Sun Ra was many things. As a pianist, composer, inventor, bandleader, philosopher and a revolutionary, Ra’s creation knew no bounds; even still, three decades after his ascent to the stars, his ...

Pianist, bandleader, arranger and Afro-Futurist Sun Ra was thought to be a decidedly non-mainstream figure in the jazz world as he directed his Arkestra throughout the last half of the 20th Century.

Do not expect The Criterion Collection to reissue the 1974 film Space Is The Place anytime soon. It is though, a cult classic in the truest sense of the word. Sun Ra and his Arkestra had been at the ...

Patrons of South Side jazz clubs in the 1950s might have noticed something a bit different about pianist Sun Ra’s big band — slowly at first, then all at once. Their sounds became more far-out, the ...

PBS will soon highlight a pioneering musician whose band is still based in a Germantown rowhome. Sun Ra, the late bandleader of the Sun Ra Arkestra, is the subject of an episode of "American Masters" ...

For the 45 years he was on the music scene, the keyboardist, composer, and bandleader known as Sun Ra (1914-93) was one of the most original and iconoclastic Black artists of the 20th century. And if ...

Discover the extraordinary life of poet, philosopher and music visionary Sun Ra. With his ever-evolving collective, the Sun Ra Arkestra, he self-produced more than 200 albums, stretching the ...

The outlandish persona Sun Ra created and maintained for himself over the years may sometimes distract from the adventurous intent of the music he made. Yet it is testament to his vigorous loyalty to ...

Bandleader Knoell Scott leads the Sun Ra Arkestra, performing at SFJazz on July 31, 2025. Photo by Frankie Solinsky Duryea. The Sun Ra Arkestra began the first of four San Francisco shows at SFJazz’s ...