Sun Ra: Do the Impossible-PBS American Masters

[StephenR]

Friday February 20 is the debut of the PBS American Masters documentary about Sun Ra. I had access to a preview link and watched it a couple of months ago and can't wait to see it again. They did a pretty amazing job of presenting a comprehensive overview of a complicated subject whose life, music and career was always shrouded in mystery. Sun Ra died in 1993 but the Sun Ra Arkestra and his music is now more popular than ever.
https://www.pbs.org/wnet/americanmasters/sun-ra-do-the-impossible-documentary/37455/


I first heard and saw the Sun Ra Arkestra at the Newport Jazz Festival July 3, 1969. It was 12 days after my first Grateful Dead show. I had been listening to the Dead on records for 2 years but had never heard of Sun Ra previously. Both band's music, sense of social structure and desire to elevate the audience's consciousness through sound remain a fascination of mine and foundational to how I have approached music and life.


If you tune in I hope you enjoy!

[edwin]

Thanks for the heads up! I didn't get to see Sun Ra and the Arkestra until the mid 80s (pre-stroke), but definitely a life changing experience.

[StephenR]

Hey Edwin, nice to see you make a reappearance here, hope all is going well in your part of Colorado!

I saw the majority of my Sun Ra shows in the 80s, if they were playing and I didn’t have a gig myself I would go. The current Sun Ra Arkestra still puts on a great show and can take you to new spaces when they play, you can always sense Sun Ra’s presence in the room. But, nothing like the almost vaudevillian presentations during the earlier days of the band with light shows, dancers, multiple percussionists. There is enough old video footage of the band performing in the PBS documentary to give a good idea of what it was like.

I enjoyed this documentary even more on second viewing. Some of the editing is really great. You can tell the director knew the subject well. It is an effective introduction if you don’t know anything about Sun Ra or his music but there is also a lot to enjoy if you already do.