Poet, Egyptolotist, cosmologist, historian, activist, bandleader, musician… jazz pioneer Sun Ra was all of these. In this illuminating biography, Christine Turner takes us on a complex journey through the life of a complex man who either was born in Birmingham, Alabama, sent from Saturn, or both. With his band the Arkestra he extended the boundaries of free-form jazz, put his own mark on the standards, pursued forays into electronic music, yet could be just as inspired to riff on “Over the Rainbow.” His musical mission also was rooted as an agent toward advancing Afrofuturism, mixing interstellar metaphors (“space is the place”) and his own scientific explanations (“transmolecularization”) with the state of Black life in America. Turner gracefully balances recollections from the Arkestra’s devout, still-in-awe band members and dancers, comments from big-fan historians, scholars and other musicians, and the musings of Sun Ra himself with unforgettable performance footage and scenes from a self-produced film to paint a portrait — informative, enriching and at times mind-blowing — of a man who was as much a visionary as a he was a musician.—Brian Gordon

Christine Turner