Unfortunately the Black musician over here [in the U.S.] has been diverted into playing that sentimental music instead of playing the natural things we're supposed to play as black men. Instead of holding their units together to play for their people in an organized way with the big bands, they moved down to trios and combos ... to duos and the ego ... (Wilmer 1977:87)These comments on what are "natural things" for African-Americans stem from Sun Ra's strong views on the need to recover the African roots of black American culture. His solution was a form of group separatism in which he implemented his beliefs about the true destiny of African peoples.
These convictions manifested most obviously in his performance practices. A scholar of ancient Egyptian philosophy and sciences, Sun Ra costumed his musicians in regalia bearing imagery from antiquity, and gave titles to his compositions (and to himself) that referred to the culture of ancient Egypt. These practices could be given the same Gatesian reading as those of Favors above. In many ways they fulfilled a similar function, Signifyin(g) on African-derived notions of identity. The poet Amiri Baraka (then Leroi Jones) wrote, "Sun Ra wants a music that will reflect a life-sense lost in the West, a music full of Africa. The band produces an environment, with their music most of all, but also with their dress ... [A] totally different epoch is conjured." (Jones 1967:128-129)
The major distinction between this paradigm and that of, say, the more collectively-managed AACM, is the centrality of the bandleader figure, especially such a disciplinarian as Sun Ra. His band was aptly described by Baraka as " really a black family. The leader keeps fourteen or fifteen musicians playing with him who are convinced that music is a priestly concern and a vitally significant aspect of black culture." (Jones 1967:130-131) This meant additionally that the musicians were isolated from the outside world, living together in a small house or cramped apartment in whatever city the Arkestra had recently settled, eating communally and rehearsing incessantly, with no monetary reward in sight. (Wilmer 1977:75) From the outside (and, quite possibly, for many on the inside) Sun Ra may have appeared a tyrant who kept his musicians raw, hungry, and overworked. Yet his sidemen were dedicated and respectful; several of them (such as saxophonists John Gilmore and Marshall Allen) remained with Sun Ra for many years, as is documented in the recent Sun Ra discography, Omniverse Sun Ra (Geerken 1995). In Sun Ra's own words,
It's like anything else... When the army wants to build men they isolate them. It's just the case that these are musicians, but you might say they're marines. They have to know everything. In their case, knowing everything means touching on all places of music. Of course they won't get as much chance to play as other musicians, but on the other hand, they're getting more chance to play... [and] to throw their energy into a pool with [others] who could be the link to do something with it. (Wilmer 1977:77)He aimed to regain the discipline and productivity of the greatest big bands, and to have the musicians' egos subordinate to the collective effort, as the last part of this quote underscores.
Whether or not his own ego was subject to similar demands is perhaps subject to debate -- the problematic crux of the bandleader paradigm. For it was never simply "The Solar Arkestra;" it was always "Sun Ra and his Solar Arkestra." To his credit, Sun Ra truly functioned as a parental or guru-like figure for his musicians, predating many of them by a generation. In order to command the kind of respect that he did, Sun Ra had to be a phenomenal musician and a strong leader, and anecdotes from his former sidemen show both to be true. Perennial Arkestra member John Gilmore, widely regarded until his recent passing to be one of the greatest living tenor players, described his initial exposure to the pianist thus:
It took me six months to actually hear how deep the things Sun Ra was doing were... He was so much advanced harmonically that although I could play his tunes since I could read music, it took me that long to see how different and how beautifully constructed his music was. (Wilmer 1977:84)Baritone saxophonist Pat Patrick described Sun Ra as "the type of musician that inspires you towards improvement and a better output on your horn. There is always something to be learned from him ... [He] can be a pretty strict teacher in that he has very high standards." (Wilmer 1977:85) So Sun Ra was certainly deserving of his status as leader; over the course of his life, he developed a worldwide reputation as a master of African-American music. The use of his name in the billing of the Arkestra may have been necessary for the group's survival; audiences would turn out to see Sun Ra and whoever his sidemen happened to be. Rather than abusing this status, Sun Ra exploited it to foster a collective atmosphere that was highly musically productive, not to mention tremendously influential. Baraka's impressions, referred to above ("really a Black family," "a totally different epoch is conjured"), capture the alternative, collective existence that the Arkestra was able to achieve. The band presented and maintained a revolutionary, separate totality that had its own powerful, unique voice. Sun Ra's pervasive use of the "outer space" metaphor reinforced the group's separateness, its otherness, in an active sense that resists interpretation or domination by mass culture. The Arkestra relished the marginalized position, the outer space, by actively defining its collective identity.
Radano discusses some ideas about the appeal of African-derived communalism that were common both to the AACM's and to Sun Ra's philosophies:
In the mythology of Africa -- and, for that matter, in the everyday lives of many black Americans -- one could identify expressions of the social ideals that America's youths were seeking. The importance of solidarity and the tradition of communalism among blacks contradicted the norm of the fiercely competitive, capitalist state; the role that religion played in traditional African and African-American life suggested an antidote to the atheism and extreme secularism of an alienated urban, white world. Africa ... provided an alternative to mainstream belief systems, while reaffirming the individual's basis in the African-American heritage. (Radano 1992:87)I would add that it was not simply the "mythology" of Africa, but the documented reality of African cultures and value systems, that shaped these ideas, as the writings of Ladzekpo attest, as scholars like Sun Ra and Malachi Favors understood.