{"product_id":"a-strange-celestial-road-my-time-in-the-sun-ra-arkestra-paperback-october-3-2023-copy","title":"Love, a Baddie - Taylor Mckie","description":"\u003cmeta charset=\"utf-8\"\u003e\n\u003cdiv class=\"maxwidth-container\" data-mce-fragment=\"1\"\u003e\n\u003cdiv class=\"product-body\" data-mce-fragment=\"1\"\u003e\n\u003cdiv class=\"clearfix text-formatted field field--name-field-body field--type-text-with-summary field--label-hidden field__item\" data-mce-fragment=\"1\"\u003e\n\u003cp data-mce-fragment=\"1\"\u003e\u003cspan data-mce-fragment=\"1\"\u003eIn this captivating memoir, the first full-length account of life in the Arkestra by any of its members, Harlem-born trumpeter \u003ca data-entity-substitution=\"canonical\" data-entity-type=\"node\" data-entity-uuid=\"233a473f-490f-4493-9ef0-e754ac7988bb\" href=\"https:\/\/www.blankforms.org\/contributors\/ahmed-abdullah\" title=\"Ahmed Abdullah\" data-mce-fragment=\"1\" data-mce-href=\"https:\/\/www.blankforms.org\/contributors\/ahmed-abdullah\"\u003eAhmed Abdullah\u003c\/a\u003e recounts two decades of traveling the spaceways with the inimitable composer, pianist, and big-band leader \u003ca data-entity-substitution=\"canonical\" data-entity-type=\"node\" data-entity-uuid=\"137c324d-3e48-4335-bf6c-0c0f64ff3fb3\" href=\"https:\/\/www.blankforms.org\/contributors\/sun-ra\" title=\"Sun Ra\" data-mce-fragment=\"1\" data-mce-href=\"https:\/\/www.blankforms.org\/contributors\/sun-ra\"\u003eSun Ra\u003c\/a\u003e. Gigging everywhere from the legendary Bed-Stuy venue the East to the National Stadium in Lagos, Abdullah paints a vivid picture of the rise of loft jazz and the influence of Pan-Africanism on creative music, while capturing radical artistic and political developments across Brooklyn and Lower Manhattan in the 1970s and ’80s. Richly illustrated with more than fifty pages of photographs and posters from Adger Cowans, Marilyn Nance, Val Wilmer, and others, \u003c\/span\u003e\u003cspan data-mce-fragment=\"1\"\u003e\u003cem data-mce-fragment=\"1\"\u003eA Strange Celestial Road\u003c\/em\u003e\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cspan data-mce-fragment=\"1\"\u003e interweaves the author’s own moving story—his battles with addiction, spiritual development, and life as a working class performer—with enthralling tales of tutelage under Cal Massey, collaborations with the likes of Ed Blackwell, Marion Brown, and Andrew Cyrille, and profound, occasionally confounding, mentorship by Sun Ra. Originally written in the 1990s with the help of Nuyorican poet \u003ca data-entity-substitution=\"canonical\" data-entity-type=\"node\" data-entity-uuid=\"ff7854f5-b1d6-418d-89f2-6ac643db27f3\" href=\"https:\/\/www.blankforms.org\/contributors\/louis-reyes-rivera\" title=\"Louis Reyes Rivera\" data-mce-fragment=\"1\" data-mce-href=\"https:\/\/www.blankforms.org\/contributors\/louis-reyes-rivera\"\u003eLouis Reyes Rivera\u003c\/a\u003e and published now for the first time, with a foreword by \u003ca data-entity-substitution=\"canonical\" data-entity-type=\"node\" data-entity-uuid=\"77b3ad4f-e37c-4f66-b311-3fa3d2e7eeb1\" href=\"https:\/\/www.blankforms.org\/contributors\/salim-washington\" title=\"Salim Washington\" data-mce-fragment=\"1\" data-mce-href=\"https:\/\/www.blankforms.org\/contributors\/salim-washington\"\u003eSalim Washington\u003c\/a\u003e, \u003c\/span\u003e\u003cspan data-mce-fragment=\"1\"\u003e\u003cem data-mce-fragment=\"1\"\u003eA Strange Celestial Road \u003c\/em\u003e\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cspan data-mce-fragment=\"1\"\u003eis\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cspan data-mce-fragment=\"1\"\u003e\u003cem data-mce-fragment=\"1\"\u003e \u003c\/em\u003e\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cspan data-mce-fragment=\"1\"\u003enot only an autobiography, but a history of a remarkable and under-documented movement in music. \u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp data-mce-fragment=\"1\"\u003e AHMED ABDULLAH joined the Sun Ra Arkestra as a trumpeter in 1974 and remained a member for more than twenty years. Born in Harlem in 1947, he became an important figure in the New York loft jazz movement, forming the group Abdullah in 1972, and going on to found the Melodic Art-Tet with Charles Brackeen, Ronnie Boykins, and Roger Blank in the early 1970s and The Group with Marion Brown, Billy Bang, Sirone, Fred Hopkins and Andrew Cyrille in 1986. Abdullah is a co-founder of the Central Brooklyn Jazz Consortium, has been the music director of Dianne McIntyre’s Sounds in Motion Dance Company, and is currently music director at the historic venue Sistas’ Place in Bedford-Stuyvesant, Brooklyn. He has been a music instructor at Carnegie Hall and Brooklyn Philharmonic Orchestra, and teaches at the New School for Social Research in Manhattan and an elementary school in central Brooklyn.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003c\/div\u003e\n\u003c\/div\u003e\n\u003cdiv class=\"columns\" data-mce-fragment=\"1\"\u003e\n\u003cdiv class=\"clearfix text-formatted field field--name-field-bios-column-2 field--type-text-long field--label-hidden field__item\" data-mce-fragment=\"1\"\u003e\n\u003cp data-mce-fragment=\"1\"\u003e\u003cspan data-mce-fragment=\"1\"\u003eLOUIS REYES RIVERA (1945–2012) was a Puerto Rican poet from Brooklyn. Known as the “Dean of Nuyorican Poetics,” he led creative writing workshops in community centers and prisons across New York, lectured on Latin and Black diasporic history and literature at New York colleges including Hunter, Boricua, Pratt, and Stony Brook; and was a leader in the 1969 student movement at CUNY, leading to the founding of its department of ethnic studies. Rivera was also a prolific editor, working on books such as John Oliver Killens’s \u003c\/span\u003e\u003cspan data-mce-fragment=\"1\"\u003e\u003cem data-mce-fragment=\"1\"\u003eGreat Black Russian: The Life and Times of Alexander Pushkin\u003c\/em\u003e\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cspan data-mce-fragment=\"1\"\u003e, and a translator of works by Puerto Rican poets Clemente Soto Velez and Otto Rene Castillo. His own poetry collections include \u003c\/span\u003e\u003cspan data-mce-fragment=\"1\"\u003e\u003cem data-mce-fragment=\"1\"\u003eWho Pays the Cost\u003c\/em\u003e\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cspan data-mce-fragment=\"1\"\u003e (1977), \u003c\/span\u003e\u003cspan data-mce-fragment=\"1\"\u003e\u003cem data-mce-fragment=\"1\"\u003eThis One for You\u003c\/em\u003e\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cspan data-mce-fragment=\"1\"\u003e (1983), and \u003c\/span\u003e\u003cspan data-mce-fragment=\"1\"\u003e\u003cem data-mce-fragment=\"1\"\u003eScattered Scripture\u003c\/em\u003e\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cspan data-mce-fragment=\"1\"\u003e (1996), which received an award from the Latin American Writers Institute.\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003c\/div\u003e\n\u003cdiv class=\"clearfix text-formatted field field--name-field-bios-column-3 field--type-text-long field--label-hidden field__item\" data-mce-fragment=\"1\"\u003e\n\u003cp data-mce-fragment=\"1\"\u003e\u003cspan data-mce-fragment=\"1\"\u003eSALIM WASHINGTON is a saxophonist, composer, and scholar based in Durban, South Africa, where he is a professor at University of KwaZulu-Natal. He is a co-author, with Farah Jasmine Griffin, of \u003c\/span\u003e\u003cspan data-mce-fragment=\"1\"\u003e\u003cem data-mce-fragment=\"1\"\u003eClawing at the Limits of Cool: Miles Davis,  John Coltrane, and the Greatest Jazz Collaboration Ever \u003c\/em\u003e\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cspan data-mce-fragment=\"1\"\u003e(2009) and a contributor to\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cspan data-mce-fragment=\"1\"\u003e\u003cem data-mce-fragment=\"1\"\u003e Yellow Power, Yellow Soul: The Radical Art of Fred Ho  \u003c\/em\u003e\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cspan data-mce-fragment=\"1\"\u003e(2013).\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003c\/div\u003e\n\u003cdiv class=\"field field--name-field-blurbs field--type-entity-reference-revisions field--label-hidden field__items\" data-mce-fragment=\"1\"\u003e\n\u003cdiv class=\"field__item\" data-mce-fragment=\"1\"\u003e\n\u003cdiv class=\"paragraph paragraph--type--text-with-attribution paragraph--view-mode--default\" data-mce-fragment=\"1\"\u003e\n\u003cdiv class=\"clearfix text-formatted field field--name-field-text field--type-text-long field--label-hidden field__item\" data-mce-fragment=\"1\"\u003e\n\u003cp data-mce-fragment=\"1\"\u003e\u003cspan data-mce-fragment=\"1\"\u003e\"There are other worlds they have not told you of,\" Sun Ra said. The trumpeter Ahmed Abdullah, a longtime member of Sun Ra's Arkestra, has journeyed through several of those extraterrestrial worlds of sound, and returned to Earth to tell the tale, in this invigorating memoir of a life in Black Creative music.\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp data-mce-fragment=\"1\"\u003e \u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003c\/div\u003e\n\u003cdiv class=\"clearfix text-formatted field field--name-field-attribution field--type-text-long field--label-hidden field__item\" data-mce-fragment=\"1\"\u003e\n\u003cp data-mce-fragment=\"1\"\u003e\u003cspan data-mce-fragment=\"1\"\u003eAdam Shatz, \u003c\/span\u003eUS editor of the\u003cspan data-mce-fragment=\"1\"\u003e \u003c\/span\u003e\u003cem data-mce-fragment=\"1\"\u003eLondon Review of Books \u003c\/em\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003c\/div\u003e\n\u003c\/div\u003e\n\u003c\/div\u003e\n\u003cdiv class=\"field__item\" data-mce-fragment=\"1\"\u003e\n\u003cdiv class=\"paragraph paragraph--type--text-with-attribution paragraph--view-mode--default\" data-mce-fragment=\"1\"\u003e\n\u003cdiv class=\"clearfix text-formatted field field--name-field-text field--type-text-long field--label-hidden field__item\" data-mce-fragment=\"1\"\u003e\n\u003cp data-mce-fragment=\"1\"\u003eIn this first book-length reportage from behind the scenes of Sun Ra’s world, Ahmed Abdullah manages to express the omniverse-exploding wonder of Ra as well as the musical mechanics of the Arkestra and its complex interpersonal politics. His invaluable and unique perspective—focused on the woefully overlooked work of the band from the 1970s forward—is brilliantly articulated in these information-packed, often hilarious pages, which are essentially impossible not to turn. \u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003c\/div\u003e\n\u003cdiv class=\"clearfix text-formatted field field--name-field-attribution field--type-text-long field--label-hidden field__item\" data-mce-fragment=\"1\"\u003e\n\u003cp data-mce-fragment=\"1\"\u003eJohn Corbett, author of\u003cspan data-mce-fragment=\"1\"\u003e \u003c\/span\u003e\u003cem data-mce-fragment=\"1\"\u003ePick Up the Pieces: Excursions in Seventies Music\u003c\/em\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003c\/div\u003e\n\u003c\/div\u003e\n\u003c\/div\u003e\n\u003cdiv class=\"field__item\" data-mce-fragment=\"1\"\u003e\n\u003cdiv class=\"paragraph paragraph--type--text-with-attribution paragraph--view-mode--default\" data-mce-fragment=\"1\"\u003e\n\u003cdiv class=\"clearfix text-formatted field field--name-field-text field--type-text-long field--label-hidden field__item\" data-mce-fragment=\"1\"\u003e\n\u003cp data-mce-fragment=\"1\"\u003eA rare personal glimpse into the life of one of the twentieth century's most monumental and imposing figures.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003c\/div\u003e\n\u003cdiv class=\"clearfix text-formatted field field--name-field-attribution field--type-text-long field--label-hidden field__item\" data-mce-fragment=\"1\"\u003e\n\u003cp data-mce-fragment=\"1\"\u003eMatthew Blackwell, \u003cem data-mce-fragment=\"1\"\u003eThe Wire\u003c\/em\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003c\/div\u003e\n\u003c\/div\u003e\n\u003c\/div\u003e\n\u003cdiv class=\"field__item\" data-mce-fragment=\"1\"\u003e\n\u003cdiv class=\"paragraph paragraph--type--text-with-attribution paragraph--view-mode--default\" data-mce-fragment=\"1\"\u003e\n\u003cdiv class=\"clearfix text-formatted field field--name-field-text field--type-text-long field--label-hidden field__item\" data-mce-fragment=\"1\"\u003e\n\u003cp data-mce-fragment=\"1\"\u003eIn a social climate, where there are attempts to erase or distort the history of the Black experience, it is important to hear stories from the perspectives of those who have lived through these experiences. This is the contribution of Ahmed Abdullah and Louis Reyes Rivera. One may view\u003cspan data-mce-fragment=\"1\"\u003e \u003c\/span\u003e\u003cem data-mce-fragment=\"1\"\u003eA Strange Celestial Road\u003c\/em\u003e\u003cspan data-mce-fragment=\"1\"\u003e \u003c\/span\u003eas a reference book on Black jazz artists during the '60s and '70s, an insider’s story on the musician’s life, and a cathartic rendering of the journey of the artist.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003c\/div\u003e\n\u003cdiv class=\"clearfix text-formatted field field--name-field-attribution field--type-text-long field--label-hidden field__item\" data-mce-fragment=\"1\"\u003e\n\u003cp data-mce-fragment=\"1\"\u003eDr. Brenda M. Greene,\u003cspan data-mce-fragment=\"1\"\u003e \u003c\/span\u003e\u003ca href=\"https:\/\/ourtimepress.com\/a-strange-celestial-road\/\" title=\"Our Time Press\" data-mce-fragment=\"1\" data-mce-href=\"https:\/\/ourtimepress.com\/a-strange-celestial-road\/\"\u003e\u003cem data-mce-fragment=\"1\"\u003eOur Time Press\u003c\/em\u003e\u003c\/a\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003c\/div\u003e\n\u003c\/div\u003e\n\u003c\/div\u003e\n\u003cdiv class=\"field__item\" data-mce-fragment=\"1\"\u003e\n\u003cdiv class=\"paragraph paragraph--type--text-with-attribution paragraph--view-mode--default\" data-mce-fragment=\"1\"\u003e\n\u003cdiv class=\"clearfix text-formatted field field--name-field-text field--type-text-long field--label-hidden field__item\" data-mce-fragment=\"1\"\u003e\n\u003cp data-mce-fragment=\"1\"\u003eA major addition to not only the literature about Sun Ra, but also to the autobiographies of African American composer-performers.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003c\/div\u003e\n\u003cdiv class=\"clearfix text-formatted field field--name-field-attribution field--type-text-long field--label-hidden field__item\" data-mce-fragment=\"1\"\u003e\n\u003cp data-mce-fragment=\"1\"\u003eBill Shoemaker,\u003cspan data-mce-fragment=\"1\"\u003e \u003c\/span\u003e\u003ca href=\"http:\/\/www.pointofdeparture.org\/PoD84\/PoD84PageOne.html\" data-mce-fragment=\"1\" data-mce-href=\"http:\/\/www.pointofdeparture.org\/PoD84\/PoD84PageOne.html\"\u003e\u003cem data-mce-fragment=\"1\"\u003ePoint of Departure\u003c\/em\u003e\u003c\/a\u003e\u003cspan data-mce-fragment=\"1\"\u003e \u003c\/span\u003e \u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003c\/div\u003e\n\u003c\/div\u003e\n\u003c\/div\u003e\n\u003c\/div\u003e\n\u003c\/div\u003e\n\u003c\/div\u003e\n\u003cdiv class=\"field field--name-field-artists field--type-entity-reference field--label-above\" data-mce-fragment=\"1\"\u003e\u003c\/div\u003e","brand":"Dale Zine Shop","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":49193214443763,"sku":null,"price":35.0,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0266\/3415\/8142\/files\/LoveabaddieDaleZineShop.jpg?v=1780436672","url":"https:\/\/dalezineshop.com\/products\/a-strange-celestial-road-my-time-in-the-sun-ra-arkestra-paperback-october-3-2023-copy","provider":"Dale Zine Shop","version":"1.0","type":"link"}