2 options
A strange celestial road : my time in the Sun Ra Arkestra / Ahmed Abdullah with Louis Reyes Rivera.
Van Pelt - Albrecht Music Library ML419.A107 A3 2023
Available
Kislak Center for Special Collections - Reference Collection ML419.A107 A3 2023
Available in person
Request an item
Access options
- Format:
- Book
- Author/Creator:
- Abdullah, Ahmed, author.
- Rivera, Louis Reyes, 1945-2012, author.
- Language:
- English
- Subjects (All):
- Abdullah, Ahmed.
- Sun Ra.
- Sun Ra Arkestra.
- Jazz musicians--United States--Biography.
- Jazz musicians.
- Trumpet players--United States--Biography.
- Trumpet players.
- African American musicians--Biography.
- African American musicians.
- Jazz--African influences.
- Jazz.
- Popular music.
- Musicians.
- Jazz--Historiography.
- Trumpet music (Jazz).
- African Americans.
- Genre:
- autobiographies (literary works)
- Biographies
- Autobiographies.
- Physical Description:
- 536 pages : illustrations (some color), plates (pages 241-304) ; 21 cm
- Edition:
- First edition.
- Place of Publication:
- Brooklyn, New York : Blank Forms Editions, [2023]
- Summary:
- In this memoir, Harlem-born trumpeter Ahmed Abdullah recounts decades of national and international touring with the Sun Ra Arkestra and charts the rise of the New York loft jazz scene, offering a fascinating portrait of advanced music in Brooklyn and Lower Manhattan from the 1970s through the 1990s, including thrilling stories about the politically important Bed-Stuy venue The East and the author's tutelage under composer and long-time Archie Shepp collaborator Cal Massey. Along the way, Abdullah covers his spiritual development as a Buddhist, battles with addiction, tribulations as a father, lessons from Sun Ra and working life as an educator and cab driver. Trumpeter and educator Ahmed Abdullah was born in Harlem in 1947. An important figure in the New York loft jazz movement, in 1972 he formed a group called Abdullah, two years before joining the Sun Ra Arkestra, with whom he played for more than 20 years. He is a founding member of the bands Melodic Art-Tet, The Group and NAM, and of the Central Brooklyn Jazz Consortium. Abdullah is the music director at Sistas' Place in Brooklyn, and teaches music at the New School for Social Research in Manhattan and an elementary school in Bed-Stuy, Brooklyn.
- Contents:
- Foreword
- Introduction
- The call
- Preparation
- The Sun Ra culture
- The loft movement
- Leaving
- Keeping in touch
- Returning
- New horizons
- The fall and the rise
- Is there life after Ra?
- Adios, John
- Mixed signals
- Afterword.
- Local Notes:
- Kislak Center Reference ML419.A107 A3 2023: dust jacket retained.
- ISBN:
- 9781953691163
- 1953691161
- 9781953691187
- 1953691188
- OCLC:
- 1367923513
The Penn Libraries is committed to describing library materials using current, accurate, and responsible language. If you discover outdated or inaccurate language, please fill out this feedback form to report it and suggest alternative language.