The Execution of Sun Ra: The Mysterious Tale of a Dark Body Sent to Earth to Usher in an Unprecedented Era of Cosmic Regeneration and Happiness

by Thomas Stanley

"One thing I learned from Sun Ra is that you take him lightly at your own peril. He spoke of serious things, and needs to be taken seriously. The time is right for a new book on Ra, and Thomas Stanley’s is the right book. You can never be certain with Sun Ra, but I’m betting he’d have loved it."-John Szwed, author of Space is the The Lives and Times of Sun Ra"Sun Ra has an intrinsic instinct of music as language…there is a sense of language being transmitted as code – and this also translates from a trans-African type of construct to something that could be construed as signals being sent in outer space…he turns everything upside down in a gnostic type of way, and his synthesis is one of the few and unique blends of jazz and mysticism." Matthew Shipp, pianist, composer, bandleader. Thomas Stanley is a writer, audio activist and scholar. He received his doctorate for research documenting the unique compositional strategies of Butch Morris. He is coauthor of George Clinton and An Oral History. He has taught radical black music, sound art and critical theory at the University of Maryland and George Mason University.

Genres: Music, Biography

262 pages, Paperback

First published April 18, 2014

About the author

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Reviews

[Rupert · Rating 5 out of 5]

Can not recommend this book highly enough! Well written, heavily researched/lived, and Dr Stanley steps back to examine the myth-science of Sun Ra from every angle.
The sense of the author jumps out from the page, not because he inserts himself as character, but through the thoughtfulness and soul of the writing.