The night Sun Ra played at a psychiatric hospital and made a medical breakthrough
When Ozzy Osbourne was asked about The Beatles and why they were so important, he gave a relatively poignant answer. Talking in 2019, he said, “The only way I can describe it is like this: Imagine you go to bed today, and the world is black and white, and then you wake up, and everything’s in colour. That’s what it was like! That’s the profound effect it had on me.”
Music has always had the potential to make us feel things we didn’t know we could feel. It can take something within that can’t be dedicated to words and lay it out like the most precise image in the world, an intangible thing that seems so tangible; the only way you can be proved otherwise is when you go out to reach it, and your senses fail you. Music has a power unlike anything else in the world.
Some believe that this extends beyond standard thought, too. Music has been found to have a powerful effect on people suffering from mental and physical health issues in various hospitals. When the right sounds are played, music has been proven to alleviate stress, improve people’s mood and pain levels, speed up recovery time, and increase energy levels.
Herman Poole Blount, more famously known as the free jazz musician Sun Ra, was a big believer in music’s ability to heal. He was very invested in scalpel-free surgery practised by different cultures and was convinced that his music might be able to help those who were suffering from mental health disorders.
Those eagle-eyed psychology buffs might find this train of thought quite interesting, as when you look back on Sun Ra’s history, there are a number of different psychiatric conditions that could be assigned to him. The musical aficionado was convinced he was an alien from Saturn sent on a mission to bring peace to Earth. He was also confident that he could travel to different planets. Subsequently, if you were to analyse his ramblings, diagnoses of bipolar disorder or schizophrenia could undoubtedly be applied. However, to overanalyse his mind is also to undercut the brilliant workings of one of the best musical brains on this side of Christ.
Any inkling Sun Ra had that his music could help those who were suffering from mental illness was proven right during the early stages of his career, as he found that during a gig, he managed to make a medical breakthrough. In his book, biographer John Szwed wrote about the time he performed a gig in a psychiatric hospital.
“The group of patients assembled for this early experiment in musical therapy included catatonics and severe schizophrenics,” he said, “but Sonny [Sun Ra’s name before Sun Ra] approached the job like any other, making no concessions in his music.” It’s worth noting that Sun Ra’s music was like the sonic equivalent of a stress ball. His free jazz-inspired sound was shrouded in chaos, to the extent that his song ‘Nuclear War’ is almost equivalent to the devastation of the apocalypse itself.
Free Jazz has always been a divisive genre. Some believe it represents the best musicians in the modern age who can pick apart melody and tone and improvise so limitlessly. Meanwhile, others believe it is fraudulent. They state it is a horrific noise that isn’t worth the vibrations it causes. This brings us back to the psychiatric hospital gig…
“While he was playing,” wrote Szwed, “A woman who it was said had not moved or spoken for years got up from the floor, walked directly to his piano, and cried out, ‘Do you call that music?’”
Unphased by the insult but delighted by the fact it was delivered, Sun Ra wore this occurrence as a badge of honour and frequently boasted afterwards about the medical breakthrough resulting from his music. He saw it as proof that what he believed in was right, and so he continued to make his music and pursue the plight of peace. There is taking negative feedback on the chin, and then there is using it to convince yourself you can change the world. Such was Sun Ra.
