The 'flue

Outer Nothingness - Sun Ra
Music has come a long way since someone warbled out Green Sleeves on a lute all those hundreds of years ago. And it would appear that Luigi Russolo was right in his manifesto The Art of Noises that "the industrial revolution had given men a greater capacity to appreciate more complex sounds." Perhaps it is the tools used to produce the sounds that are then organized that matter? Or are the tools not as important as the final product? When is it just noise?

Born Herman Poole Blount, jazz composer, bandleader, piano and synthesizer player, poet and philosopher Sun Ra would claim spend the rest of his life denying that there ever was a Herman Blount ("That's an imaginary person, never existed… Any name that I use other than Ra is a pseudonym."). To say Sun Ra was interesting is like claiming an ocean is 'a lot of water.'  Sun Ra claimed to be of the "Angel Race," and that he had been to a out-of-body trip to Saturn, perhaps while in college (like so many things about Ra, know but he was sure of these things) that had a long-term influence. Ra said that he had been informed that "the world was going into complete chaos" and that he was to speak through music, and the world would listen to him. Ra. As quickly as I can, for Ra had quite a colorful life: Ra was a skilled child pianist, was writing original songs by age 11, could sight read music, as a teen took up with a jazz band, avoid the WWII draft, went to college, went to Saturn, moved to Chicago, formed the first of many many "Arkestras," played clubs, recorded, toured, hooked up with the Black Muslims, moved to New York, next stop Philadelphia, changed jazz… or in even less words: was a eclectic musical genius at just the right time and place to get away with it.

Listen to a sample at the iTunes Store

And as always, suggestions for up coming Song of the Day picks can be sent to me for consideration (that sounds so snobby, but the truth is that I'm running out of stuff to recommend so I'll throw just about anything in here just to fill the day. Um, I mean all suggestions will be carefully considered for significance and relevance. Yeah, thats it.)