There’s a growing rumble in the heart of the city. Stars are standing to attention, ready to backdrop a show for the ages. This is no Halley’s Comet. No - the spaceship that is landing at Fed Square is the Sun Ra Arkestra.
To be fair, it’s easy to mistake this otherworldly outfit for the vibrations of a soaring comet. They’ve been orbiting the Earth for over 70 years, flying through space on a path of their own, and they’re made of cosmic stuff. However, there is one blaring difference between the Sun Ra Arkestra and any other space-sent gift: the humanising power of music.
Sun Ra, the American jazz composer, artist and poet, founded the Arkestra in Philadelphia in the mid-1950s. He became a legendary figure known for his experimental music, cosmic philosophy and eccentric performances, leading the Arkestra until his death in 1993.
Sun Ra Arkestra
- With Mildlife, Wax’o Paradiso, Pjenné and Millú
- Saturday, March 1, from 7.30pm
- Fed Square
- More info here
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More than two decades on from Sun Ra’s passing, the Arkestra continue to bring their intergalactic magic to audiences around the world. On Saturday, March 1, the sonic spaceship is touching down in the heart of Melbourne. The Sun Ra Arkestra are set to perform a very special – and completely free – show at Fed Square, alongside local legends Mildlife, Wax’o Paradiso and acclaimed local DJs Pjenné and Millú.
While the transcendental magic of the Sun Ra Arkestra might be like nothing you’ve experienced before, their guitarist Carl LeBlanc expects that “the city will be ready to receive the energy we plan to bring.”
“There are so many wonderful venues in Melbourne,” Carl says. “The pulse vibrating from the audience lends a lot to how we can engineer the soundscape of the environment. Fed Square is a place the Arkestra will be able to take off from. The vibrations should be felt over some distance from there.”
Realigning the planet through sonic soundscapes
Considered to be a pioneer of Afrofuturism, this space-age jazz band knows how to leave jaws dropped to the earthly floor in their wake. Dressed in sequinned headdresses and sparkling attire as they transport the stage to somewhere beyond the stratosphere, the Sun Ra Arkestra’s electrifying visual presence is on par with the sonic storms they create with their music.
“In this music,” Carl explains, “it is necessary for each musician to colour the air with sounds and carefully leave his own fingerprints. We have arrangements that have taken years to assemble, but within that structure, we each find a place to do this.”
While Sun Ra may not be here to lead the Arkestra, Carl says that the legacy of the iconic trailblazer lives on at the core of the group’s ethos. “Our personal preferences cannot overpower what Sun Ra was trying to do,” he adds. “‘We need to realign the planet’ – that is the task he left us to accomplish.”
Realigning the world is no small or easy feat. But for a musical group that’s had 70-odd years of experience changing the face of music and the different ways it can sound, perhaps there’s no better band to try than the Sun Ra Arkestra.
There’s always been a philosophy of planetary peace at the centre of this free-jazz outfit. Sun Ra himself claimed to be a Saturn-sent alien, brought to Earth on a mission to preach peace. To this day, this harmonious philosophy emanates throughout the Sun Ra Arkestra’s music.
The transcendental legacy of a pioneering musician
The Arkestra’s sonic experimentation may strike you as “quite unexpectedly different.” Carl, however, points to something Sun Ra once said to explain why.
“Here on earth, we are taught that everyone should be free,” Carl quotes from the late leader. “Every child in elementary school can spell free. Unfortunately, there are many university students who cannot spell discipline. Freedom without discipline is chaos. Discipline is needed before freedom can be.”
Naarm’s Fed Square might be a fair way from home, but the mark Sun Ra and the Arkestra have made on music is undeniably universal, and hopefully eternal.
“The music left by Sun Ra will live on,” Carl says. “It has affected the way composers, songwriters and musical groups approach improvisation and form. The Arkestra will continue to travel space ways to unknown places and new horizons …to somewhere there.”
For more information on Sun Ra Arkestra’s Fed Square performance on March 1, head here.
