babyof theband. Watch the film

A companion to the memoir

Dad. Sun Ra. North Philly. The full story.

He was the youngest member of Sun Ra’s Arkestra. He was my father. This is where his voice, his art, and the people who knew him live now — a companion to the memoir I am writing, and a room that keeps opening.

Portrait of my father as a young man
Young man
My father in a silver agbada, peace sign
Peace, silver agbada
Dad in the studio — cap, shades, headphones on, hands on the congas
TAPE 08 · 2018‑10‑17 “I was the baby of the band, man. They all looked after me.”
My father holding me in a wicker peacock chair
Holding me
My father with all four of us kids
All the kids
My father and me outside on the block
Outside, together
01

Four ways in.

Take the door that fits your mood. All of them lead back to him.

02

The tape ledger.

Every recorded conversation, transcribed and dated. Filter by who’s speaking or what they’re talking about.

  1. 01

    Baby of the Band

    Dad on being the youngest in Sun Ra’s Arkestra, how the elders taught him, and what it meant to grow up inside a cosmic-jazz family.

    DAD SUN RA 58:16
  2. 02

    Talking about Mom

    Dad on my mother — how they met, what she carried, and the marriage he keeps returning to.

    DAD FAMILY 48:37
  3. 03

    Sun Ra & band politics

    Rehearsals, road stories, and the leader who called them all together.

    DAD SUN RA 20:36
  4. 04

    Missing Kwame

    Dad talks about my brother. Grief, and what came after.

    DAD KWAME 33:27
  5. 05

    About Janet (Grandma)

    The woman who held everyone together. Dad on his mother, the house she ran, the lessons he still hears.

    DAD FAMILY 21:09
  6. 06

    Morgan family business

    The people, the trades, the way this family made a living and a name.

    DAD FAMILY 15:56
  7. 07

    Aunt Pierr’s music collection

    The records that were around before Dad was in the Arkestra. What he grew up hearing.

    DAD SUN RA 15:01
  8. 08

    The final discussion

    October 23, 2018. The last conversation we recorded together.

    DAD 6:05
03

North Philly, from where I’m looking.

Two addresses hold everything. 2458 N Chadwick — my childhood home. 2438 N Bouvier — my grandmother’s, where we landed after we were removed from my mother’s home. A few miles up in Germantown, 5626 Morton Street stands as the Sun Ra House, the Arkestra’s home base since 1968.

NORTH PHILLY · ROWHOUSE The block
2400 BLOCK · BOUVIER STREET North Philadelphia
NORTH PHILLY · RED BRICK Rowhouse

The family, from where I’m looking.

Rooms, blocks, and gatherings that raised me — Dad, my siblings, and the people who filled the house. Tap any photo to enlarge.

PHOTO · NORTH PHILADELPHIA c. 1978
2458 N CHADWICK · CHILDHOOD HOME 2025
2438 N BOUVIER · GRANDMA’S HOUSE 2025
5626 MORTON ST · THE SUN RA HOUSE Philadelphia Register — 2022
MORTON ST · THE ARKESTRA’S DOOR Home of Marshall Allen
MORTON ST · THE BLOCK 2026
04

I Am A Promise.

The 1993 Academy Award-winning documentary that filmed our elementary school, M. Hall Stanton. I have permission from the filmmakers to share it here.

Still from I Am A Promise: children playing in a North Philly schoolyard, 1993
1993 · 90 MIN · ACADEMY AWARD WINNER
IV
The Arkestra wing

Sun Ra called it a family before he called it a band.

Dad’s years with the Arkestra are the throughline of this archive. I’m assembling a timeline, the tapes he told me himself, and interviews with the people who played beside him.

  1. 1970s

    Dad joins the Arkestra. The youngest in the room.

  2. The road

    Germany, festivals, late-night rehearsals in Philadelphia.

  3. 2017

    Our first recorded conversation about Sun Ra.

  4. In progress

    Interviews with former Arkestra members and family. If you knew him — I want to hear from you.

Did you know Dad?  Get in touch →
V

Sun Ra’s Arkestra: Takatune Years.

Every studio and official live album Sun Ra released during the years Dad was in the band. Compiled from Wikipedia and cross-referenced against the Sun Ra Music catalog. JSON

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Tier 02  ·  Coming next

Plus compilations & archival live releases

Expands tier 01 with contemporaneous compilations and the archival live releases that surfaced during Sun Ra’s lifetime. Estimated 100–140 titles.

  • Contemporaneous compilations (e.g. Sunrise in Different Dimensions reissues)
  • Archival live releases from the 1971–1992 window
  • Notable European festival sets (Berlin, Donaueschingen, Montreux)
  • Cross-references from AllMusic and Bandcamp

Tier 03  ·  Long term

The complete Saturn catalog

The full recorded output: Saturn one-offs, obscure pressings, and everything Sun Ra Research has catalogued. 200+ releases, sourced from the Campbell bibliography.

  • Robert L. Campbell, The Earthly Recordings of Sun Ra
  • Alton Abraham Collection (University of Chicago)
  • Saturn Records catalog numbers & dating
  • Cross-referenced against Discogs pressings

Primary source: Sun Ra discography — Wikipedia. Where sources conflict, the widely accepted release year is used; Saturn releases were often undated on the sleeve.

VI

Sun Ra, in his own voice.

A living catalog of Sun Ra himself — lectures, interviews, TV, and declamations pulled from public YouTube uploads. Curated to feature Sun Ra’s voice, not tributes. JSON

Loading the tapes…

Sources: Sun Ra Music Channel, the Alton Abraham archive, Emperor Xavier Dujuan, CEddy10165 (Sun Ra Arkive), and Intergalaxtic Music: Sun Ra tapes. All videos link out to YouTube.

06

From the memoir.

The first sound I remember is a saxophone in the next room. It wasn’t playing a song. It was thinking out loud. That is how my father spoke when he was alone. And that is how, later, he spoke to me.

CHAPTER 1 Sound and structure
Read the first chapter →