A pure solar world : Sun Ra and the birth of Afrofuturism
Bibliographie
- Auteurs : Youngquist Paul ;
- Editeurs : Austin University of Texas Press ;
- Date d'édition : 2016
- ISBN : 978-0-292-72636-9, 0-292-72636-8
- Sujets : Musiciens de jazz -- Biographies, Jazz, Sun Ra
- Langue(s) : Anglais
- Description matérielle : 1 vol. (VIII, 346 p., [16] p. de pl.), : Ill., jaquette ill. en coul., 24 cm
- Pays de publication : États-Unis
- Collection (notice d'ensemble) : Discovering America
Notes
Existe aussi en version électronique ; Notes bibliogr. p. [267]-309. Bibliogr. p. [311]-321, discographie p. [323]-331. Index
Résumé
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