Sun Ra: A Joyful Noise

January 8, 2025 4:53 PM

The prevalence of documentaries about musicians is a curse, because most of these films do a terrible job of showcasing music. One rare and moving exception is the work of the director Robert Mugge, whose film Sun Ra: A Joyful Noise -- about the musician and bandleader whose multimedia and pan-cultural activities made him one of the prime artists of Afrofuturism -- is one of the most satisfying musical portraits I’ve ever seen. - Richard Brody, The New Yorker

If filthy light thief's ultra-megapost on The Living Myth isn't the greatest post in MetaFilter history, it will do until the greatest post in MetaFilter history gets here.

posted by Lemkin (10 comments total)

koeselitz:

This man had a commune in Philadelphia for decades. He coerced people into living with him. He made them wear costumes and enact strange rituals in public. He elicited their allegiance to the alleged fact that he was from the planet Saturn, and demanded of them that they acknowledge this publicly.

In short, Sun Ra had a religious cult. Only instead of killing people, or drinking Kool-Aid, or committing mass suicide in preparation for some comet flyby, or trying to take over society through covert operations and all-out extortion of members ... Sun Ra's cult played jazz. They played jazz constantly, they played jazz with determination and fervor, and they played jazz in hats made of tin foil, sequins, duct tape, and purple rayon.

posted by Lemkin at 4:55 PM on January 8 [6 favorites]

Saxophonist and post-Ra bandleader Marshall Allen is still with us, having recorded New Dawn shortly after his 100th birthday.
posted by Lemkin at 5:04 PM on January 8 [2 favorites]

This is not an opinion on the topic of this post, but when I first glimpsed the title out of the corner of my eye as the front page was loading, for a split second I thought it said "Sun Ra: Awful Noise"! :D

Ok, off to view the actual post now...
posted by Greg_Ace at 5:14 PM on January 8

I finally got to see the Sun Ra Arkestra play live last year when they played a show in Philly on a Saturday when I could drive to Pennsylvania. I've been to many concerts performed by many bands and performers across many different genres. That was probably the best concert that I've ever attended. They are so, so good at what they do (which makes sense considering that some of them have been playing together in that group for longer than I've been alive - and I'm in my mid-late 40s!).

The most amazing part of the show was that their band leader, Marshall Allen, played with the band for the entire show. He's a legendary jazz saxophone player and he also played the EWI quite a bit that night. Why is it amazing that Marshall played the entire show with his band, the band with which he's played for since the late 1950s? The show that I attended was performed in honor of Marshall's 100th birthday. The man was over 100 years old and he played an entire hour+ concert. He wasn't a figurehead and he wasn't phoning it in. He played. It was incredible.
posted by ElKevbo at 5:25 PM on January 8 [11 favorites]

Excellent post. Sun-ra is a global treasure.
posted by Doleful Creature at 9:43 PM on January 8 [1 favorite]

like ElKevbo, i got to see the arkestra play recently (2023) with allen just defying the limitations of us slower mortals— the energy was fabulous. so glad to see this post. thank you, Lemkin! + thanks for the link to filthy light thief’s dissertation-sized 2018 post; that’s going to take some moments to digest.
posted by tamarack at 9:47 PM on January 8 [1 favorite]

    RIdin' The Dog

Sun Ra and Harvey Pekar drawn by Robert Crumb
posted by y2karl at 3:22 AM on January 9 [2 favorites]

Ah, old Herman Blount, he was a sexist prick to Carla Bley, though, objected to women being in the "Guild" and said she would "sink the ship, because that's what women do". In the end, Bley ended up apologising for yelling at him!

Sauce: https://thequietus.com/interviews/carla-bley-interview/
posted by bookbook at 7:06 PM on January 9

Not sure how well known KFJC is on the blue, but they host an annual A Night and Day of the Sun program that can be streamed. Non-stop "Sun Ra and his Arkestra" from May 22 (12am) through May 23 (2am, usually), hosted by various all-volunteer DJs. If you can't catch as much of it as you want live, downloads (with playlists) are available for 2 weeks following the broadcast.
posted by christopherious at 10:24 AM on January 12 [1 favorite]

Mod note: [added to the sidebar and Best Of Blog!]
posted by taz (staff) at 11:16 PM on January 14