Welcome to our collection of quotes by Sun Ra. We hope you enjoy pondering them and please share widely.
Wikipedia Summary for Sun Ra
Le Sony'r Ra (born Herman Poole Blount, May 22, 1914 – May 30, 1993), better known as Sun Ra, was an American jazz composer, bandleader, piano and synthesizer player, and poet known for his experimental music, "cosmic" philosophy, prolific output, and theatrical performances. For much of his career, Ra led "The Arkestra", an ensemble with an ever-changing name and flexible line-up.
Born and raised in Alabama, Blount became involved in the Chicago jazz scene during the late 1940s. He soon abandoned his birth name, taking the name Le Sony'r Ra, shortened to Sun Ra (after Ra, the Egyptian god of the Sun). Claiming to be an alien from Saturn on a mission to preach peace, he developed a mythical persona and an idiosyncratic credo that made him a pioneer of Afrofuturism. Throughout his life he denied ties to his prior identity saying, "Any name that I use other than Ra is a pseudonym."His widely eclectic and avant-garde music echoed the entire history of jazz, from ragtime and early New Orleans hot jazz, to swing music, bebop, free jazz and fusion. His compositions ranged from keyboard solos to works for big bands of over 30 musicians, along with electronic excursions, songs, chants, percussion pieces, and anthems. From the mid-1950s until his death, Ra led the musical collective The Arkestra (which featured artists such as Marshall Allen, John Gilmore and June Tyson throughout its various iterations). Its performances often included dancers and musicians dressed in elaborate, futuristic costumes inspired by ancient Egyptian attire and the Space Age. (Following Ra's illness-forced retirement in 1992, the band remained active as The Sun Ra Arkestra, and, as of 2021, continues performing under the leadership of veteran Ra sideman Marshall Allen.)Though his mainstream success was limited, Sun Ra was a prolific recording artist and frequent live performer, and remained influential throughout his life for his music and persona. He is now widely considered an innovator; among his distinctions are his pioneering work in free improvisation and modal jazz and his early use of electronic keyboards and synthesizers. Over the course of his career, he recorded dozens of singles and over one hundred full-length albums, comprising well over 1,000 songs, making him one of the most prolific recording artists of the 20th century.
Proper evaluations of words and letters in their phonetic and associated sense can bring the people of earth to the clear light of pure cosmic wisdom.
Wings greater than wings
wings greater than walls.
We hold this myth to be potential
Not self-evident but equational
Another Dimension
Of another kind of Living Life.
The outer space beings are my brothers. They sent me here. They already
know my music.
The possible has been tried and failed. Now it's time to try the impossible.
The planet is asleep and it's the fault of musicians who are untrue to themselves.
I'm not into division. I'm into coordination, discipline and tradition.
The music is not part of this planet in a sense that the spirit of it is about happiness. Most musicians play earth things about what they know, but I found out that they are mostly unhappy and frustrated, and that creeps over into their music.
I have many names; some call me Mr. Ra, others call me Mr. Re, you can call me Mr. Mystery.
I'm not a prophet. I'm a destiny-changer. It's all right to prophesy, but the best thing to do is change things, if you've got the power.
Where human eyes have never seen, where human beings have never been, I build a world of abstract dreams, and I wait for you.
Space is not only high, it's low. It's a bottomless pit.
I never wanted to be a part of planet Earth, but I am compelled to be here, so anything I do for this planet is because the Master-Creator of the Universe is making me do it. I am of another dimension. I am on this planet because people need me.
Behold the pre-prophetic symbols of the planes of Never. Behold, behold this thisness! This isness.
Music is a language, a universal language.
Music is a plane of wisdom, because music is a universal language, it is a language of honor, it is a noble precept, a gift of the Airy Kingdom, music is air, a universal existence common to all the living.
Art does not begin with imitation, but with discipline.
A world is in danger, this planet is in great danger!
All these other nations seem to appreciate what I'm doing and they want me to play the furthest out things.
I am a musician, but I'm another type of musician.
It's such a tragedy that man endures in killing his brother and his own kind, putting him in jail and insane asylums, letting him lay out in the street.
I see people as they really are from a pure point of view.
Not too many people in America know about me, but all of Europe knows about me.
Bach and Beethoven, all of them, they had to write something to please the upper structure, those with money and power.
I use music as a medium to talk to people.
A prophet is not without honor except in his own country among his own people.
But recently I began to feel that maybe I wouldn't be able to do what I want to do and need to do with American musicians, who are imprisoned behind these bars; music's got these bars and measures you know.
The world is in such a bad condition that if they don't find what you call a redeemer, every man, woman and child on this planet will be eliminated.
Today's symphonic music is sponsored by the upper structures of society.
What I'm dealing with is so vast and great that it can't be called the truth. It's above the truth.
People have set that up as a standard, not to recognize a prophet in his own country.
I'm playing dark history. It's beyond black. I'm dealing with the dark things of the cosmos.
And then when I went to Chicago, that's when I had these outer space experiences and went to the other planets.
Music is a language, you see, a universal language.
I'm not a minister, I'm not a philosopher, I'm not a politician, I'm in another category.