Brody on Sun Ra: Catching Up

His philosophy was a vision of progress--of a future, inspired by black American culture, that would be as glorious in its own way as the one promised by the technological advances of a segregated American society. Ra affirmed that the musical past of jazz was part of the avant-garde, so far ahead of its time that he and his musicians were still struggling to catch up with it. (Richard Brody, "The Sun Ra Centanary," New Yorker, 2014-05-22)