A pure solar world
Subtitle: Sun Ra and the birth of Afrofuturism
By: Paul Youngquist
Edition: First edition.
Series: Discovering America; Discovering America series
Publisher: University of Texas Press
Published: 2016
Language: eng
Number of pages: 346
ISBN-13: 9780292726369
Copyright date: 2016
Subjects: Jazz; Jazz musicians; Biography; History and criticism
Other titles: Sun Ra and the birth of Afrofuturism
Description: 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.
Notes: Includes bibliographical references (pages 311-321), discography (pages 323-331), and index.
Table of contents: title: Prelude to infinity; title: Intro: Wonder Inn; title: Alien; title: Marienville; title: Bronzeville; title: Thmei; title: Egypt; title: Washington Park; title: Arkestra; title: Immeasurable equation; title: El Saturn; title: Isotope teleportation; title: Cry of jazz; title: Sputnik; title: Rocketry; title: Tomorrowland; title: Interplanetary exotica; title: Space music; title: Myth-science; title: Black man in the cosmos; title: Space is the place; title: Tokens of happiness; title: Continuation; title: Outro: Extensions out.