Happy Birthday SUN RA!
I only discovered this amazing musician's music a few years ago and have delighted in learning more and more about his very strange life and ways. He spent a lot of time in Oakland and Berkeley, which makes total sense. Anyway, I may beef up this posting with various sundry articles and links during the day. If you get a chance, read more about him. Sun Ra (Born Herman Poole Blount ; legal name Le Sony'r Ra [1] ; born May 22 , 1914 in Birmingham, Alabama , died May 30 , 1993 in Birmingham, Alabama ) was an innovative jazz composer , bandleader , piano and synthesizer player, poet and philosopher who came to be known as much for his "cosmic philosophy " as for his musical compositions and performances. He abandoned his birth name and took on the name and persona of Sun Ra ( Ra being the ancient Egyptian god of the Sun ). Claiming that he was of the " Angel Race " and not from Earth , but from Saturn , Ra developed a complicated persona of "cos...