Jazzforum: Sun ra in Century 21 at JAZZforum Series at University of the District of Columbia

Author Thomas Stanley's monograph, The Execution of Sun Ra, is an attempt to bore into the late jazz oracle's remarkable ideas about history and human development. Having declared time officially ended, Sun Ra circled the globe for a half-century with an unprecedented artistic sensibility that reconciled traditionalisms and futurisms through a trademark performance vessel he christened the Arkestra. Titled in homage to a Sun Ra pun on the double meaning of the English word execute, Dr. Stanley's work offers a vigorous intellectual response to Sun Ra's thickly layered take on the condition and fate of intelligent life on Earth...

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Author Thomas Stanley's monograph, The Execution of Sun Ra, is an attempt to bore into the late jazz oracle's remarkable ideas about history and human development. Having declared time officially ended, Sun Ra circled the globe for a half-century with an unprecedented artistic sensibility that reconciled traditionalisms and futurisms through a trademark performance vessel he christened the Arkestra. Titled in homage to a Sun Ra pun on the double meaning of the English word execute, Dr. Stanley's work offers a vigorous intellectual response to Sun Ra's thickly layered take on the condition and fate of intelligent life on Earth

Stanley teaches sound art and sonic culture at George Mason University and has previously coauthored an oral history of R&B revolutionaries Parliament/Funkadelic. With a well-sourced rhizomatic reading, Stanley explores Sun Ra's work as big band leader and architect of a history-altering participatory ritual that he called Myth Science. Join Thomas Stanley as he riffs on Sun Ra's extraordinary life and work. Books will be available. Recital Hall (Performing Arts Bldg. 46-West).
FREE & OPEN to the Public.

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