Sun Ra (Born Herman Poole Blount; legal name Le Sony'r Sun Ra;[LINK: http://concise.britannica.com/ebc/article-9003006/Sun-Ra] Britannica Concise article URL accessed February 08, 2007 born May 22, 1914 in Birmingham, Alabama, died May 30, 1993 in Birmingham, Alabama) was an innovative jazz composer, bandleader, piano and synthesizer player, poet and philosopher known for his "cosmic philosophy", musical compositions and performances. He abandoned his birth name and took on the name and persona of Sun Ra (Ra being the ancient Egyptian god of the Sun). Claiming that he was of the "Angel Race" and not from Earth, but from Saturn, Sun Ra developed a complicated persona of "cosmic" philosophies and lyrical poetry that made him a pioneer of Afrofuturism as he preached "awareness" and peace above all. He led The Arkestra (a deliberate mis-spelling of "orches

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