for his albums to combine recordings from different era's and lineups of the group, it's hard to parse without feeling like a fraud or dilettante, best to just dive in. Most of his music exists on a wavelength of spiritual jazz where the when and how of its recording matters very little. He wanted his music "to be eternal, to be valid in 1000 years" It's music that exists outside of time and space, not the space of science fiction, although he was influenced by sci-fi, after seeing the original Star Wars, Sun Ra described it as "very accurate," but more the space of Walt Whitman, the kosmos, the harmoniously ordered whole, a scope of mind that includes the whole known universe, a vision that unifies science, art, astronomy and poetry, the rational and the mystical. Space for Sun Ra was a personal individualised reflection of the bigger picture.

The Arkestra has always been more of a philosophy than a band. The goal being to turn spirit into music, "to be human is to err, the spirit doesn't make mistakes"

"If you can't play it perfectly right play it perfectly wrong"

[Franco Vite · Rating 5 out of 5]

Questa non è "solo" la storia di un personaggio in/credibile, sia della cultura afroamericana, della musica in generale, del jazz in particolare.
E' anche un bellissimo racconto di uno scorcio di novecento - gli anni che vanno dal 1940 alla fine del secolo - immerso nell'ambiente più "avanzato" di quella parte di popolazione degli Stati Uniti che è stata storicamente la più osteggiata, umiliata, attaccata nella storia (insieme ai nativi di quel continente). Quella parte, i neri americani, che hanno prodotto forse l'unico aspetto della cultura statunitense veramente originale ed universale. Il jazz.
In particolare in questo libro emerge, come in nessun altro del suo genere (il genere dei libri di "storia della musica"), l'intreccio profondissimo che magicamente si creo negli anni '60 americani tra le varie culture - musica, danza, teatro, pittura, scultura, cinema - le varie avanguardie e i vari movimenti politici di contestazione. Tutto il capitolo sulla storia di Sun Ra a New York negli anni '60 andrebbe preso e portato in tutte le facoltà di storia del mondo, per far capire agli studenti di oggi (e a molti di ieri) cosa significasse vivere in una grande città occidentale in quegli anni (se non si era conservatori, fascisti o simili).

Tutto questo in generale, come cornice della "vera" storia, cioè la storia di questo fantastico, splendido, affascinante, entusiasmante, deliziosamente folle e tragicamente serio personaggio che è stato Sun Ra.

La grande abilità di Szwed è di far emergere la complessità di Sun Ra, senza cadere nella facilissima trappola del macchiettistico.
Certo che Sun Ra è stato un personaggio buffo, un po' (anche tanto) folle, singolare quanto pochi altri, e via discorrendo. Ma è stato ANCHE e SOPRATTUTTO un incredibile musicista, sistematicamente avanti di almeno 10 anni su TUTTO: l'uso dell'elettronica, l'autoproduzione dei propri dischi, il vivere in comune, il meticciato culturale come punto di forza, il radicamento nella tradizione come motore dell'avanguardia e tantissimo altro.

Tutta questa complessità emerge splendidamente in questo importantissimo libro. E leggerlo ascoltando la bellissima musica dell'Arkestra - cosa che consiglio vivamente, non ve ne pentirete - è veramente un "viaggio" che merita di essere percorso.

[Kate Priest · Rating 3 out of 5]

Very close to hagiography in most chapters. The fact that all other Arkestra members are relegated to background characters (even John Gilmore, somehow!) was very telling. Discipline is a word repeatedly used in the book to describe the regimens that Sun Ra put his musicians through. The word is sufficiently vague enough to not directly allude to mental and physical abuse, though it can nonetheless imply such behaviour.

Why was Sun Ra's maltreatment of his band never addressed in any clear way? I find it so absurd that the most notorious aspect of his character is repeatedly excluded by jazz critics, and Szwed continues this trend. He has no qualms about indulging in gossip about how Sun Ra made the power go out once or Sun Ra predicted an earthquake once. Rock critics don't shun the stories of Van Vliet torturing his Magic Band during the rehearsals for Trout Mask Replica. I get the impression people feel very protective of Sun Ra because he spent so much of his career fumbling in obscurity and is still hugely overlooked, despite being one of the most important artists in jazz. But again, nobody (whose opinion matters) thinks less of Trout Mask Replica because of the circumstances around its production.

If you are interested in Sun Ra the musician, the eclectic keyboardist schooled in basically every major jazz style of his time; Sun Ra who brought a late-romantic ethos to jazz and some much needed humour into the avant-garde, you will only get bits of it in this book. With it being almost 30 years after his death, it's well past time for the Sun Ra myth to be laid to rest as well.

[Peter Landau · Rating 4 out of 5]

Are you depressed, uncomfortable, feel imprisoned on this green jailhouse? That’s because space is the place, and while we might be on a journey through the solar system on this global ship, the trip is like driving with one of our four tires missing -- we’re going in circles. But there is hope, one-hundred years ago, Earth arrival time, came Sun Ra, and with him the promise that striving for the possible is a waste of time. Anybody can do the possible. Achieve the impossible, that’s the real accomplishment. Carry a big-band past the Swing Era and into orbit. Be omnivorous with instruments and lights and art and body movement. Sound is the energy of the future today. Don’t limit yourself to gravity. Take flight, leave Birmingham for Chicago, New York, Philadelphia and the world and beyond, and leave in your wake a Johnny Appleseed trail of inspiration that is still bearing fruit. How small, how earthbound is what calls itself the vanguard, the now, without point or presence. Aim instead for Saturn, grab its colorful rings and get off the merry-go-round. You’re in for the ride of your life.

[Shane Bordoli · Rating 4 out of 5]

A great book, a page-turner and something that really helped put Ra's work in perspective for me. Every period of Ra's life and music is well documented. From looking around this seems to be the definitive book on Sun Ra and I couldn't get enough of it!

The only downside for such a well-received book is that it could do with an editor going over it with a fine toothcomb. It looses a star in my rating because of the very few minor editorial errors I think I found; one quote is repeated in part twice, when listing the various names Arkestra were known under, one name is repeated twice in the list and It seems to me that not every single quote begins and ends with speech marks.

Having said this, I absolutely loved the book; I found out pretty much all I wanted to know about the man and his music. As other reviews have mentioned the author is singing very much from the same hymn sheet as Ra and it is sometimes difficult to tell where Sun Ra's words stop and the authors begin, but I didn't have a problem with that; It's Ra's message that is important and this is what he gives us. It's quite a magical book and is truly in the spirit of Ra for me. All in all, must for Ra fans!

[Ben Ricketts · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is wonderful for any fans of Sun Ra and his ever-expanding universe. Read it! I learned so much about one of my favorite musicians and the strange world he created and maintained.

I would have given it five stars, but I had just a couple of issues: I wish Szwed would clearly attribute quotes, as it can be hard to tell who is saying what. I also wish he wouldn’t devote his own voice to attempting to clarify or expand Sun Ra’s philosophies. This book was the driest in the sections at which Szwed took it upon himself to expand upon Ra’s waxing cosmological.

Sun Ra fans must read this one.

[Jonathan Nall · Rating 5 out of 5]

The story of Herman Blount is the story of one of the twentieth century's greatest musicians. From the corner taverns of Calumet City, Indiana to Alphabet City in Manhattan, Sun Ra's story is an incredible read. Admittedly, this is not for everyone, but if you like music history and jazz, this biography is a super fun read. Rolling Stone magazine called him the missing link between Duke Ellington and Public Enemy. Sounds far-out? Well it is.

[Anna · Rating 4 out of 5]

Loved it. Brilliantly written, the book indeed gives lots of information about Sun Ra and the times he lived in. After reading it, I feel I understand the music he and his band made, a bit more. I was particularly interested in Sun Ra’s many references to Ancient Egypt, and the biographer didn’t disappoint there either. It’s rare to find a book that’s not only great to read as historical nonfiction, but also succeeds in making music come to life.

[Phil Overeem · Rating 4 out of 5]

Quite a bio. Szwed has the task of taking a musician who was certifiably half genius and half lunatic and portraying him with understanding and dignity, not to mention illuminating him. Plus, it serves as an underground history of African-American 20th century consciousness and puts Ra's messy discography in order.

[C_gibson · Rating 5 out of 5]

I had no idea just how complicated and exciting Sun-Ra's life was until I read this book. It tought me a lot about him, his music, his band and music in general. He was hardcore DIY 20 or 30 years before the term even existed.