Space is the Place

I'll tell you what, Sun Ra was a gift we didn't love enough. He gave us fifty years of his time to "get it," but no one bothered. He's sitting on his home planet right now, entertaining his minions on Saturn. Sun Ra made one movie, that's all he needed to preach his philosophy. It is a brilliant statement on race relations in the early 1970's. An interesting story, engaging characters, and some out there music. One fault: this was not his best period in music. His records from the 50's and 60's were astounding, good enough to make this film even more of a classic. Space Is The Place is essential viewing for those who care about jazz or Africana cinema.

Sun Ra plays a cosmic seer who lands in his spaceship (powered by music) on Earth and makes plans to resettle black people on a new planet from the white power structure. He is like the Moses figure in this sci-fi blaxploitation film which mixes surrealism, avant-garde jazz in a proposal like no other. Danny Ray Thompson. A mainstay in the Sun Ra Arkestra since the late 60s who's undulating baritone sax riff makes up the backbone of the evergreen Space Is The Place. A rare, unmissable trash-culture, sci-fi classic tantalizing glimpse into RA's fantastical world.

One of my favorite musical bios of all time which offers sharp social commentary and a stylish Afrofuturist vision. A truly great biography of melancholic musician, an Afrofuturist long before it was named, devastatingly multi-layered and esoteric. One of the best 'cult films' ever that defies genre categorisation and manages to truly uphold its otherworldly feel while burning itself in your brain. FYI Interestingly the first person of African descent in space was Afro-Cuban Arnaldo Tamayo Méndez, via Soviet Interkosmos program in 1980. Highly recommend for those who love surrealistic films and a fan of Coltrane (John & Alice), Miles Davis, Thelonious Monk, Dizzy Gillespie, Charlie Parker, Charles Mingus, Herbie Hancock, and Cannonball Adderley.

The earth cannot move without music. The earth moves in a certain rhythm, a certain sound, a certain note. When the music stops the earth will stop and everything upon it will die.

Sun Ra, Space is the Place.

Yes! It was a low budget film and it was my very first. Although I did not know who "Sun Ra" was at the time - I did enjoy working with him. I will always remember his very words to me during the filming of the nightclub scene (in which I had a small speaking role). We were taking a lunch break and I had decided to sit at the piano and hit some piano keys, just for fun. Ra came walking by and glancing over to me he said, "Don't play what you know - Play what you don't know"! I am not a professional musician, but always remember these words when playing an instrument. I was very happy to see that this film made it to DVD a few years ago.

I can't help but think that Vxf111 is either joking, or (unfortunately) did not know who Sun Ra was before viewing the film. Yes, the film was certainly produced with a low budget, and it might not be of much interest to those who aren't fans of, or at least interested in, Sun Ra.

Sun Ra maintained that he was from Saturn, although historical documents note that he was born Herman Blount (or Poole) in Birmingham, AL. Sun Ra was a first-rate pianist, arranger, and composer, and worked with Fletcher Henderson's orchestra. He formed his own big band, the Arkestra, during the 1950s in Chicago. This ensemble was completely unlike any other big band, as it incorporated elements of Egyptian mythology, science fiction, and other exotica and esoterica (those familiar with Earth, Wind, and Fire and Parliament-Funkadelic should take note). Sun Ra was also an early proponent of electronic instruments in jazz.

The film "Space Is The Place" is part science fiction and part musical documentary. A comparison could also be made to the "blaxploitation" films of the 1970s. The story centers around Sun Ra's return to Earth after an extended absence, and focuses on his concern for the fate of humanity and African-Americans in particular. All of this is infused with his mythological outlook. This certainly makes Sun Ra an "interesting character" but he was very serious about what he did and what he said. If any of this makes you the least bit curious about Sun Ra then I would recommend the film, which is available on videocassette.

The blaxploitation genre never ceases to surprise me the number of times it throws up truly crazy films. This one appears to be clearly aimed at the stoned-out-of-their-heads demographic - it's a combination of blaxploitation, sci-fi, concert footage and social commentary. It's also a vehicle for avant-garde jazzman Sun Ra, who, bizarrely, plays himself as a being from outer space who lands his spaceship in the middle of the San Francisco ghetto and tries to convince the black population there to follow him and colonise another planet, leaving the shackles of Earth behind. Sun Ra goes around everywhere donning pharaoh robes and headgear and even indulges in a Seventh Seal inspired Tarot game with a pimp like character in the middle of the desert. The storyline is very strange and loosely told, while the musical numbers involve Sun Ra and his Myth Science Arkestra knocking out their very weird African inflected experimental jazz. It's a pretty baffling experience but one that is worth checking out.