By Cliff Bellamy
cbellamy@heraldsun.com; 419-6744
DURHAM -- Herman "Sonny" Blount -- better known in Durham, internationally and across the galaxy as Sun Ra -- made his mark as a composer, pianist and bandleader who had a strong influence on modern jazz. Ra also was an entrepreneur, and, variously, a poet, preacher and philosopher. An exhibit opening today at the Durham Art Guild touches on those different aspects of Ra's career.
Earlier this week Jennifer Collins-Mancour, Durham Art Guild director was putting the exhibit together. She opened a box and took out a notebook. "Whoa," she said as she began examining it. "These, I believe, are some of his street lectures, where he was prophesying." The title of one of the lectures is "A Spook Sho' Is a Dragg, Man ... He's A Dragg."
That document is just one of more than 100 artifacts in the exhibit "Pathways to Unknown Worlds: Sun Ra, El Saturn & Chicago's Afro-Futurist Underground 1954-1968." Collins-Mancour also opened a box containing a number of 45 rpm recordings of Sun Ra. Exhibit visitors will see titles like "Medicine for a Nightmare," "Blue Set" and "Blues on Planet Mars." Later, she opened another box that contained a purple harp and a cymbal. "It's like a new discovery every time," she said.
Ra (1914-1993) created a stage persona, philosophy and mythology based partly on his claim of being from Saturn, although he was born in Birmingham, Ala. He recorded more than 100 albums for his own Saturn (or El Saturn) label. Jazz historians give him credit as one of the first musicians to embrace the Moog synthesizer and electronic keyboards. His music is grounded in the sounds of the swing era (he worked with the Fletcher Henderson band in the 1940s), but his experimental music made him a major influence on the avant-garde music of the 1960s. He worked with a large ensemble called the Arkestra, and at times the Myth-Science Arkestra.
This exhibit travels to Durham from Philadelphia, then will return to its home at the University of Chicago, where it is part of the Alton Abraham collection of Sun Ra Papers. Abraham was the publicist for Sun Ra for almost 50 years, and managed Ra's record labels. The collection is wide-ranging, containing photographs, posters, drawings for record cover art, the records themselves, press releases and other written documents.
Aficionados of vinyl records likely will find this exhibit a gold mine. Many of the works on the walls were of sketches for album covers. The album covers themselves were leaning against the wall waiting to be hung.
In this exhibit, a visitor in some cases can match an artist's sketch with the final album cover. On view, for example, is a colored pencil and pastel drawing, on paper, for the "Jazz in Silhouette" album, and the cover also is on display. A sketch for the recording "Angels and Demons at Play" is on view, as is the album cover. In some cases, the exhibit has the individual silk screens for the color separations used to print the album covers, and visitors will be able to see those with the albums, Collins-Mancour said.
In addition to what is on display, the exhibit will have a film showing images from performances, a slide show, and of course the music of Ra.
"The Penguin Guide to Jazz on CD" cites "Jazz in Silhouette" as "one of the most important jazz records since the war." Local musicians also weighed in on Ra's significance as a musician. "He was a great bandleader," said B. H. Hudson, a saxophonist who also hosts the morning show at WNCU radio. He played music that was experimental, yet grounded in the roots of jazz, and assembled a crack team of instrumentalists, she said. "His big band I would say touches on the entire history of jazz," Hudson said. "These musicians are excellent and well versed on their instruments. ... The bottom line was that this band can really play well. They are a really good band no matter what they're doing."
Shannon Morrow, a percussionist and teacher who participated in a pre-exhibit concert earlier this month, cites "Angels and Demons at Play" as one of her favorite Ra recordings, because of its melodic qualities and grounding in the jazz tradition. "I think that his approach or his openness to the experience of playing music and going beyond what was already there was phenomenal," Morrow said.
He was also a strong businessman and entrepreneur, Collins-Mancour said, and this exhibit includes the articles of incorporation, sales slips and other papers from Saturn records. He formed his own band "and put a lot of artists to work," she said. "I find it fascinating that he was so dedicated."
"Even if you don't appreciate the music," she said, "you can appreciate that level of commitment."
Go and Do
WHAT: Public opening of "Pathways to Unknown Worlds: Sun Ra, El Saturn & Chicago's Afro-Futurist Underground 1954-1968"
WHEN: Today, 5 to 7 p.m.
WHERE: CCB Gallery, 120 Morris St., Durham Arts Council building. Exhibit continues through Oct. 18.
ADMISSION: Free.
