| Space Is the Place: The Lives and Times of Sun Ra Contributor(s): Szwed, John (Author) |
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ISBN: 1478008415 ISBN-13: 9781478008415 Publisher: Duke University Press OUR PRICE: $23.70 Product Type: Paperback - Other Formats Published: May 2020 |
| Additional Information |
| BISAC Categories: - Biography & Autobiography | Music - Biography & Autobiography | Cultural, Ethnic & Regional - General - Music | Genres & Styles - Jazz |
| Dewey: B |
| LCCN: 2019039442 |
| Physical Information: 1.2" H x 6.1" W x 9.2" (1.65 lbs) 512 pages |
| Themes: - Ethnic Orientation - African American - Chronological Period - 20th Century |
| Descriptions, Reviews, Etc. |
| Publisher Description: Considered by many to be a founder of Afrofuturism, Sun Ra--aka Herman Blount--was a composer, keyboardist, bandleader, philosopher, entrepreneur, poet, and self-proclaimed extraterrestrial from Saturn. He recorded over 200 albums with his Arkestra, which, dressed in Egypto-space costumes, played everything from boogie-woogie and swing to fusion and free jazz. John Szwed's Space is the Place is the definitive biography of this musical polymath, who was one of the twentieth century's greatest avant-garde artists and intellectuals. Charting the whole of Sun Ra's life and career, Szwed outlines how after years in Chicago as a blues and swing band pianist, Sun Ra set out in the 1950s to impart his views about the galaxy, black people, and spiritual matters by performing music with the Arkestra that was as vital and innovative as it was mercurial and confounding. Szwed's readers--whether they are just discovering Sun Ra or are among the legion of poets, artists, intellectuals, and musicians who consider him a spiritual godfather--will find that, indeed, space is the place. |