Seven key figures of the Sun Ra Arkestra

Sun Ra (1914 – 1993) was a virtuoso, bandleader, teacher, poet, cosmologist, historian, Egyptologist, and community leader. One of the great visionaries of the twentieth century, he believed that music could reshape how people understood the world and themselves. As scholar Brent Hayes Edwards observed, “He is someone who made his life into a work of art.”

Sun Ra’s ideas came to life through the Sun Ra Arkestra, an ensemble comprising musicians who shared his commitment to experimentation and imagination.