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JAZZmeetsPOETRY: Celebrating Sun Ra
February 27, 2020 @ 7:30 pm
110 E Roosevelt St,
Phoenix, AZ 85004
Phoenix, AZ 85004, USA Buy Tickets
About This Event
The first show of 2020 for the JAZZmeetsPOETRY series celebrates jazz composer/innovator and poet Sun Ra. Join us as we take a theatrical journey into space, identity and culture…
Sun Ra’s widely eclectic and avant-garde music echoed the entire history of jazz – from ragtime and early New Orleans hot jazz to swing music, bebop, free jazz and fusion. His compositions ranged from keyboard solos to works for big bands of more than 30 musicians, along with electronic excursions, songs, chants, percussion pieces and anthems. From the mid-1950s until his death, he led the musical collective The Arkestra. Over the course of his career, Sun Ra recorded dozens of singles and more than 100 full-length albums – making him one of the most prolific recording artists of the 20th century.
Born and raised in Alabama, Herman Poole Blountbecame involved in the Chicago jazz scene during the late 1940s. He soon abandoned his birth name, taking the name Le Sony’r Ra, shortened to Sun Ra (after Ra, the Egyptian God of the Sun). He developed a complex persona and an idiosyncratic, myth-based credo that would make him a pioneer of Afrofuturism. He claimed to be an alien from Saturn on a mission to preach peace, and throughout his life he publicly denied ties to his prior identity.*
Co-produced by Marche-Pfister Productions and The Nash, the series provides a platform for poets and jazz musicians to make art that is expressive, interactive and captivating.
Advance tickets: $25, $12 Students (25 & under w/ ID); At door: $30, $14 Students
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*Source: Wikipedia