Friday, November 10, 2006

the sun ra odyssey begins


Hanging at the Hideout -- the show was sold out but AMB said "don't worry about it -- Sun Ra will take care of it"-- and, apparently, he did.

Morning after update:
So here's the thing: I know nothing about Sun Ra. My brother, on the other hand, knows quite a bit -- he's just now wrapping up a Masters' Thesis on the guy, and he's come to town for a whole round of Sun Ra-ness -- including ephemera at the Hyde Park Art Center and a seminar that runs through the weekend.

We opened the weekend with a show at Chicago's Hideout last night, featuring Thurston Moore of Sonic Youth and local keyboardist Jim Baker, along with a couple of Arkestra veterans. We weren't supposed to get into the show -- it was deeply sold out -- but did. No problem. Sun Ra? You tell me.

Something extraordinary happened in that room last night, but I completely lack the language to write about it -- other than to say that it was largely at a vibratory level, and that sounds just plain silly. So forget I said that.

My goal for the weekend, in tagging along to a few of these things, is to learn a little bit something more about what Sun Ra contributed to music in America. Already we have this little tidbit for Anali in Boston: Your man Deval is the son of an Arkestra member. Small world.

1 comment:

Lisa Johnson said...

Hey!! Pretty cool! The older I get, the more I see how everything is connected. Sometimes in the most random ways. I hope you enjoy your weekend!

I don't know much about Sun Ra except that when I was a kid in the 70's, my parents and aunts and uncles had long conversations about him that I didn't understand.

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