Bandleader Knoell Scott leads the Sun Ra Arkestra, performing at SFJazz on July 31, 2025. Photo by Frankie Solinsky Duryea. The Sun Ra Arkestra began the first of four San Francisco shows at SFJazz’s ...

Legendary Afrofuturist bandleader, composer, and musician Sun Ra had an eye on the cosmos. Though he passed away in 1993, the members of his 13-person musical ensemble, the Sun Ra Arkestra, have since ...

Without the jazz musician, poet, and bandleader Sun Ra, the music industry would look and sound somewhat different. Countless mainstream artists have been inspired by his boundlessness and his ability ...

In pre- and inter-performance comments, a plea pervaded pianist Sullivan Fortner’s Friday show at the University of Chicago: Can we be anywhere but here? Thank goodness Sun Ra and his music mastered ...

Yo La Tengo resumed its annual Hanukkah run at New York’s Bowery Ballroom on Dec. 31 and returned last night, Jan. 1, 2025, to cap the festival of lights with a swath of guests that assisted the host ...

February is Black History Month, and each week all month, World Cafe correspondent John Morrison is joining us to talk about a different trailblazer of Black music. These mavericks took musical risks ...

The Great American Music Hall has long served as an anchor of San Francisco's music scene. As jazz bookings here are infrequent, it was great news when the venue welcomed back the Sun Ra Arkestra for ...

A documentary covering the life and work of Alabama’s most singular musician will have a national debut next year. “Sun Ra: Do the Impossible,” will premiere on PBS Feb. 20 as part of its “American ...

Discoveries of lost tapes are often trumpeted as legendary or revelatory, but in the case of the greatly expanded Nuits De La Fondation Maeght, the hype feels entirely warranted. The release offers a ...