Sun Ra

CTL-E-0023 · Person · musician · 1950s–1990s

Verified evidence grade of this record

Avant-garde jazz bandleader, composer, and philosopher who developed his Arkestra in Chicago.

The record

Also known as: Herman Blount

Relationships

Club DeLisa — performed at
Sun Ra had an extended 1946 engagement at Club DeLisa as pianist and arranger for Fletcher Henderson's band.
South Side — associated with
William Sites' 'Sun Ra's Chicago' (University of Chicago Press) documents that Sun Ra lived on Chicago's South Side from 1946 to 1961, where he relaunched his career and formed the Arkestra.

Sources

Smithsonian Jazz: Sun Ra (primary source)
NPR retrospective

Record CTL-E-0023 · CultureTechLens Knowledge Graph · evidence grade: Verified · CTL research: BMI-002, MUSIC-001.
Directory: all entity records · the knowledge graph

Cite as: CultureTechLens, “Sun Ra (CTL-E-0023),” October 4, 2026. https://culturetechlens.com/graph/entities/ctl-e-0023/

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The Wabash Avenue YMCA, ChicagoPhoto: Andrew Jameson, CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons

Chicago Blues All-Stars performing live at Buddy Guy’s Legends, ChicagoPhoto: BluesAllstars, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons

The Overton Hygienic Building, 3619–6227 S. State St., Chicago — Anthony Overton’s Black Metropolis business headquartersPhoto: Andrew Jameson, CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons

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