Sun Ra Arkestra's big-band swing and big, otherworldly personalities

The Sun Ra Arkestra is a colorful story even without its music. It's the brainchild of Sun Ra, a charismatic man raised in Alabama but born, so he said, on Saturn. His philosophy -- which encompassed science fiction, cosmology, spirituality, and ancient Egyptian history and folklore -- was also a pillar of his jazz music, played by an ensemble (the Arkestra) of true believers who continue to spread Ra's message long after his death in 1993. At the Liv Nightclub, for a Friday-night Halloween show...