Ra! Ra! Ra!

An evening devoted to the cosmic voyages Sun Ra. Expect sublime music, multi-screen visuals and silver foil.

Sun Ra (formerly Sonny Blount) was born and died in Birmingham, Alabama. As far as we know he never played in Birmingham, UK, but for one night only his mothership will be hovering over Digbeth as we pay informal tribute to one of the twentieth century’s most prolific and influential musicians and composers.

This was a man who took the bare minimum of sleep in order to fit in as much music as possible, so our DJs have their work cut out doing justice to his oeuvre in one night. The idea is to start out with the early doo-wop and swing recordings, on through the formation of the Arkestra and the shift to cosmic jazz, then into free improv wigouts until we settle into the toe-tapping big band period of the 70s onwards.

Expect sofas, silver foil constructions and multi-screen visuals, with a few highlights from Sun Ra’s bountiful celluloid CV. Ra! Ra! Ra! is brought to you by Grandmaster Gareth and Outer Sight.