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Back cover photo of Sun Ra's LP Live At Praxis'84, 1984, Soundwave Limited Flickr hide caption

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World Cafe Words and Music Podcast

Celebrating Sun Ra: The cosmic visionary who transformed jazz music

WXPN

February 5, 2025 • Every week for Black History Month, World Cafe correspondent John Morrison is highlighting a different maverick of Black music history.

John Morrison on World Cafe

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Irreversible Entanglements Bob Sweeney/Courtesy of the artist hide caption

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#NowPlaying

Irreversible Entanglements, 'Nuclear War'

WRTI

April 25, 2023 • Irreversible Entanglements gives Sun Ra's apocalyptic jam a heavy-gauge upgrade — shape-shifting in and out of a groove, but always rooted in the terrifying hypothetical at hand.

WILLOW's is one of the best albums out Oct. 7. Dana Trippe/Courtesy of the artist hide caption

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All Songs Considered

New Music Friday: The best releases out Oct. 7

October 7, 2022 • WILLOW's first single, "Whip My Hair," came out just shy of the singer's 10th birthday. Now 21, she's returned with her fifth full-length album, titled . The record has big arena-rock vibes to go with its spiky pop-punk songcraft, and it effectively captures WILLOW's gift for conveying deeply felt emotions and the thrum of anxiety. We've also got new albums from genre-smashing singer, rapper and multi-instrumentalist NNAMDÏ, arty rapper Open Mike Eagle, dance-music producer TSHA and the venerated space-jazz ensemble Sun Ra Arkestra.

New Music Friday: The best releases out Oct. 7

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Swirling is the first album in over 20 years from the Sun Ra Arkestra, now led by 96-year-old saxophonist Marshall Allen. Eva Hambach/AFP via Getty Images hide caption

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Music Interviews

On 'Swirling,' Marshall Allen Keeps The Sun Ra Arkestra Soaring Through Space

November 2, 2020 • The 96-year-old saxophonist, who began playing with Sun Ra in the late '50s and continued to lead the Arkestra after its namesake's death, discusses the band's first album in more than 20 years.

On 'Swirling,' Marshall Allen Keeps The Sun Ra Arkestra Soaring Through Space

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Tiny Desk Concert with Christian Scott aTunde Adjuah. Julia Reihs/NPR hide caption

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All Songs Considered

Five Great Jazz Tiny Desk Concerts For International Jazz Day

April 28, 2016 • In honor of International Jazz Day, our Throwback Thursday this week revisits five jazz tiny desk concerts that knocked our socks off. Ya dig?

Bjork is one of many artists inspired by the dwarf planet the spacecraft New Horizons is exploring. AFP/AFP/Getty Images hide caption

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Music

Songs For A Plutonian Road Trip

July 14, 2015 • As the New Horizons spacecraft arrives at Pluto, here are nine songs inspired by the controversial dwarf planet.

Marshall Allen and the Sun Ra Arkestra perform at the Tiny Desk. Claire Eggers/NPR hide caption

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Tiny Desk

Sun Ra Arkestra: Tiny Desk Concert

October 31, 2014 • With costumes inspired by Egyptian symbolism and science fiction, the late jazz innovator's band plays an out-of-this-world set in the NPR Music offices on Halloween.

Sun Ra's music sounds like it was intercepted from another world. Baron Wolman/Courtesy of the artist hide caption

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A Blog Supreme

Act Like You Know: Sun Ra

May 22, 2014 • Sifting through the overwhelming catalog of the Afro-futurist jazz master is a daunting task. To celebrate Sun Ra's centennial, we picked five essential songs that lay his otherworldly evolution bare.

"In my music I speak of unknown things, impossible things, ancient things, potential things," Sun Ra said in a 1980 documentary. May 22, 2014 is the 100th anniversary of the composer and bandleader's birth. Michael Ochs Archives/Getty Images hide caption

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Music News

Saturn Still Swings: Celebrating Sun Ra At 100

May 22, 2014 • "In my music I speak of unknown things, impossible things, ancient things, potential things," the influential and eccentric jazz musician once said. "No two songs tell the same story."

Saturn Still Swings: Celebrating Sun Ra At 100

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From solo piano to languid big band, straight-up disco to full-on bananas "disco," Sun Ra had a wide 1970s output. House of Traps/Courtesy of the artist hide caption

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A Blog Supreme

Sun Ra's '70s: From Solo Piano To Disco

May 31, 2011 • Hear the super-wide range of sounds from the Sun Ra Arkestra's third decade of existence.

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Charles Mingus getting cozy with a Verdi Imperial Stout. (And, yes, this is an "unauthorized" copy of Mexican Moods. Sorry, Sue Mingus, it was a gift.) Lars Gotrich/NPR hide caption

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Take Five: A Jazz Sampler

The Six Pack: Pairing Summer Jazz And Beer

June 15, 2009 • Jazz and beer are natural companions, so we asked the Washington City Paper's "Beerspotter" to pair bottles with records by Charles Mingus, Sun Ra and more.

NPR's 'Jazz Profiles'

Sun Ra: 'Cosmic Swing'

October 31, 2007 • Whenever he took the stage, audiences were guaranteed a musical spectacle. Half mystic, half visionary, the pianist and bandleader charted a relentlessly adventurous course through the jazz tradition.

Sun Ra: 'Cosmic Swing'

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