Name: A Strange Celestial Road: My Time in the Sun Ra Arkestra
Brand: Ahmed Abdullah

Bonus disc

Bonus disc: No

Catalogue number

9781953691163

Colour

Format multiplier

Download code

Download code: No

Rough Trade Exclusive

Rough Trade Exclusive: No

Extended format

Extended format: No

Format Books US

Paperback

Format detail

Limited edition

Release date

2023-09-26

Signed copies

Signed copies: No

Supplier US

Ingram

Tax rate US

Sales:8.875

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Artist

Ahmed Abdullah

Genre US

Jazz

Label US

Blank Forms Editions

Ahmed Abdullah is a jazz trumpet player born on May 10, 1947, in Harlem, New York, USA. He played with the Sun Ra Arkestra from 1975 to 1997.
Born Leroy Bland, he adopted the Arabic name early on and kept using it professionally even though he soon converted to Buddhism. Additionally, he was given the Hebrew names Solomon and Melchizedek, which he has both used for a number of professional projects.
With his extensive experience and unique blend of musical influences, Ahmed Abdullah continues to captivate audiences with his soulful trumpet playing and innovative compositions.

A thrilling account of life with Sun Ra’s Arkestra and New York’s avant-garde jazz scenes of the 1970s–90s

In this memoir, Harlem-born trumpeter Ahmed Abdullah recounts decades of national and international touring with the Sun Ra Arkestra and charts the rise of the New York loft jazz scene, offering a fascinating portrait of advanced music in Brooklyn and Lower Manhattan from the 1970s through the 1990s, including thrilling stories about the politically important Bed-Stuy venue The East and the author's tutelage under composer and long-time Archie Shepp collaborator Cal Massey. Along the way, Abdullah covers his spiritual development as a Buddhist, battles with addiction, tribulations as a father, lessons from Sun Ra and working life as an educator and cab driver.

Trumpeter and educator Ahmed Abdullah was born in Harlem in 1947. An important figure in the New York loft jazz movement, in 1972 he formed a group called Abdullah, two years before joining the Sun Ra Arkestra, with whom he played for more than 20 years. He is a founding member of the bands Melodic Art-Tet, The Group and NAM, and of the Central Brooklyn Jazz Consortium. Abdullah is the music director at Sistas’ Place in Brooklyn, and teaches music at the New School for Social Research in Manhattan and an elementary school in Bed-Stuy, Brooklyn.

A Strange Celestial Road: My Time in the Sun Ra Arkestra

Books US