Space Is the Place

Sun Ra plays a cosmic seer who lands in his spaceship (powered by music) on Earth and makes plans to resettle black people on a new planet from the white power structure. He is like the Moses figure in this sci-fi blaxploitation film which mixes surrealism, avant-garde jazz in a proposal like no other. Danny Ray Thompson. A mainstay in the Sun Ra Arkestra since the late 60s who's undulating baritone sax riff makes up the backbone of the evergreen Space Is The Place. A rare, unmissable trash-culture, sci-fi classic tantalizing glimpse into RA's fantastical world.

One of my favorite musical bios of all time which offers sharp social commentary and a stylish Afrofuturist vision. A truly great biography of melancholic musician, an Afrofuturist long before it was named, devastatingly multi-layered and esoteric. One of the best 'cult films' ever that defies genre categorisation and manages to truly uphold its otherworldly feel while burning itself in your brain. FYI Interestingly the first person of African descent in space was Afro-Cuban Arnaldo Tamayo Méndez, via Soviet Interkosmos program in 1980. Highly recommend for those who love surrealistic films and a fan of Coltrane (John & Alice), Miles Davis, Thelonious Monk, Dizzy Gillespie, Charlie Parker, Charles Mingus, Herbie Hancock, and Cannonball Adderley.

The earth cannot move without music. The earth moves in a certain rhythm, a certain sound, a certain note. When the music stops the earth will stop and everything upon it will die.

Sun Ra, Space is the Place.