Sun Ra born 22 May 1914

Le Sony'r Ra (May 22, 1914 – May 30, 1993), better known as Sun Ra, was an American jazz composer, bandleader, piano and synthesizer player, and poet known for his experimental music, "cosmic" philosophy, prolific output, and theatrical performances. For much of his career, Ra led The Arkestra, an ensemble with an ever-changing name and flexible line-up. 

Born Herman Sonny Blount in Birmingham, Alabama although he claimed he was from Saturn. As a child, Ra was a skilled pianist. By the age of 11 or 12, he was composing and sight reading music. Birmingham was an important stop for touring musicians and he saw prominent musicians such as Fletcher Henderson, Duke Ellington, and Fats Waller, and other less well known performers. In his teenage years, Ra demonstrated prodigious musical talent: many times, according to acquaintances, he went to big band performances and then produced full transcriptions of the bands' songs from memory. By his mid-teens, he was performing semi-professionally as a solo pianist, or as a member of various ad hoc jazz and R&B groups. 

Ra led his own band for the first time in 1934. He freelanced at a variety of jobs in the Midwest, recording with blues singer Wynonie Harris in 1946 and working as a pianist/arranger with Fletcher Henderson in 1946 and 1947. He also performed with swing musicians Coleman Hawkins and Stuff Smith in 1948, but really got started around 1953. Leading a big band (which he called the Arkestra) in Chicago, Ra started off playing advanced bop, but early on was open to the influences of other cultures, experimenting with primitive electric keyboards, and playing free long before the avant-garde got established. Following several singles, including songs recorded with doo wop and R&B vocal groups such as the Qualities and the Cosmic Rays, early albums released by the Arkestra on El Saturn Records included Super-Sonic Jazz and Jazz in Silhouette. Jazz by Sun Ra, Vol. 1 also appeared on producer Tom Wilson's Transition Records. 

                                   

After moving to New York in 1961, Ra performed some of his most advanced work. This period saw the release of The Heliocentric Worlds of Sun Ra, Vol. 1 and Vol. 2, both on the famed ESP-Disk label, and often regarded as some of his best work. In 1966, the Arkestra had a weekly Monday night gig at Slug's Saloon, a jazz club in the Lower East Side in Manhattan, which greatly increased his fan base among beatniks and music critics. While Ra's music, mythology, and appearance went over the heads of many listeners and audience members, he was praised by jazz legends Dizzy Gillespie and Thelonious Monk. 

In 1968, he relocated his group to Philadelphia, and the band undertook their first tour of the West Coast of the United States, exposing their elaborate performances to hippies and Deadheads. Ra was featured on the cover of Rolling Stone in 1969. The ensemble began performing in Europe in 1970, and they traveled to Egypt for the first time in 1971. Their concerts alternated free improvisations and mystical group chants with eccentric versions of swing tunes, sounding like a spaced-out Fletcher Henderson orchestra. Many of Ra's most important sidemen were with him on and off for decades (most notably John Gilmore on tenor, altoist Marshall Allen, and baritonist Pat Patrick). 

In 1972, Sun Ra recorded an album called Space Is the Place, as well as an experimental science fiction movie of the same name. The album, led by the 21-minute title track, was released in 1973, and endures as one of his most popular and influential works. The film, directed by John Coney, was released in 1974, and is often cited as a seminal work of Afrofuturism. 

The Arkestra continued recording and performing, and albums appeared on labels large (Impulse!, Atlantic) and small (Philly Jazz, Sweet Earth Records). Releases on Y Records, including the infamous Nuclear War (1982), exposed Sun Ra's work to post-punk/indie audiences. Ra became a fixture of Philadelphia radio stations and regularly gave lectures. After appearing on Hal Willner's Disney tribute album Stay Awake in 1988, Ra became obsessed with the music of Disney animated films, and incorporated renditions of these tunes into live performances. 

Sun Ra had a stroke in 1990, but kept composing, performing, and leading the Arkestra. Late in his career, he opened a few concerts for the New York–based rock group Sonic Youth. When too ill to perform and tour, Sun Ra appointed Gilmore to lead the Arkestra. In late 1992, Sun Ra returned to his birth city of Birmingham to live with his older sister, Mary Jenkins, who became his caretaker. In January, he was admitted to Princeton Baptist Medical Center, suffering from congestive heart failure, respiratory failure, strokes, circulatory problems, and other serious maladies. He died in the hospital on May 30, 1993, and was buried at the Elmwood Cemetery. 

(Edited from Wikipedia & AllMusic)