| Edition |
First edition. |
| Description |
viii, 346 pages, 16 unnumbered pages of plates : illustrations ; 24 cm. |
| Series |
Discovering America
|
|
Discovering America series.
|
| Contents |
Prelude to infinity -- Intro : Wonder Inn -- Alien -- Marienville -- Bronzeville -- Thmei -- Egypt -- Washington Park -- Arkestra -- Immeasurable equation -- El Saturn -- Isotope teleportation -- Cry of jazz -- Sputnik -- Rocketry -- Tomorrowland -- Interplanetary exotica -- Space music -- Myth science -- Black man in the cosmos -- Space is the place -- Tokens of infinity -- Continuation -- Outro : extensions out. |
| Bibliography |
Includes bibliographical references (pages 311-321), discography (pages 323-331) and index. |
| Summary |
Sun Ra said he came from Saturn. Known on earth for his inventive music and extravagant stage shows, he pioneered free-form improvisation in an ensemble setting with the devoted band he called the "Arkestra." Sun Ra took jazz from the inner city to outer space, infusing traditional swing with far-out harmonies, rhythms, and sounds. Described as the father of Afrofuturism, Sun Ra created "space music" as a means of building a better future for American blacks here on earth. This is a spirited introduction to the life and work of this legendary but underappreciated musician, composer, and poet. Paul Youngquist explores and assesses Sun Ra's wide-ranging creative output-music, public preaching, graphic design, film and stage performance, and poetry-and connects his diverse undertakings to the culture and politics of his times, including the space race, the rise of technocracy, the civil rights movement, and even space-age bachelor-pad music. By thoroughly examining the astro-black mythology that Sun Ra espoused, Youngquist masterfully demonstrates that he offered both a holistic response to a planet desperately in need of new visions and vibrations and a new kind of political activism that used popular culture to advance social change. In a nation obsessed with space and confused about race, Sun Ra aimed not just at assimilation for the socially disfranchised but even more at a wholesale transformation of American society and a more creative, egalitarian world. |
| Subject |
Sun Ra.
|
|
Sun Ra. |
|
Jazz musicians -- Biography.
|
|
Jazz musicians -- Biography. |
|
Jazz -- History and criticism.
|
|
Jazz. |
|
Jazz musicians. |
| Genre/Form |
Biographies.
|
|
Criticism, interpretation, etc.
|
|
Biographies.
|
| ISBN |
9780292726369 hardcover ; alkaline paper |
|
0292726368 |
|
9781477311172 library electronic book |
|
9781477311189 non-library electronic book |
|
1477311173 |
|
1477311181 |
| Sudoc No. |
Z UA380.8 Y882pu |
|
