Music fans from all over the southeast just gathered in Birmingham to celebrate an artist you may not know. Headliners like Widespread Panic, Radiohead, and Outkast all say they’ve been influenced by the Alabama jazz pioneer Sun Ra. Here’s how one fan turned his interest in the first ever Sun Ra Day Festival…
“Growing up, I heard his name, and you know, he has a very interesting name,” said Lee shook. He’s talking about the Alabama jazz legend Sun Ra. And, he wasn’t the only fan in his family…
“My mom helped put on the very first Alabama Music Hall of Fame ceremony here in 1985 which helped raise funds for the album use call up in Muscle Shoals,” he recalled. “And Sun Ra performed at that and I actually got to go and be a part of that ceremony when I was a kid.”
And, as Shook grew up, so did his admiration for Sun Ra..
“Sun Ra has impacted me mostly because of just how incredibly broad his creativity was,” he said. “I mean, he was not just a band leader and a composer and a musician, an incredible keyboardist and pioneer of using synthesizers and electronic keyboards.”
But, despite the impact Sun Ra had on Shook, the musician’s fan base remained small
“There have always been little pockets of people around town who have kept Sun Ra's legacy alive. Going back to when I was growing up here as a teenager, I would go to some of these little events they had there that were sort of like Sun Ra, you know, inspired music or art events,” Shook recalled.
That led Shook to spearhead Alabama’s first ever Sun Ra Festival. Dropping the artist’s name didn’t help with backers of the project. So Shook resorted to talking about people Sun Ra influenced
“I mean, you talk about people like Outkast, Janelle Monae, Phish, Widespread Panic, Radiohead, Sonic Youth, like so many different bands and people,” Shook contended. “Kumasi Washington from jazz, from hip hop, from Jam Band, scene from, you know, indie rock, that's how far his reach was. I really want people, especially people from me, coming from out of town for this to come our way with a new perspective on Birmingham.”
“Now that the first ever Alabama Sun Ra festival is over. Shook hopes that the right message goes out, and that people not only know more about Sun Ra, but the local music scene he helped to nurture in Birmingham
“And they see all these great arts organizations, and they see all this creativity, and they see all these great venues that maybe they haven't gone to before or experienced, to come away with a new impression of us and to hopefully be inspired by that, you know, just beyond Sun Ra and who he was,” he said.
