Premieres Friday, Feb. 20, 2026 at 8 p.m. on KPBS TV / Stream with KPBS+
From swing to bebop to free jazz, Sun Ra bridged myriad musical styles to form his own avant-garde sound. With his ever-evolving collective, the Sun Ra Arkestra, he stretched the boundaries of jazz and self-produced more than 200 albums, in addition to being one of the first Black artists to have his own record label.
Sun Ra had a profound and lasting influence on members of the Sun Ra Arkestra. In this clip, Arkestra members Marshall Allen, Cheryl Banks-Smith and Alex Blake recount what Sun Ra meant to them.
Remembered today as the “Godfather of Afrofuturism,” Sun Ra weaved ancient Egyptian and interstellar metaphors into a definitive musical and spiritual vision that resonates across generations.
Each day, Sun Ra wrote a piece of music solely for “the Creator” as thanks for giving him the gift of music.
Discover the extraordinary life of this poet, philosopher, and musical visionary in AMERICAN MASTERS “Sun Ra: Do The Impossible.”
In 1957, Sun Ra founded Saturn Records with Alton Abraham, making him one of the first Black artists to have his own record label. The bulk of Sun Ra’s enormous discography—well over 1,000 songs and over two hundred albums—was first issued on Saturn Records. “It was me creating something that nobody owned but us.”
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