The Interstellar Style of Sun Ra (2016)

Sun Ra is one of those artists who I remember listening to for the first time and thinking, "this is what music could be," instead of "this is what music is."

It's a dear experience, to feel your mental territory of music, or books, or art, expand outward in that moment. It leaves a lasting impression - or at least for me it does.

Devo's first live show was in 1975 opening for Sun Ra and things were chaotic:

https://www.reddit.com/r/Music/comments/15k9kf/devo_hired_as...

Yep, same here. I didn't get into jazz until late in life and toured all the popular and deep cuts. Miles, Coltrane, Coleman, Monk, etc. I loved it all, but then I heard Sun Ra Arkestra's "Springtime Again" and I was absolutely floored. It opened up so many possibilities in my brain, almost like what I would expect a psychotropic drug experience would be like (I have never tried).

Anyways, I did a deep dive on Sun Ra and have collected as much of his music as I can. I've seen the Arkestra two times and hope to at least one more time before Marshall Allen departs this planet (he turns 99 this year).

Crazy story, again I have never done drugs, but I had a very intense dream where I met Frank Zappa and he took me through his warehouse(!) of records and introduced me to all his favorite Sun Ra records. I'll never forget that dream, I woke up energized to listen to all his recommendations.

The Sun Ra Arkestra is _still touring_ -- https://www.sunraarkestra.com

I've seen them three times, the last just six months ago. They're the best live band I've ever seen, and I've seen a lot of music. Marshall Allen is nearly 100 years old, and he still melts faces when he stands up with his sax. They are the tightest, freest, clearest, most incomprehensible band I've ever seen. One moment they're doing a jazz standard, perfectly clean as glass; the next moment they're tripping right off the rings of Saturn.

If you care about music, make a special effort to see these cats.

I'm a huge fan of some of their music, but I must admit that I find the rest pretty annoying for my ears (I mean, when they go crazy with higher frequencies instruments). You probably will like Hermeto Pascoal if you don't know him already.