Born Herman Poole Blount on May 22, 1914, in Birmingham, Alabama, Sun Ra had an affinity for the piano at a very young age. Ra, who came from a religious family, began performing with other musicians as a teen. In addition to playing with a wide range of musicians from different genres, he wrote and produced songs. After moving to Chicago in 1945, Ra gained important experience working with a growing number of blues and jazz singers, composers and bandleaders, including Wynonie Harris, Fletcher Henderson and Coleman Hawkins.
Famed Jazz Musician
In 1952, Ra officially changed his name to Le Sony'r Ra (he also performed under the names Sonny Lee and Le Sonra) while continuing to compose and work with a wide range of jazz practitioners. He also started a record label, Saturn Records, inspired by his love and respect of astronomy as well as the growing influence of spirituality in his life and music. Also in the '50s, Ra and his band, widely known as the Arkestra (a riff on "orchestra") began wearing ornate, outlandish costumes in performance—a further manifestation of Ra's spiritual and theatrical nature.
Performances often included free expression, drum choirs and dancers, and sometimes even acrobats. In The New York Times' obituary of Ra, writer Peter Watrous noted that the performer's "willingness to play almost anywhere, from jazz clubs to Egyptian pyramids, from Lower East Side dives with huge 50-member bands, to Coney Island with John Cage, allied him with early performance artists. His career argues persuasively against limitations."
Ra's reputation as an Afro-eccentric charlatan-genius in the tradition of Marcus Garvey or Elijah Muhammad led to him becoming one of the 20th century's greatest avant-garde musician-composers.
