Sun Ra

Sun Ra原名Herman Sonny Blount，他于1914年5月22日出生于阿拉巴马州的伯明翰。在他孩提时代，他父亲便离家出走，Sun Ra基本上是靠他姨妈与外祖母抚养的。17岁生日时，他收到一架钢琴作为礼物，Sun Ra的音乐知识主要是靠自学，他并没有受过多少音乐教育。Sun Ra在上高中时组建了一支自己的乐队，在当时，他就能掌握各种节奏与音符。上大学时，他声称有外星人把他带入宇宙空间，使他得到了神的感召。他中途辍学，与多支主要由伯明翰人组成的乐队合作在南方巡演。
 
“二战”时，Sun Ra由于拒服兵役而入狱。期间，他花了大量时间研究音乐、探寻古代的黑人文化。战后，他来到了爵士的温床——芝加哥。很快，当地著名的Delisa俱乐部就雇他为临时钢琴手。即使在40年代，仍有许多音乐家把Sun Ra归为异类。Erskine Hawkins说：“Sun Ra用的和弦在今天已不足为奇，但在当时却是无人问津的。”因此，他得到了“月亮人”的称号。
 
整个50年代是Sun Ra最富创造力的时期之一。起先，他的小乐队以演奏比波普爵士与经典曲目为主。稍后，他领导的Arkestra乐队加入了越来越多的新鲜元素：他的乐队里出现了齐特拉琴、铜鼓、编钟，还有所谓的“太阳鼓”、“宇宙鲁特”等名目众多的古怪乐器；乐队在演出时会穿上宇宙衣，戴上有螺旋浆的发亮头盔；在音乐里，他启用了多名打击乐手，把非洲的节奏引入爵士乐。
 
60年代，John Coltrane、Albert Ayler等人在格林威治村创立了自由爵士，Sun Ra也成了这一风格的奠基人之一。他的音乐显得更加神秘，宇宙已不再仅是Sun Ra与Arkestra的暂游地，它成了他们永远的归宿。这一时期的作品反对旋律，拥有复杂的节奏与不和谐和声，乐曲也变得冗长，在一个作品中往往有几个不同的调式，甚至无调式，或者就是Sun Ra所称的“宇宙调式”。尽管如此，Sun Ra并不赞同用“自由”来形容他的音乐，他的作品其实都是经过精心勾画的，结构严谨。
 
70年代，Impulse公司为Sun Ra录制了一系列专辑，这些专辑首次向世界展示了Sun Ra的风采，他的名声与日俱增，并在欧洲及世界各地演出，其中有一场音乐会是在埃及的金字塔前举行的。在80年代以后，Sun Ra得到了全世界的关注，非主流摇滚界把他奉为鼻祖。1993年5月30日，这位“来自外层空间的精神领袖”离开了这个世界。
 
Of all the jazz musicians, Sun Ra was probably the most controversial. He did not make it easy for people to take him seriously, for he surrounded his adventurous music with costumes and mythology that both looked backward toward ancient Egypt and forward into science fiction. In addition, Ra documented his music in very erratic fashion on his Saturn label, generally not listing recording dates and giving inaccurate personnel information, so one could not really tell how advanced some of his innovations were. It has taken a lot of time to sort it all out (although Robert L. Campbells Sun Ra discography has done a miraculous job). In addition, while there were times when Sun Ras aggregation performed brilliantly, on other occasions they were badly out of tune and showcasing absurd vocals. Near the end of his life, Ra was featuring plate twirlers and fire eaters in his colorful show as a sort of Ed Sullivan for the 1980s.
 
But despite all of the trappings, Sun Ra was a major innovator. Born Herman Sonny Blount in Birmingham, AL (although he claimed he was from another planet), Ra led his own band for the first time in 1934. He freelanced at a variety of jobs in the Midwest, working as a pianist/arranger with Fletcher Henderson in 1946-1947. He appeared on some obscure records as early as 1948, but really got started around 1953. Leading a big band (which he called the Arkestra) in Chicago, Ra started off playing advanced bop, but early on was open to the influences of other cultures, experimenting with primitive electric keyboards, and playing free long before the avant-garde got established.
 
After moving to New York in 1961, Ra performed some of his most advanced work. In 1970, he relocated his group to Philadelphia, and in later years alternated free improvisations and mystical group chants with eccentric versions of swing tunes, sounding like a spaced-out Fletcher Henderson orchestra. Many of his most important sidemen were with him on and off for decades (most notably John Gilmore on tenor, altoist Marshall Allen, and baritonist Pat Patrick). Ra, who recorded for more than a dozen labels, has been well served by Evidences extensive repackaging of many of his Saturn dates, which have at last been outfitted with correct dates and personnel details. In the late 90s, other labels began reissuing albums from Sun Ras vast catalog, an effort that will surely continue for years to come.