Space is the place : the lives and times of Sun Ra / John Szwed.

Durham : Duke University Press, 2020.

©1997

xxxiv, 476 pages, 8 unnumbered pages of plates : illustrations ; 24 cm

"This is a paperback re-issue of the 1997 hardcover title published by Pantheon"--Provided by publisher.

"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 values 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 contradictions: 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"-- Provided by publisher.

Online version: Szwed, John F., 1936- Space is the place Durham : Duke University Press, 2020.

English

August 13, 2021

Includes bibliographical references (pages 409-425), discography (pages 427-448), and index.