Sound of Joy: The Music of Sun Ra

In the organizer's words:

"I play the music of outer space," he said. "One day, when people on distant planets hear the sounds of cosmic creatures, their music will be familiar to them, because they heard Sun Ra on Earth."

He landed in Birmingham, Alabama, on May 22, 1914. He soon dropped his real name, Herman Poole Blount, and became Le Sony'r Ra and later Sun Ra. In the mid-1950s, he founded the Arkestra and remained its musical director, pianist, composer and arranger for over 40 years - revolutionizing the world of earthly music, again and again.

The Braunschweig ensemble "Sound of Joy" was founded in 2021 to play the unique compositions of this great interplanetary visionary. Transcriptions, leadsheets, arrangements and soon a repertoire were created that brings Sun Ra's wide stylistic range into a comprehensible, almost pop-like form for jazz. However, the musicians' diverse range of experience ensures that they remain experimental: not only do they range in age from their early 20s to their 70s, but their musical influences also include hip-hop, disco, funk, reggae and dub, classical music, new improvisational music and avant-garde and, of course, the wide range of classic jazz styles: Bebop, Hardbop, Latin, Cool and Swing.

"Sound of Joy: The Music of Sun Ra" brings the interplanetary spectrum of the Sounds of Ra to life. From swinging 1950s big band sounds to spherically modal space travel into the wild vacuum of free improvisation, there is something for everyone who loves jazz and Sun Ra or wants to get to know him.

Cast

Reinhard Schiel - alto saxophone, soprano saxophone

Charles Minnick - trumpet

Carl Luis König - trumpet

Eike Remmler - tenor saxophone

Marcel Reginatto - baritone saxophone, bass clarinet, alto flute

Johannes Cohrs - tuba

Sophie Reetz - violin, vocals

Jakob Müller - piano

Friedrich Kuhn - guitar

Mingus Worthy - bass

Mike Hurst - percussion

Maximilian Schneider - drums

Price information:

Normal price: 15-20€ Reduced price: 5-10€ Reservations (redeemable until 7.30 pm) by e-mail to: info@soundofjoy.space