As many of you know, I did a long story for the (now defunct) Philadelphia Inquirer Sunday Magazine in September, 1988. It was, in a way, my baptism by fire in terms of writing about ‘jazz’ artists. For one thing, this story predated the Internet and computers! I had an electronic typewriter. But the central item was that the story was a feature on Sun Ra, who was living in Philadelphia at the time, in a home owned by Marsh Allen’s family in Germantown (where I was born). The Sun Ra piece, “The Brother From Another Planet” has its own long backstory, but here is an anecdote that made me realize that all genre of music share something deep and central. You might think there would be a great chasm between reggae and Sun Ra’s music. Think again.
The Song I Sang To Sun Ra
The Song I Sang To Sun Ra
The Song I Sang To Sun Ra
As many of you know, I did a long story for the (now defunct) Philadelphia Inquirer Sunday Magazine in September, 1988. It was, in a way, my baptism by fire in terms of writing about ‘jazz’ artists. For one thing, this story predated the Internet and computers! I had an electronic typewriter. But the central item was that the story was a feature on Sun Ra, who was living in Philadelphia at the time, in a home owned by Marsh Allen’s family in Germantown (where I was born). The Sun Ra piece, “The Brother From Another Planet” has its own long backstory, but here is an anecdote that made me realize that all genre of music share something deep and central. You might think there would be a great chasm between reggae and Sun Ra’s music. Think again.