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S40E2: Sun Ra: Do The Impossible | Clip

Sun Ra’s profound impact on Arkestra members

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Sun Ra had a profound and lasting influence on members of the Sun Ra Arkestra. In this clip, Arkestra members Marshall Allen, Cheryl Banks-Smith and Alex Blake recount what Sun Ra meant to them.

TRANSCRIPT

(ethereal music) - My name is Marshall Allen.

At the moment, I'm the director of the Sun Ra Arkestra.

I don't know what Sun Ra was.

He was everything.

He'd be a bad guy, good guy, intelligent, everything.

He was just a special person.

When that come into your life, you get what you can get, straighten your life out.

And I got a lot of good things from him.

But I come out of conservatory.

I was sharp, you know, and he didn't want that.

He wanted this.

(ethereal music) When I met Sun Ra, I was searching for a place in space, seek and ye shall find.

(ethereal music) (lively music) - I really believed strongly in that alternate myth that Sun Ra was talking about.

(lively music) I'm sure I would've gone wherever he led, if it were to another planet, the cosmos, if it were through teleportation, through the music.

I was ready.

I was ready to go.

(lively music) (soulful music) - I was 16 years old when I started with Sun Ra.

(soulful music) It gave me a whole other dimension about music.

(lively music) Sun Ra helped me with understanding that you could take your music anywhere.

(lively music)