Sun Ra; Jazz, Avant-Garde Pianist and Band Leader

L.A. Times Archives

May 31, 1993 12 AM PT

From Associated Press

BIRMINGHAM, Ala. — Sun Ra, the influential pianist and orchestra leader noted for his intergalactic treks into jazz and avant-garde music, died Sunday after a series of strokes. He was 79.

Ra died at Baptist Medical Center-Princeton, where he had been hospitalized since January because of the strokes and chronic circulatory problems, hospital spokesman Greg Bryant said.

In a career spanning 60 years, he gained recognition in the jazz world for encompassing everything from bop and gospel to blues and electronic sounds.

“You know, for years they’ve been saying my music is out too far,” Ra said in a 1985 interview with the Associated Press. “But they can’t convince all of the people of that, and I bridge the generation gap.”

Rolling Stone magazine called him “the missing link between Duke Ellington and Public Enemy.” Ten of his recordings made between 1938 and 1960 recently were re-released.

Starting in 1956, Ra traveled with Arkestra, a multimedia ensemble that included a large stable of musicians and dancers in extravagant costumes.

Arkestra director John Gilmore said Ra never got the widespread recognition or the financial support he deserved.

“Because he had so much talent and had his groups for so long, I’m left to think he was overlooked because he was black,” Gilmore said.

He said Ra was born with an independent spirit and the gift of creating his music with rare swiftness.

“He was a natural when it came to music,” he said. “These musicians today can spend two weeks in something,” Gilmore said. “Not Sun Ra. He could do seven or eight beautiful, beautiful pieces in a single day.”

The former Herman (Sonny) Blount was already a well-known jazz musician when he changed his name to Sun Ra (pronounced SUN-rah) in the 1950s.

He based his new persona on such diverse elements as the Bible, Egyptian mythology, black spiritualism and science fiction. Ra is the name of the Egyptian sun god.

Some references say he was born in Birmingham in May, 1914, but he liked to say he was born on Saturn and was “about 5,000 years old.”

Ra played in Fletcher Henderson’s band during the mid-1940s and for many years was an experimentalist in Chicago music circles. He moved to New York in the 1960s and to Philadelphia in 1969.

“To save the planet, I had to go to the worst spot on Earth, and that was Philadelphia, which is death’s headquarters,” he told the Philadelphia Inquirer. By that, Gilmore said, Ra meant that musicians in Philadelphia were obstinate and did not want to work together. Ra spent much of his later time in Europe.

In the 1960s and 1970s, Ra recorded “Saturn,” “Magic City,” “Savoy” and “It’s After the End of the World.” In all, he released more than 200 albums.