The record the man from Saturn made in Chicago

Sun Ra was born Herman Poole Blount in Birmingham, Alabama, in 1914, named after a stage magician. As a college student, he said, he was carried up to Saturn, where beings with little antennas told him to leave school: the world was heading into chaos, and he would speak through music, and the world would listen. He told that story, word for word, for the rest of his life.

He landed in Chicago in the forties and found work fast: piano and arrangements for Fletcher Henderson's band at the Club DeLisa in 1946. In 1952 he legally changed his name to Le Sony'r Ra - he called Blount a slave name, a name that was never his. With his friend Alton Abraham he printed pamphlets about Egypt, space, and the future of Black people, and passed them around the city. The Arkestra grew out of that circle, robes and all.

By October 1972, when he brought the Arkestra into a Chicago studio to cut this record, all of it was in place: the costumes, the chants, the philosophy. The title track runs twenty-one minutes, with singer June Tyson leading the chant. Around it sit Images, Discipline 33, Sea of Sound, and a two-minute sprint called Rocket Number Nine. Blue Thumb released it in 1973, with Abraham co-producing, and Impulse! reissued it in 1998. AllMusic calls it an excellent introduction to his huge catalog. The BBC called the title track his ultimate anthem.

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Space Is the Place (title track, 21 minutes)

Listen along

Every track this story mentions, playable right here:

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Where it leads: Lanquidity (1978)

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The Magic City (1966)

Watch the film

Our documentary tells the Chicago part of this story. Press play:

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The Man Who Papered Chicago With the Cosmos

Where it leads: Lanquidity, from 1978, is where the cosmos learned to groove. Behind this record sits The Magic City, from 1966. Space Is the Place is in our free guide.

Heard it? Come talk about it in the listening room.