In his biography Space Is the Place, documenting the life, times and boundless dreams of Arkestra leader Sun Ra, John F Szwed described Ra’s vivid presence amid “a cockpit of electronics” at the heart of his uniquely theatrical band on a college gig in the 1960s: “Sun Ra was in the house,” Szwed wrote, “and in his universe.” That universe was a unique merger of 1930s big-band swing, bebop, free-jazz, prototypical electronics, Afro-futurism, sci-fi, Egyptology and more. His legacy rolls on, almost three decades after his departure from the planet he believed he was only briefly visiting from his real home on Saturn.
