Part of Music City Mondays
Afrofuturist sci-fi, blaxploitation, cosmic free-jazz and radical race politics combine when Sun Ra returns to earth in his music-powered spaceship to battle for the future of the Black race and offer an “alter-destiny” to those who would join him. Intentionally created as an homage to the low-budget science fiction films of the ‘50s and ‘60s, SPACE IS THE PLACE became a visual embodiment of Sun Ra’s Afro-Egyptian myth of salvation in outer space. The special effects, outrageous plot line and apocalyptic message harmonize with the otherworldly score — and a climactic live performance by one of the most innovative and profound groups in jazz history, led to this day by 99-year-old mainstay saxophonist Marshall Allen.
"We are always rediscovering Sun Ra — though he would probably prefer that we spend our time musing on the future rather than on the past… He is always there, in the past and in the future, ready to be found by his listeners.” —Hua Hsu, New Yorker
