The Solar Myth Revisited: Sun Ra's Centenary Observed

HIS BIRTH certificate said Birmingham, Alabama but the man who called himself Sun Ra declared that he was from the planet Saturn. Miles Davis set the late 1950s standard for jazz couture with his Italian tailored suits, but Ra wore Africanized capes, brightly colored tunics and cartoonish headgear. Long after the big band era had ended, Ra retained a respected core of musicians in his orchestra for decades — an achievement only duplicated by Duke Ellington. (One of them, baritone saxophonist Lordine 'Pat' Patrick, was the father of Massachusetts governor Deval Patrick.)