


On ‘Antique Blacks’, Sun Ra blends elements of free jazz, off?key synth explorations, and experimental theatre into an other?worldly concoction that doesn’t crop up anywhere else in the Arkestra’s massive discography. He relishes his role as galactic narrator, with lines like “Let’s try something different for you… Something like being alive, hahahaha!” sounding more like a quote from Zoltar rather than the afro?futurist bandleader we all know.

‘Antique Blacks’ takes its starting point from the bible and slavery, and throws these issues into the contemporary political frame hurtling up?to?date with and late 60’s Civil Rights. At this time the Arkestra typically consisted of twenty to thirty musicians, dancers, singers, and fire?eaters, combined with elaborate lighting effects and playing sets for two to three hours non?stop. The Arkestra was a regular fixture around Philly, giving lectures and community workshops, drifting among the bookshelves of the city library, and performing at the closing party of the very last night of the Foxhole in October 1982. Rumours of increased UFO sightings over the Philadelphia airspace are unfounded, but one thing is certain: Sun Ra and the Arkestra will go down in the chapters of Philadelphia’s rich jazz history, just as non?earth?dwellers will make pilgrimages to the human metropolis known as Philadelphia in light years to come.