‘Space is the place’: Sun Ra Arkestra plays the Academy of Music, May 18

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 kept his legacy alive through shows around the world – and one of their next ones will be in the Pioneer Valley. Sun Ra Arkestra will play the Academy of Music on Sunday, May 18, at 8 p.m, in a concert co-presented by the Northampton Jazz Festival and Signature Sounds.

Sun Ra (born Herman Blount) was known for his experimental musical style and philosophies, both of which were influenced by a longstanding passion for space and an interest in Egyptology. (His chosen name comes from the Egyptian god of the sun, Ra.) For a time, he lectured at the University of California, Berkeley, where he taught a course called “The Black Man in the Cosmos.”

Author Stefany Anne Goldberg wrote in an essay about Ra that he “knew Biblical scripture better than any preacher, read Kabbalah concepts and Rosicrucian manifestos. Through these texts Sun Ra learned it was possible for the chaos of human knowledge to be ordered. Theosophy, relativity, mathematics, physics, history, music, magic, science fiction, Egyptology, technology — all were keys to a unified existence. Ideas and music carried a reclusive black boy from Birmingham and transported him into outer space.”

“Jazz,” she wrote, “was the road to a mystical experience, a sort of reasoned ecstasy. It was the music of elsewhere.” In a track featured on the band’s website, the group members engage in a call-and-response: “This world / this world / is not my home / is not my home,” which later becomes “I know that I’m a member of the angel race / My home is somewhere there out in outer space.”

The Arkestra was formed in the mid-1950s and their innovative sound helped move jazz into a freer, more experimental direction.

Saxophonist Marshall Allen – who will turn 101 years old later this month – became the band’s leader in 1995. Allen was recently named a “Jazz Master” by the National Endowment for the Arts in honor of his “inventive and distinctive saxophone playing, as well as his band arrangements” that have made him “a major force in jazz,” according to the NEA.

Jim Olsen, president of Northampton-based record label Signature Sounds, said that the group’s impact has extended through the world of jazz and beyond.

“It really is beyond. They were essentially the first avant-garde jazz group that were willing to break the structures and time signatures of what we call the bebop era or the big band swing era. They were the first ones to go out there and do something different,” he said. “Because of that and the way they approached it, they were a big influence on everybody from the Grateful Dead to Frank Zappa to Parliament-Funkadelic.”

Ruth Griggs, president of the Northampton Jazz Festival, said the Arkestra offers “a view and a perspective that any jazz musician and jazz appreciator should know about.”

“Sun Ra Arkestra is historic in the legacy of jazz in the United States,” Griggs said. “They are totally unique in what they offer in terms of their music and their approach to music. I am honored that they are coming to Northampton.”

“It’s been such fun to talk about Sun Ra Arkestra to people,” she added. “Everyone has an experience with Sun Ra. People remember the concert that they went to 45 years ago and can’t wait to see them again. People remember the phrase ‘space is the place,’ and it brings back such positive memories for folks.”

“Space Is the Place” is a movie starring and co-written by Ra, in which he and his Arkestra attempt to use music to colonize a planet in outer space with Black people. A 1993 New York Times review said the movie “has more than a few hokey moments, but it also illuminates Ra’s work. For him, outer space wasn’t just a gimmick or a convenient source of song titles. It was a zone where racism was inoperative, where blacks could make their own destinies.”

The Arkestra’s upcoming show at the Academy of Music is also noteworthy because it’s part of a new collaboration between the Northampton Jazz Festival and Signature Sounds. Through co-promoted one-night-only shows, the festival aims to increase the presence of jazz in the area throughout the year, not just in September, when its main programming takes place. (Earlier this year, Northampton Jazz Festival also collaborated with The Drake to bring Sean Mason Quartet to Amherst.)

“It’s a wonderful way to not only bring in more music, but also to have greater marketing muscle to get the word out to people,” Griggs said. “Jim knows that we have our finger on the jazz community, and he has his finger on a huge number of people who love music. His team is promoting this to their audience, we’re promoting it to our audience, and all boats rise.”

“It’s all in the service of bringing really great music to Northampton and to the Valley,” Olsen said.

Tickets are $34.99 to $44.99, not including fees, at aomtheatre.com, at the box office, or by phone at 413-584-9032 ext. 105.

Carolyn Brown can be reached at [email protected].