John F. Szwed

“I like all the sounds that upset people.” —Sun Ra

When Sun Ra (née Herman Blount) ascended to infinite Space, he left behind one of the great œuvres of American eclectic music, preserved on hundreds of recordings made between 1956 & 1992. He was a singularly eccentric character, and John Szwed’s version of Sun Ra’s Life & Times serves as a valuable guide to the man’s idiosyncrasies and inspirations.

Sonny (Szwed uses the name by which Sun Ra was known among intimates) came of show more age in 1930s Birmingham AL in a room full of books, records and musical instruments that served as a kind of perpetual rehearsal space for local musicians and a stopover for musical drifters. After WWII—during which he was jailed as a conscientious objector—Sonny made his way to Chicago, where he deepened his reading and further developed his musical vision. Southside street vendors and book stalls fed his expansive curiosity. Szwed provides a fascinating review of obscure works (Volney’s The Ruins, George G.M. James’ Stolen Legacy, Godfrey Higgins’ Anacalypsis) connecting ancient Egypt to the origins of the Negro race and its influence on the course of human civilization, all of which Sonny devoured, along with all manner of esoterica: Christian gnostics, theosophy, numerology, etc. Sonny discovered that others had been there before him, opening the same doors—'holy men, cranks, scholars, eccentrics, self-ordained agents of the absurd.’

Szwed helps us see that Sun Ra’s ideas on space connected with older streams of thought, all part of a shared vision of a black sacred cosmos: the traditional African-American understanding of “science” as not too distinct from Hermetic philosophy and magic; the legend of the conjure man and black science fiction; the Black Muslim blend of scientific method and mystical process (see Elijah Muhammad’s The Theology of Time); the possibility of spiritual travel in Afro-Baptist discourse; recurring themes of journey, exodus and escape.

Sun Ra worked out many of his ideas in sound, through his music. In Birmingham he became known for his skill in transcribing big band arrangements by Duke Ellington and Fletcher Henderson, and kept a book of his own compositions and arrangements inspired by dreams or articles from Popular Mechanics. He disparaged the compositional limitations of bebop, and remained open to a wide range of influences, from blues and jazz, Tchaikovsky, Scriabin and Debussy to the exotica of Martin Denny & Les Baxter. In the mid-1950s in Chicago he formed the Arkestra, which would be the vehicle for his musical project. The band was his instrument, though he insisted that it wasn’t his band, but the Creator’s; he was only following orders. He subjected musicians (‘tone scientists’) to harsh regimentation and discipline, even in the service of collective improvisation. He was an enthusiast of early electronic keyboards, prepared pianos and the theremin, and pioneered various avant-garde recording techniques: recording live at strange sites, the use of feedback, distortion or reverb, unusual microphone placement, abrupt edits or fades, the inclusion of incidental background noises. The Arkestra in performance was a further extension of Sun Ra’s vision, and it drew its theatrics eclectically from many sources: the Afro-Baptist church, black cabaret, vaudeville and tent shows, Greek Tragedy, deploying operatic technologies of acoustic hallucinations, cries, moans, echoes, the use of fire, darkness and mythical dramaturgy, Scriabin’s use of colored lights to reinforce and correlate with specific sounds. The Arkestra was constantly disrupting critical predispositions and habits, writes Szwed, calling attention to the critics’ limitations, requiring multiple levels of interpretation and a fuller understanding of different genres and different styles of playing. When the Arkestra performed, the music often seemed to be the subtext of some grander plan.

Sun Ra and the Arkestra moved to New York City in 1961 and settled in the East Village. Their first regular gig was at Café Bizarre, where Charles Mingus came to hear them play. [Mingus: "What are you doing here?" Sun Ra: "I live just around the corner." Mingus: "No, I mean on this planet."]. They provided live soundtracks to underground films curated by Jonas Mekas at the Charles Theatre and played shows with John Coltrane, Albert Ayler and Archie Shepp to raise funds for the Black Arts Repertory company organized by LeRoi Jones. In 1965, Sun Ra began to take his music further out. NYC had become ground zero for the New Thing. As Szwed tells it,

"Players demanded that jazz die to be born again. In the process they discovered parallels between the cut-and-paste montage aesthetics of postmodernism and those of African-American aesthetics; between surrealism and spirit possession; folk music and turn-of-the-century Viennese classical practices. It was a highly compressed, intense period of creativity, much of it occurring outside of the public’s hearing."

Fortunately, Sun Ra recorded hundreds of rehearsals and performances by the Arkestra. In the fall of 1968, the band relocated to Philadelphia, and in the next 25 years achieved a measure of renown. Sun Ra was always from the future, he was always breaking new ground, and the strange and beautiful music that he made is a source of ineffable pleasure for those who are open to it. show less

Lady Sings the Blues Extended
Review of the Penguin Books paperback (2016) of the original Viking hardcover (2015)

February 2022 became a Billie Holiday discovery month for me, starting from when I first listened to the podcast Billie Was a Black Woman (2021), which was excellent on the present day inspiration and influence of the singer, but had very little biographical content. That led me to read the interview collection Billie Holiday: The Last Interview and Other Conversations (2019), her show more own autobiography Lady Sings the Blues 50th Anniversary Edition (orig. 1956) and now this combination biography and musical analysis book by John Szwed.

The Musician and the Myth is best read as an addendum to Holiday's autobiography as it is not a complete biography in itself. It does provide some excellent context and clarification about the censored passages in the 1956 book. These were primarily due to Hollywood lawyers and agents who threatened to sue if their clients names were left in the book. There were also passages about Holiday's bisexuality which were deemed to be too revealing for that era. It is actually somewhat surprising that a complete uncensored edition has not appeared in the present day, as Szwed is able to quote entire lengthy passages of the original censored content, so it presumably all exists in the vaults of the original publisher Viking (or those of whomever owns that imprint these days).

Szwed divides his material into a front half discussing the "myth" and then a very detailed back half on the "musician". The latter isn't a full sessionography, but it does provide quite a lot of information about which other bands and session musicians Holiday worked with over her career. It breaks this down into what are now the conventionally accepted 3 periods of Holiday's recordings: roughly the early Columbia (& associated labels) years of the 1930s, the middle Commodore & Decca recordings of the 1940s and finally the Verve recordings of the 1950's. Szwed makes a case that the final 2 recordings for Columbia constitute a 4th period in themselves, regardless of how brief. This is especially so for the controversial Lady in Satin (1958) with its mostly non-jazz string arrangements, yet which many listeners still regard as their favourite Holiday album.

Soundtrack
These were the main Billie Holiday albums that I was listening to while reading Billie Holiday: The Musician and the Myth:
1. Billie Holiday - 5 Original Albums A bargain priced 5 CD box set of 5 original LPs from 1956 to 1958 in mini-LP cardboard sleeves including original liner notes and session musician details.

Box set cover image sourced from Discogs.

2. Lady in Satin: The Centennial Edition (orig 1958/reissue 2015), the second last album in an extended 3 CD edition with previously unreleased tracks and takes. Released to commemorate the 100th anniversary of Billie Holiday's birth in 1915.

Disc image sourced from Discogs. show less

Sun Ra, wrapped in the mythology of ancient Egypt and glittering with the sheen of space-age technology, seemed too far out. He claimed to come from Saturn, and he was at least three planets distant from Earth: as an African American (Mars), a jazz musician (Jupiter) and an avant-gardist (there’s Saturn). And then there is his personal vision. Ra was a brilliant musician who mixed and melded music from the entire history of jazz with classical, African and electronics. His performances show more were unforgettable multi-media extravaganzas that featured chanting, dancing, wild costumes, poetry and fabulous music.

Ra was no fool. He built a big band and kept it working for fifty years, long after the more famous bands had folded up. He was perhaps the first African American to own his own label – Saturn. He controlled his own publishing and distribution (mostly). He made two films, one of which has become a cult classic (Space is the Place).

This collection by John Sinclair, former manager of MC5 and a producer of many of Ra’s concerts offers a tantalizing introduction to Sun Ra. Memoirs by the Arkestra, reviews of major concerts, essays on the Ra’s place in cultural history will send you running to find the music. Interviews with Sun Ra himself both mystify and demonstrate the originality of his thinking. Ra-inspired poetry by Amiri Baraka (Leroy Jones, prose by DJ Steve Fly Agaric 23, and a collection of graphic art add other dimensions.

Sun Ra remains a fascinating figure, a composer and performer whose work is becoming better known through the release of new compilations and restored recordings. This book is both inspired and inspirational and offers important insights into the work of this unjustly neglected artist. show less

I grew up in Baltimore. Sun Ra was based in Philly during alotof of my adult yrs there. He played in Baltimore fairly often. There was a club on N Charles St called the Famous Ballroom. Sun Ra & the Arkestra played there. It was dark, w/ one of those "disco balls" - those multi-faceted things that spin & have light reflecting off them. It wasn't a big place but the stage cd manage to hold the Arkestra. I have a very fond memory (that must be around 30 yrs old by now) of sitting at the show more Ballroom at a round table witnessing the Arkestra playing in full force - w/ dancers & whatnot. At the end, Sun Ra came out into the audience (it was up-close & personal) leading a snake-dance & tilting a "rain-stick" by people's ears so they cd hear the sand pouring from one end to the other of the bamboo tube. He did it to me. If I didn't love him for 10 zillion other reasons I think I might just love him for that alone. They sold records at the concerts - white ones w/ hand-done covers of their more 'far-out' stuff & black ones of the more traditional stuff. Lardy knows I was dirt-poor in those days but I still managed to buy one of each - as I recall, they weren't that expensive. What an incredible person! What incredible music! What incredible philosophy! What incredible imagination! What incredible humor! When I think of all the sadness & trouble that the people I respect have gone thru it makes me ever so angry. Sun Ra, I wish there were a paradise for you to go to where yr immense creativity cd flourish even more than it did on this shithole of a human cesspit that some people have the audacity to call "society". If ever a person has deserved bliss in my bk, it's certainly you & yrs!! show less