Few musicians have been as delightfully and fascinatingly weird as Sun Ra. He was born Herman Poole Blount, changed his name to honor the Egyptian god of the sun, believed he was an angelic being from Saturn, and is one of the most legendary and influential experimental jazz musicians of all time. If you're just now getting into Sun Ra or modal jazz in general, these four songs are essential listening.
Probably one of the icon's most well-known songs, "Enlightenment" is on the simpler side of Sun Ra's discography. However, sometimes, "simple" doesn't have to mean "mild". This song doesn't have a chaotic melody, but Sun Ra's talent as a jazz composer can be felt and heard throughout the song. Despite not being as manic as his other works, it still sounds like a Sun Ra song.
Sun Ra was by and large an experimental jazz artist, but he was also considered a hugely influential figure among hip hop and rap artists. This entry on our list of essential Sun Ra songs sounds, at the very least, hip hop-adjacent. It's loaded with sounds that have that "sampled" vibe, complete with ever-weaving melodies that have a vibrant energy most musicians in hip hop and jazz alike could only hope to create.
Imagine being so talented that a whole movie is made around one of your songs. Other musicians can only hope for this level of reverence. The film in question is an iconic piece of Afrofuturist media, in which Sun Ra is depicted as a prophetic alien of sorts who crashed his aircraft in Oakland. To put it simply, this song is not your typical balmy jazz tune, and the film it accompanies is not your average movie.
"I Am Strange" tells it like it is; Sun Ra was a self-aware genius. This essential Sun Ra track is one of his most poetic works. It sounds more like spoken word poetry with a piano backing track than anything else. It's a fine example of avant garde music of its time, and it is also an anthem for those who wanted the same bright future that Sun Ra did: "I am stronger than hate / I am contemptuous of both those who hate and those who destroy / I am not a part of a world which hates and a world which destroys." There really was nobody else like him.
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