Sun Ra - Somewhere Over The Rainbow (Vinyl)

American free-jazz composer, pianist and band leader. Born May 22, 1914 in Birmingham, Alabama; died May 30, 1993 in Birmingham, Alabama

Recognized as a music innovator, pioneer of free improvisation and modal jazz, and an early user of electronic keyboards and synthesizers.

Born as Herman Poole Blount, he legally changed his name to Le Sony'r Ra on October 20, 1952. Herman Blount, nicknamed “Sonny” by his family, proved to be a skilled pianist from a young age. He was able to sight-read and compose music by the age of 11 and performed semi-professionally as a solo pianist or member of local jazz and other bands as a teenager. His first full-time musical job was proposed in 1934 by Ethel Harper, his biology teacher from high school, who had organized a band to pursue a career as a singer. When Ms. Harper moved to New York, Blount took the lead of the band, renaming it Sonny Blount Orchestra. The band broke up shortly after, but Blount continued to work steadily as a musician in Birmingham.

Between 1936 and 1937, Blount left college, which he attended for only one year, after a visionary experience which greatly influenced his life: during a deep meditation state, he claimed to have been transported to the planet Saturn by beings from outer space who entrusted him with the mission to preach peace through music, in a world that was becoming increasingly chaotic. In the following years, Blount transformed the first floor of his family's house into a conservatory-workshop where musicians could come and go at any time and he could discuss religious and esoteric concepts with whoever was interested.

In 1945, Blount moved to Chicago where he was influenced by the African-American political activist fervor in the city. 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). Musically, he worked and performed for Wynonie Harris, Lil Green, Fletcher Henderson, Coleman Hawkins and Stuff Smith. In 1952, Sun Ra assembled and led a trio with the drummer  Tommy Hunter and saxophonist Pat Patrick, forming the first nucleus of what would shortly become The Sun Ra Arkestra. When Patrick moved to Florida (he would continue to leave and re-join the Arkestra for decades to come), saxophonists John Gilmore and Marshall Allen joined the group. In the same years, Sun Ra met Alton Abraham, a precociously intelligent teenager who quickly became his closest friend and, practically, his business manager. Together, in the mid-'50s, they founded the independent label called , initially focused on 45 rpm singles by Sun Ra and artists related to him. However, Sun Ra's first album was released in 1957 by the producer Tom Wilson with another independent label, .

In the late 1950s, Sun Ra and his band began to wear outlandish, Egyptian-styled or science fiction-themed costumes and headdresses.

Source: Discogs