ii. SUN RA: Ancient Aethiopia

ii. SUN RA (1914-1993)

Ancient Aethiopia (1959)
Sun Ra, piano, celeste, gong
Hobart Dotson, trumpet
Marshall Allen, alto saxophone, flute
James Spaulding, alto saxophone, flute, percussion
John Gilmore, tenor saxophone, percussion
Bo Bailey, trombone
Pat Patrick, baritone saxophone, flute, percussion
Charles Davis, baritone saxophone, percussion
Ronnie Boykins, bass
William Cochran, drums
(9:17)

Born Herman Blount on May 22, 1914, in Birmingham, Alabama, he was a musical prodigy capable of listening to a big band and then completely transcribing what he had heard ...

In 1936 or 37, he had a deeply religious experience:

"My whole body changed into something else. I could see through myself. And I went up ... I wasn't in human form ... I landed on a planet that I identified as Saturn ... they teleported me and I was down on a stage with them. They wanted to talk with me. They had one little antenna on each ear. A little antenna over each eye. They talked to me. They told me to stop attending college because there was going to be great trouble in schools ... the world was going into complete chaos ... I would speak through music, and the world would listen. That's what they told me."

From the album Jazz in Silhouette.