Saturn Biographies:Jim Johnson
Saturn Biographies:
My name is Jim Johnson
and I’ve been a Sun Ra fan for..well, how long
has it been now? I am originally from New Orleans, so I was surrounded
by jazz at an early age and also came to view the surreal mix of Mardi
Gras costumes, second line rhythms, street performers, multiple
languages, food from ditches and other oddities as just part of everyday
life. So in the tradition of Mardi Gras, it comes as no surprise that I
would be attracted to the dancing and joyous spirit of the Arkestra.
I became enamored with jazz at an early age with my father’s Stan Kenton and Pete Fountain records. The first time I heard Miles Davis and John Coltrane, I was hooked for life. I later heard people say bad things about some of their work, labeling it too aggressive or just plain crappy noise. Upon investigation, I discovered that they had progressed into avant garde jazz or free jazz and instead of the vile, cacaphony I was told to expect, I found even greater wonders. Soon, I was the person preaching the values of Miles 70s electric funk period and Trane’s Ascension. I would later hear Sun Ra’s Rocksichord for the first time and knew I had found something special.
I really got to know other Sun Ra fans when I met the creator of this web site, Joe Moudry, in the early 90’s. We’ve been great friends ever since and I constantly envy at his record collection and luck in finding that rare CD or LP. We both hosted shows on WUAL 91.5 FM, the University of Alabama NPR affiliate. I hosted a show of avant garde jazz, called Jazz on the Envelope, which followed the Grateful Dead hour (my listeners were either high or right where I wanted them). I would later recreate my show in a 5 hour format in Birmingham at the low powered and oft defunct WVSU @ Samford University, where it was rechristened Out There A Minute in honor of you-know-who.
I was fortunate in my life to become good friends with Samarai Celestial, who sadly passed from this earth recently. We met at a little fair in Tuscaloosa, Alabama where he played one of his first solo gigs to an audience that had come to buy pottery and birdhouses. I had my Sun Ra shirt on that day, knew who Samarai was and we quickly struck up a friendship. He was a very spiritual man who believed that racism and hatred could be eliminated by the positive vibrations put forth by musicians. I was proud when I was able to hook Samarai up with Carrot Top Records and see the 2 CDs he put out. He’s missed by many.
I have written jazz pieces for this website and others, as well as entries for the Dictionary of 20th Century Culture: African American History. I can even boast of having a letter published in the not-so-hip Down Beat a few months back where I blasted them for not naming Ornette Coleman as Artist of the Year. A year later, it seems like they heard me. Now I live near the gravesite of Sun Ra himself, in the Magic City itself.
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