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- <text id=93TT1877>
- <title>
- June 14, 1993: Died:Sun Ra
- </title>
- <history>
- TIME--The Weekly Newsmagazine--1993
- Jun. 14, 1993 The Pill That Changes Everything
- </history>
- <article>
- <source>Time Magazine</source>
- <hdr>
- MILESTONES, Page 21
- </hdr>
- <body>
- <p> DIED. SUN RA, 79, jazz pianist and trailblazer; in Birmingham,
- Alabama. In keeping with his singular, surreal performance persona,
- Sun Ra claimed he came from Saturn; if true, his presence here
- was that planet's loss and Earth's gain. According to more conventional
- accounts, Herman ("Sonny") Blount first learned to play piano
- by ear as a child. During the 1940s, his brilliant versatility
- in swing, blues and boogie-woogie made him a valued sideman
- for the likes of Coleman Hawkins and Fletcher Henderson. In
- the '50s, however, Sun Ra set out on his own spectacularly peculiar
- path. He organized the Sun-Ra Myth-Science Arkestra, a big band
- that incorporated ancient African percussion, modern electronic
- instruments and everything in between.
- </p>
-
- </body>
- </article>
- </text>
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