Sun Ra: "Afro Futurism" and his alternative to the Black Panther Party... A PBS Passport show.

In the late sixties, the jazz band leader Sun Ra went to Oakland and made a movie interviewing teenagers about his belief that "Afro Futurism" was a much better path to travel than the Black Panther Party... 

While I believe that he was mistaken... Just the fact that he was asking those questions was revolutionary...

What exactly was "Afro Futurism" ??? Basically... Form your own religion with you as the leader and make a commune where all the musicians in the band live together and share everything... While exploring science fiction themes... And he owned his own business... He had a record company that manufactured discs, made movies and played concerts... Total freedom for a black man... No longer a Slave... Not even a wage Slave... 

He inspired George Clinton - Parliament Funkadelic... And Frank Zappa...

Okay that's great for one guy but... I doubt that that would be practical for teenagers in Oakland in the late sixties... But he was making them think!

https://www.pbs.org/wnet/americanmasters/sun-ra-do-the-impossible-documentary/37455/

I'm a big fan of Sun Ra because I played outer space synthesizer music with my friends every Saturday night for 5 years... Sometimes the jam sessions would last till Dawn... And we had a laser light show... Marijuana... Random players... It was quite a trip!

Sun RA Jazz Bandleader - Afro-Futurist Piano Synthesizer Player, Composer, Poet and the Leader of His Own Religion. PBS Documentary. "Do The Impossible"

During the 1950s and 1960s he was playing a style of jazz that no one else was. He owned his own record label - owned his own record press - and lived in the music studio he built with all of his band members. Somehow he made enough money touring and selling records to pay for everything he did and he did a lot. Over 200 records... and the Movie: "Space is the Place" 

He influenced George Clinton Parliament/Funkadelic and Sly and the Family Stone. I also see his Concepts in Frank Zappa and the Mothers of Invention.

The music sounds like soundtrack movie music from science fiction films... Forbidden Planet... Doctor Who... 2001... 

PBS documentary video:
"Sun Ra: Do The Impossible" 
https://www.pbs.org/video/sun-ra-do-the-impossible-pvumkf/
Discover the extraordinary life of poet, philosopher and music visionary Sun Ra. With his ever-evolving collective, the Sun Ra Arkestra, he self-produced more than 200 albums, stretching the boundaries of jazz.

Movie: "Space is the Place" https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0072195/