Few musicians have been as delightfully and fascinatingly weird as Sun Ra. He was born Herman Poole Blount, changed his name to honor the Egyptian god of the sun, believed he was an angelic being from ...

The outlandish persona Sun Ra created and maintained for himself over the years may sometimes distract from the adventurous intent of the music he made. Yet it is testament to his vigorous loyalty to ...

Sun Ra’s statement, musically and spoken, is that this is a primitive world. Its practices, beliefs, religions, are uneducated, unenlightened, savage, destructive, already in the past. That’s why Sun ...

Red Hot, a non-profit organization “dedicated to fighting AIDS through pop culture,” has announced the third volume of its Red Hot + Ra series of albums paying tribute to free jazz cosmonaut Sun Ra, ...

This October, Sun Ra Arkestra are releasing their first new studio album since 1999’s A Song for the Sun. The as-yet-untitled record will arrive via Strut. Below, check out the Arkestra’s “Seductive ...

Without the jazz musician, poet, and bandleader Sun Ra, the music industry would look and sound somewhat different. Countless mainstream artists have been inspired by his boundlessness and his ability ...

Avant-garde jazz icon Sun Ra is being celebrated not for his other-worldly musical compositions, but for his poetry. In a new album from Omni Sound, titled My Words Are Music: A Celebration of Sun ...

The FADER’s “Songs You Need” are the tracks we can’t stop playing. Check back every day for new music and follow along on our Spotify playlist. Last October, the Sun Ra Arkestra dropped Swirling, ...

Meshell Ndegeocello worked on a new album inspired by Sun Ra and his 1966 album The Magic City. The new release, Red Hot & Ra : The Magic City, is out April 12 via Red Hot Organization. Ndegeocello ...

The Sun Ra Arkestra will revisit some of the late jazz legend’s classic compositions on the outfit’s new album Swirling, their first studio LP in over 20 years. Under the direction of bandleader ...

Marshall Allen (left), age 99, leads the Sun Ra Arkestra, keeping alive the avant-garde jazz stylings of the late Sun Ra. He is considered a pioneer of afrofuturism, exploring the intersection of ...

Sun Ra and His Arkestra at Balloon Theatre, Cairo, 1971. (Hartmut Geerken) By signing up, you confirm that you are over the age of 16 and agree to receive occasional promotional offers for programs ...