Sun Ra

Books, comics, TV, music
1

Jazz lovers, or any music lover who might want to expand his or her boundaries, might want to tune into KFJC’s A Night and Day of the Sun program, over 24 hours in length and ending on Friday at 2am PST. This program is part of their annual Month of Mayhem, where DJs are encouraged to develop programs that don’t conform to common radio program manager expectations and requirements.

Netcast
Two-Week Broadcast Archive

MP3s (links will begin to expire on June 4):
[ul]
[li]May 21 10pm - 11pm PST (64mb)[/li][li]May 21 11pm - May 22 12am PST (64mb)[/li][li]May 22 12am - 1am PST (64mb)[/li][li]May 22 1am - 2am PST (64mb)[/li][li]May 22 2am - 3am PST (64mb)[/li][li]May 22 3am - 4am PST (64mb)[/li][li]May 22 4am - 5am PST (64mb)[/li][li]May 22 5am - 6am PST (64mb)[/li][li]May 22 6am - 7am PST (64mb)[/li][li]May 22 7am - 8am (64mb)[/li][li]May 22 8am - 9am PST (64mb)[/li][li]May 22 9am - 10am PST (64mb)[/li][li]May 22 10am - 11am PST (64mb)[/li][li]May 22 11am - 12pm PST (64mb)[/li][li]May 22 12pm - 1pm PST (64mb)[/li][li]May 22 1pm - 2pm PST (64mb)[/li][li]May 22 2pm - 3pm PST (64mb)[/li][li]May 22 3pm - 4pm PST (64mb)[/li][li]May 22 4pm to 5pm PST (64mb)[/li][li]May 22 5pm to 6pm PST (64mb)[/li][li]May 22 6pm to 7pm PST (64mb)[/li][li]May 22 7pm to 8pm PST (64mb)[/li][li]May 22 8pm to 9pm PST (64mb)[/li][li]May 22 9pm to 10pm PST (64mb)[/li][li]May 22 10pm to 11pm PST (64mb)[/li][li]May 22 11pm to May 23 12am PST (64mb)[/li][li]May 23 12am 1am PST (64mb)[/li][li]May 23 1am to 2am PST (64mb)[/li][/ul]

Music, interviews and sound clips pulled from their vast library and assembled into a program intended to show the full spectrum of the artist’s work. It’s organized by at least six different DJs and has really given me a new perspective on that artist because of how they’re laying his work out. I highly recommend either tuning in on 89.7FM (in the Bay Area), streaming (or stream on TuneIn) or download the whole thing using the links above.

Ordinarily, I’m not big on Jazz myself, but Sun Ra tends to suck me in.

Typically during the Month of Mayhem, an inspired DJ will pick a genre and/or an artist that they feel passionate about and devote anything from one to four hours to it, and they are granted full creative control (or at least, a lot more than they usually have) during one or more slots that they ordinarily have access to. Some DJs include pre-recorded or live interviews with musicians, and many simply devote hours pulling selections from the vast KFJC music library and assembling a symphony or medley or moshpit of sound based on some idea they have. It usually works out really well.

Worth mentioning that KFJC was launched in 1959 and is the oldest US college radio station, and that I’m not affiliated with them in any professional way.

Edit: All MP3s are linked but one. Can’t believe he was born 100 years ago today.

2

Funny, NPR just did a piece on him and I was thinking about sharing The Best of Sun Ra as my contribution for next month’s Bitches Brew.

Sun Ra’s wikipedia page is worth a read as well:

He preached awareness and peace above all. He abandoned his birth name and took on the name and persona of Sun Ra (Ra being the Egyptian God of the Sun), and used several other names throughout his career, including Le Sonra and Sonny Lee.[3] Sun Ra denied any connection with his birth name, saying “That’s an imaginary person, never existed … Any name that I use other than Ra is a pseudonym.”