Space is the Place

There is something holy about disappearing in the darkness. We’re almost to the point where we turn the clocks back, and I know it will be nice to gain an hour of sleep, but this means that I will be doing my morning run with a bit more light. I’ve been apprehensive about running into animals, and I did actually have to nearly hop over a porcupine recently, but now that it is coming to an end, I’m going to miss it. There is a thing that happens as I stomp up the hill when I become ostensibly blind, where I am no longer a body moving through space and time, and only my thoughts. I feel as though I am a floating brain, and while that may sound disconcerting, I have found it to be quite freeing. The hovering consciousness changes focus to the stars above, observes the points of light and considers the shapes one could make connecting them; considers how countless beings have done the same thing since before we could catalogue or maybe even remember. Seeing space from Earth is quite a sight indeed; and then I’m in my body again, can see my limbs pumping and swinging as I close the distance.

In the past, I have scoffed at astrology, even though I have always felt this connection to the stars, which is hardly unique. As I said, we all share a primordial preoccupation with the vastness of space, and there is something logical about our bodies being connected to it in more ways than wonder. We are conceived into water, where we live and develop; the moon holds sway over the oceans; when we are released from that water, the stars (themselves a map of tremendous variables of which the moon is certainly one) are in unique positions. To cogitate that commonality and its implications, and to acknowledge that there may be a direct, albeit elusive, correlation between the stars and ourselves, feels right to me; a rare combination of the emotional and the intellectual. Things line up and sometimes it is hard to ignore the chance of cosmic entanglement; case in point: I began writing this on October 20th, having been drawn to talking about the stars, and when I selected this album I found that it was recorded on October 20th in 1972, exactly 48 years earlier. That’s not not weird, right? To think that Sun Ra was interested in the stars seems like a safe bet, and in fact, his entire mythical narrative begins with his consciousness being transported to Saturn, and he remained fascinated by outer space and obsessed with the idea of a better world through dedication to this awareness.

Some years back, I played tenor saxophone in a free jazz ensemble called Sisters and Brothers. I have been single mindedly focused on John Coltrane since I was a kid, and over the past almost thirty years have used that as a jumping off point for research and discovery in what started at first as another language, but eventually became something less indecipherable. Even if I couldn’t tear through Slonimsky’s Thesaurus of Scales and Melodic Patterns, I began to understand the DNA, identifying the letters, where and when they entered the stream. The whole group of us drove down to Philadelphia on tour one summer, and in Asbury Park NJ, we played an evening with Harmonize Most High, an amazing collection of improvisers including the legendary Daniel Carter. On this evening, they also featured two former members of the Sun Ra Arkestra; we played first, and then a little at a time, their group joined us, until we were a 20 person conference, weaving and darting joyfully like a pack of children running through the woods. We dipped out, one at a time, leaving them to perform their set; I remember setting my tenor down and just laying on the floor of this loft, letting the vibrations carry me into another world. These players showed us such generosity; playing expressive music with strangers is a vulnerable place to be, and they made us feel welcome, that our contributions were significant. This is not a small thing because being white playing the music of Black innovators and composers presents a sort of disruption; someone dedicated to these sounds and collective improvisation is both inside and outside of things. Only through humility, practice, and selfless participation can you prove yourself to be on the side of that righteous freeform sound. 

Space is the place that we can start again, and whether you believe that in the literal sense, or whether you draw hope from the stars in a more metaphorical way, the expanse above us, and really all around us, holds such possibility. The egalitarianism of space, and the potential for an Afrofuturist diaspora to a new planet, are substantial parts of Sun Ra’s equations, and they provide an interesting layer of context to his sprawling output as a composer, performer, and bandleader. I like to think that at some point in his formative years, his stellar future was made manifest by just dreaming of what could be, as he stared up and out, orbiting every sphere of light with wonder. It is telling that navigating the airless, soundless unknown could be preferable to being Black in America, but the information is all there. Even if it involves some science fiction, it can seem more plausible that beings beyond our solar system would have more compassion for fellow lifeforms than those among us here, unable or unwilling to not only wipe away our racist tendencies like cobwebs and dust, but to knock down the entire building, and scrape out the foundation, of our world’s dangerous and violent inception. The usurpers and oppressors look up and see a place to conquer, to bend, to affix billboards and advertisements to; to cloud with satellites, each a leg up until space is just an uninspired tangle of limbs and debris. I want to stand with the dreamers, coaxing benevolent visitors from other planets, looking for guidance and trying to understand the language of the stars and the map to our hearts that they can unlock; I want to stand with Sun Ra and his Arkestra.

Quick addendum here; if you haven’t voted, please get out and do so. As much as I love the idea of Sun Ra and any of his acolytes populating other planets, I think I’d rather us all stay here and ship Trump, McConnell, and all of the inhuman trolls of America into space. Voting is the first step though to rebuilding this country into what it was promised to be.

Sun Ra - Space is the Place

Saturday October 31st 2020, 7pm

Just put it on at your house using a stereo or the internet or whatever you want.