Sun Ra Celebration - May 25, 2012

“HE WAS WHAT HE WAS”: ALABAMA JAZZ LEGEND “DOC” ADAMS ON THE LIFE AND MUSIC OF SUN RA

Posted on May 14, 2012 by Burgin Mathews

“Music is a language, and I’m saying things that can reach people.  I’m not a prophet.  I’m a destiny-changer.  It’s all right to prophesy, but the best thing to do is change things, if you’ve got the power.”

                                                                   — Sun Ra, The Birmingham News, 1998 

FRIDAY, MAY 25, 2012, the Alabama Jazz Hall of Fame and Birmingham Mountain Radio’s The Lost Child present A SUN RA CELEBRATION: an evening of music, film, reminiscence, and poetry in honor of jazz legend and spaceways traveler, Herman “Sonny” (Sun Ra) Blount.

Sun Ra was one of jazz music’s most creative, prolific, and outrageous personalities, a composer, bandleader, poet, and philosopher whose home, he said, was outer space and whose mission was to communicate cosmic truths—via his band, the Intergalactic Arkestra—to the lost citizens of this poor planet.  Through the medium of music Sun Ra sought to expand the narrow consciousness of mankind, tuning us in to the interplanetary vibrations and opening us up to a greater harmony with ourselves, with each other, and with the larger universe.

Sun Ra was devoted entirely to his task, consuming himself, his whole life, with his music and outer-space philosophy.  If, with his colorful gowns and ceaseless talk, he was an eccentric, his eccentricity was no put-on or cheap gimmick.  As a musician his tastes were diverse, his ear acute, and his talents wide-ranging; he bended musical genres, taking in and riffing on the broad sweep of the jazz tradition, while pushing his musicians and his listeners into strange—and sometimes liberating—new places.  His critiques and observations of the human race, if often couched in bizarre and convoluted discussions of space and mythology, contained moments of eye-opening and original insight.  And he believed, wholeheartedly, in his mission.

Sun Ra returns to Birmingham for a legendary concert at the Nick, 1989 / photo courtesy Craig Legg

 

The upcoming Sun Ra Celebration will pay tribute to Sun Ra and his Birmingham roots in a variety of ways.  First, Birmingham jazz legend Frank “Doc” Adams, who, in the 1940s, played in Sun Ra’s original band, will perform his own tribute to Sun Ra and discuss his experiences with his early bandleader.  Birmingham spoken-word poet Brian Voice Porter Hawkins will present selections of Sun Ra’s original poetry.  Prizes will be given out throughout the night, courtesy of Sun Ra Research, a California-based operation which, for going on three decades, has been devotedly documenting the Sun Ra story.  The Alabama Jazz Hall of Fame’s museum and bar will be open to visitors throughout the evening.  Finally, Phill Niblock’s classic short film, 1968’s The Magic Sun, will be shown on the big screen of the Hall of Fame’s historic theatre.  A program booklet will offer additional context on Sun Ra’s life and music.

What follows, here, are two excerpts from a recent interview with Frank “Doc” Adams, in which he discusses the constellation of musicians that formed around Sun Ra in 1940s Birmingham.  Adams, who played in Sun Ra’s band as a teenager, was also a member, at that time, of John T. “Fess” Whatley’s Vibraphone Cathedral Orchestra, Birmingham’s preeminent “society” dance band.  In the years to follow Adams would play alongside Erskine Hawkins, Duke Ellington, and many others.  Today, he is the Director of Education, Emeritus, for the Alabama Jazz Hall of Fame.  He is a lifelong educator, whose decades-long work with music in the Birmingham schools has left a tremendous impact on his community.  His new book with Burgin Mathews, titled Doc: The Story of a Birmingham Jazz Man, is due out in October of 2012 from the University of Alabama Press and tells the story of Adams’ remarkable life in music.  (Chapter Five, “Outer Space,” focuses specifically on Sun Ra and his Birmingham years.)

Frank "Doc" Adams, 2011 / photo by Garrison Lee

The following interview excerpts were recorded by Burgin Mathews in Adams’ office at the Alabama Jazz Hall of Fame.  (Note: an interview with filmmaker, composer, and multimedia artist Phill Niblock, discussing the making of The Magic Sun, will appear soon on this website.  The two advertisements featured on this page for A Sun Ra Celebration include black and white stills from Niblock’s film.)

(continue at Lady Muleskinner Press)