Sun Ra's Chicago: Afrofuturism and the City (Historical Studies of Urban America)

“Sites provides crucial context on how Chicago’s Afrocentrist philosophy, religion, and jazz scenes helped turn Blount into Sun Ra. ” — Chicago Reader Sun Ra (1914–93) was one of the most wildly prolific and unfailingly eccentric figures in the history of music. Renowned for extravagant performances in which his Arkestra appeared in neo-Egyptian garb, the keyboardist and bandleader also espoused an interstellar cosmology that claimed the planet Saturn as his true home. In Sun Ra’s Chicago , William Sites brings this visionary musician back to earth—specifically to the city’s South Side, where from 1946 to 1961 he lived and relaunched his career. The postwar South Side was a hotbed of unorthodox religious and cultural activism: Afrocentric philosophies flourished, storefront prophets sold “dream-book bibles,” and Elijah Muhammad was building the Nation of Islam. It was also an unruly musical crossroads where the man then known as Sonny Blount drew from an array of intellectual and musical sources—from radical nationalism, revisionist Christianity, and science fiction to jazz, blues, Latin dance music, and pop exotica—to construct a philosophy and performance style that imagined a new identity and future for African Americans. Sun Ra’s Chicago shows that late twentieth-century Afrofuturism emerged from a deep, utopian engagement with the city—and that by excavating the postwar black experience of Sun Ra’s South Side milieu, we can come to see the possibilities of urban life in new ways. “Four stars . . . Sites makes the engaging argument that the idiosyncratic jazz legend’s penchant for interplanetary journeys and African American utopia was in fact inspired by urban life right on Earth.” — Spectrum Culture Sun Ra (191493) was one of the most wildly prolific and unfailingly eccentric figures in the history of music. Renowned for extravagant performances in which his Arkestra appeared in neo-Egyptian garb, the keyboardist and bandleader also espoused an interstellar cosmology that claimed the planet Saturn as his true home. In Sun Ra's Chicago, William Sites brings this visionary musician back to earth-specifically to the city's South Side, where from 1946 to 1961 he lived and relaunched his career. The postwar South Side was a hotbed of unorthodox religious and cultural activism: Afrocentric philosophies flourished, storefront prophets sold "dream-book bibles," and Elijah Muhammad was building the Nation of Islam. It was also an unruly musical crossroads where the man then known as Sonny Blount drew from an array of intellectual and musical sources-from radical nationalism, revisionist Christianity, and science fiction to jazz, blues, Latin dance music, and pop exotica-to construct a philosophy and performance style that imagined a new identity and future for African Americans. Sun Ra's Chicago shows that late twentieth-century Afrofuturism emerged from a deep, utopian engagement with the city-and that by excavating the postwar black experience of Sun Ra's South Side milieu, we can come to see the possibilities of urban life in new ways. MUS000000 Music / General,MUS025000 Music / Genres & Styles / Jazz,SOC001000 Social Science / Ethnic Studies / African American Studies,HIS036060 History / United States / 20th Century,HIS036090 History / United States / State & Local / Midwest (ia, Il, In, Ks, Mi, Mn, Mo, Nd, Ne, Oh, Sd, Wi) "William T. Sites details the life of visionary musician Sun Ra in Chicago, from 1946 until 1961. Sun Ra's South Side was a site of unorthodox religious and cultural activism where Afrocentric philosophies flourished, storefront prophets sold "dream-book bibles," and Elijah Muhammad was building the Nation of Islam. It was also an unruly musical crossroads where styles circulated and mashed together in clubs and community dancehalls. Sun Ra drew from a vast array of intellectual sources (radical nationalism, antinomian Christianity, black mythology, and science fiction) and from multiple musical traditions (swing, jazz, blues, Latin dance music, "space-age pop," and other exotica) to promulgate visions of the city that did not conform to the orthodoxies of metropolitan elites, black or white"-- Provided by publisher The emergence of Sun Ra and his Arkestra in 1950s Chicago is seen today as a foundational moment for Afrofuturist modes of cultural expression. Sun Ra's Chicago investigates how the bandleader's musical cosmology first developed and, in particular, why it came to flourish in Chicago. Focusing on his early years in Birmingham, Alabama and his time in post-World War II Chicago, the book argues that the relationship between Sun Ra and his cities offers new insight into his music and philosophy as well as the role of everyday black urban experience in the development of Afrofuturism as a cultural ideal. The book employs a historical and spatial lens to situate Ra's evolving sensibility within the material and imagined spaces of his cities.