Photograph by Leni Sinclair

Sun Ra was born on the planet Saturn some time ago. The best accounts agree that he emerged on Earth as Herman "Sunny" Blount, born in Birmingham, Alabama in 1914, although Sun Ra himself always denied that Blount was his surname. He returned to Saturn in 1993 after creating a stunningly variegated and beautiful assemblage of earthly and interplanetary music, most notably with his fervently loyal Arkestra. (Many great musicians passed through the Arkestra over the years, including reedman Pharoah Sanders, trombonist Julian Priester, and violinist Billy Bang. Most notable and long-tenured were the criminally underrated John Gilmore on tenor sax and Marshall Allen on alto). Mr. Blount, or Mr. Ra, or Mr. Mystery (as he was sometimes styled in later years) first appeared on the scene as a pianist with Fletcher Henderson's band, and to the end of his life Ra retained an affinity, respect, and genius for big band music in the style of Henderson and his contemporaries, with Sun's own extra-galactic twists. Some of his brilliant output in this vein has now become widely available for the first time from Evidence records. At the same time he furiously and indignantly claimed to have originated the Free Jazz that was made popular - or at least famous - by others in the Sixties, and the recorded evidence shows that he has a case. (...)