I'd heard the name Sun Ra before, a cursory mention in the Encyclopaedia of SF but nothing in the appropriate section of the Pieret International SF Yearbook or elsewhere. Intrigued I tuned into the four part series on Radio 3 to find out more about the man Sun Ra.

     The series started with his birth as Herman Poole Blount in May 1914 and his childhood in Birmingham, Alabama, then one of the most segregated cities in America. He discovered a natural talent for music early on, composing easily. During the War he was interred as a Conscientious Objector which affected him deeply. After the War he moved to Chicago.

     There he played in Clubs with such luminaries as Fletcher Henderson and Billie Holiday. In the early 'fifties he changed his name to Sun Ra and founded his Jazz band, the Arkestra. He also started his own record label El Saturn Research in 1956, something common for bands today but Sun Ra did it first.

     By 1960 Egyptian/Space costumes were worn by the band's members and song titles included "Plutonian Nights", "Interstellar Low Ways" and "Medicine for a Nightmare"; reflecting Sun Ra's interest in Science Fiction which he'd read since he was at school.

     The series continued with Sun Ra moving first to New York and later Philadelphia. In those cities the band would live communally and rehearse in the same large houses. They would tour Europe and even visited Egypt very successfully a couple of times. The series also covered Sun Ra's philosophy concerning racial injustice, the Space—Time continuum and life on other planets.

     The series ended with Sun Ra's death in 1993 and looked at his legacy with contemporary Dub musicians, bands like Sonic Youth, Cold Cut and Heliotrope. At the same time as the series was broadcast a biography, "Space is the Place" by John F. Szwed, (£12.99 Payback Press ) was published which expanded and provided much more information. Although this repeated two stories over its 470+ pages it filled in much that the radio series had missed, such as Sun Ra's alien abduction / vision story. In the book two comparisons are made, musically to Thelonious Monk and philosophically to Elijah Muhammad of the Nation of Islam.

     Overall, the impression I got was of a man who could have become a major political force for Black American's if musically his band hadn't become Hawkwind fifteen years before its time.

Reviewed by Cardinal Cox.