Last Sautrday, the staff and DJs made their way out of our top secret, underground headquarters for the first annual WPRBarbecue! The food, weather, and turnout were all fantastic. Enjoy these few photos courtesy of Marvin’s wife Beata.

WPRB was ecstatic to have renowned contemporary Israeli-American cellist Maya Beiser as a guest on Marvin Rosen’s Classical Discoveries! Stay tuned for when we upload the interview for those who have missed it!

UPDATE: You can now listen to the entire broadcast, right here!

Who: Liquid Liquid, with special guests Pink Skull, Dave P, Dave Pak, Mike Z, and tons more

When: Friday, May 22 starting at 9 PM

Where: Voyeur, located at 1221 St. James St. in Philadelphia, PA

How Much: $10 in advance, $15 at the door. Tickets available online at MusicToday!

Why: Because it’s gonna be AWESOME! We’re giving away 4 tickets this week on the air, so stay tuned!

Check out this website for more info, or click here to RSVP on Facebook.

Four times a year, each Whole Foods Market store sets aside a day on which 5% of the day’s net sales is contributed to a local 501(c)3 non-profit organization. Customers help support the selected organizations just by shopping on these 5% Days.

“WPRB is thrilled to be able to partner with such a respected organization as Whole Foods and have the chance to further promote ourselves in the community,” says DJ Jon Solomon (Wednesdays, 7-10 p.m.), I hope listeners will plan to buy their groceries on the 22nd, knowing they will be supporting the station as they stock their pantry.”

During WPRB’s “5% Day” there will be a booth where store visitors can learn more about the station, and meet volunteers who make up this incredibly unique community supported radio station.

• RSVP on Facebook!
• Add this to your calendar!

WPRB and the International House of Philadelphia are proud to present a screening of Until the Light Takes Us on Wednesday, September 2nd at 7:00 PM. This screening takes place at the International House of Philadelphia (3701 Chestnut Street).

In 1991, Norwegian churches started to burn down. While reporters and police scrambled for answers, more and more churches went up in flames. They had no leads until Varg Vikernes, one of the architects of an underground music-art-political scene known as “Black Metal” took credit and was quickly arrested. The media ran with a largely fabricated story of satanic rituals, abductions and sacrifices. Soon others took these cues, creating an escalating cycle of fiction-fueled reality. This film reveals the true story behind the music, murders and church burnings, and shows what happened when these young men, who tried to change the world using music, art and violence, found that they could not control what they created.

After the film there will be a discussion with directors Audrey Ewell and Aaron Aites, so don’t miss out on this special event!

Tickets are $8 for students + seniors; $10 general admission. You can purchase online or a 1/2 hour before showtime at the Box Office.

We’re a couple days late with this one, we know! That said, our second Localpalooza event at Whole Foods Princeton went swimmingly well. This time around our performers, DJs, and info booth were all indoors, which worked out for the better.

Continue reading for photos and commentary. And hey, while you’re at it, share your thoughts in the comments!

(Missed the first Localpalooza recap? Check it out here!)

WPRB DJs Wilbo and Will were our live performers of the night, and were set up in the Bulk Foods area.

Bulk buys? Whatta SOUND DEAL! (Couldn't help the pun.)

Will on flute; Wilbo on the upright bass.

So. Many. Kids.

Wilbo doing what he does best.

Our old banner up behind the "stage".

“Rhythm of the One”/”Ghetto Blaster”‘s Hi-Res and Monday Jazz host Dan Buskirk kept things going in the cafe area while our lovely staff and interns greeted customers on their way out.

DJ Hi-Res is not a ghost. We assure you he is very much a real DJ.

L-R: Jon Solomon, Webmaster Alan, Lance Loud, JT the Intern

Last but not least, can we just say how delicious all the samples were? New Jersey is so delicious!

Make sure to come on out to this week’s Localpalooza event on Thursday 8/13, which features a live performance by WPRB DJs Wilbo Wright (Mondays 1-3 PM) and Will Constantine, Jr (Thursdays 11 AM -1 PM) outdoors, plus station DJs Hi-Res (Wednesdays 5-7 PM) and Dan Buskirk (Mondays 11AM – 1PM) indoors. (BTW, have you RSVPed yet? If not, you can do so on Facebook!)

In the meantime, enjoy some photographs from last week’s event, and stay tuned for more images after this Thursday’s event.

WPRB DJs Jon Solomon (Wednesdays 7-10 PM) and KPC (Tuesdays 5-7) kept the cafe crowd going with their tunes.

Jennifer O’Connor, rockin’ the asphalt. During her performance, one of the store’s clean-up personnel came around to empty the trash cans. It was an unexpected comedic moment, but Jennifer, being the consummate performer that she is, played it off like a pro.

Tim & Herbie of Brown Recluse, hard at work, conjuring up jingles for Bobbi’s Black Bean Hummus. (Just joking, guys!)

Last but certainly not least, check out local photographer Oliver Lopena’s photographs from the event!

WPRB is curating two nights of live music at Localpalooza. Free and open to all ages, this event features local artists, local vendors and local businesses. WPRB DJs and two of our favorite artists will provide the soundtrack to the night. Plus, we’ll be giving away all sorts of prizes. Hope to see you there!

Thursday, August 6th from 4-7PM ET
Jennifer O’Connor (NYC, Matador Records), Brown Recluse (Philadelphia, Slumberland Records), DJs Jon Solomon and KPC.

» RSVP for this event on Facebook!

Thursday, August 13th from 4-7PM ET
Will Constantine Jr., Wilbo Wright & Friends, with DJs Hi-Res and Dan Buskirk.

» RSVP for this event on Facebook!

Come join WPRB and the Institute of Contemporary Art in Philadelphia as we celebrate jazz pioneer SUN RA with live performances, lectures, films, and a record fair! These events are part of the ICA’s current exhibition, “Pathways to Unknown Known Worlds: Sun Ra, El Saturn & Chicago’s Afro-Futurist Underground, 1954-1968,” which runs until August 2nd.

Full information about Sun Ra and the exhibition after the jump!

WED 07-01 @ 7PM: The Sun Ra Arkestra
Tickets are $10 General Admission, $5 for Students with a Valid ID, FREE for ICA Members

ICA is very pleased to present The Sun Ra Arkestra under the direction of Marshall Allen. The Sun Ra Arkestra continues to deliver some of the most potent, soul-grabbing jazz music ever written. With lyrics and song titles filled with mysticism, mythology, space travel, and other similarly cosmic trains of thought, the Arkestra’s freewheeling stage shows, complete with colorful costumes and uninhibited adventurism, perfectly embody the otherworldly proclivities of true jazz innovator Sun Ra.

WED 07-08 @ 7PM: John Szwed Lecture
FREE!

Hear a lecture by John Szwed, the biographic expert on all things Ra. He is an anthropologist, musicologist and historian who teaches at Columbia University and is the author of Space is the Place: The Lives and Times of Sun Ra (Da Capo Press, 1998).

SAT 07-11 @ 9AM-5PM: Philadelphia Record Fair 2009
$10 from 9-11AM, FREE from 11AM-close

A day of vinyl nirvana! ICA hosts the annual benefit for Vox Populi, Philadelphia’s acclaimed artist-run collective and gallery. Flip through bins. Find your treasure.

WED 07-15 @ 7PM: Outdoor Double Feature, curated by Jesse Pires (WPRB’s DJ Hi-Res!!!!)
Rain or shine. FREE!

Sun Ra: Brother from Another Planet (Dir. Don Letts, UK, 2005, video, 59 mins)
Don Letts, the legendary London DJ who introduced reggae and ska to a generation of punk rockers, delves into the mysterious world of Sun Ra in this British, made-for-television documentary. Sun Ra biographer John Szwed, musician Archie Shepp and member’s of Sun Ra’s Arkestra discuss the life and work of one of jazz music’s pre-eminent pioneers. For the uninitiated, Brother from Another Planet is a great introduction to Sun Ra, and for Ra devotees, it’s required viewing.

Sun Ra: A Joyful Noise (Dir. Robert Mugge, USA, 1980, video, 61 mins)
Consisting of explosive live footage of the Sun Ra Arkestra and fascinating interviews with the man himself, A Joyful Noise is the complete Sun Ra experience. Filmed in and around Philadelphia and Washington D.C. when the Arkestra was living in Germantown, Robert Mugge’s documentary captures the group at the height of its creative powers. Each live performance featured in the film further illustrates the distinctive alchemy Sun Ra was able to create with his disciplined band. Ra makes his case for a better world through music, transcending banal, earthbound realities to produce a strange and fascinating aesthetic fusing ancient history with future visions.

WED 07-22 @ 7PM: King Britt & Rucyl, “Saturn Never Sleeps”
FREE!

“Saturn Never Sleeps” is a cosmic adventure in contemporary music. For this artist-curated event, Philadelphia DJ, composer and producer King Britt, in collaboration with multimedialist Rucyl, present a night of sonic and visual funk taking micro-edits of Sun-Ra source music and combining it with live experimentation together with video collage.

WED 07-29 @ 7PM: Sonic Liberation Front & Planet Y, curated by Ars Nova Workshop

Please join Ars Nova Workshop and ICA for two very special performances in conjunction with Pathways to Unknown Worlds. An expanded 12-member Sonic Liberation Front, the Philadelphia ensemble acclaimed for their iconoclastic combination of Free Jazz passion and Afro-Cuban percussion, will premiere “Jetway Confidential No.3 (for Sun Ra)”, a new composition dedicated to Sun Ra and commissioned specifically for this performance, and perform an arrangement of Sun Ra’s “Where Pathways Meet” from 1978’s Lanquidity recording, which featured saxophonist and SLF member Julian Pressley. This evening will also feature a very rare appearance from Planet Y – Buchla Music Easel master Charles Cohen and Stinking Lizaveta’s Yanni Papadopoulos, best described as “Subotnick meets Sun Ra meets Schnitzler.” (Aquarius Records) In addition, newly-unearthed archival films will be projected on the gallery walls.

Led by percussionist Kevin Diehl, a protégé of Free Jazz pioneer Sunny Murray, Sonic Liberation Front merges post-bop with traditional Afro-Cuban Yoruba roots music. While other ensembles have merged Bata drumming and jazz, none have done it with the vigor of SLF. The band members are true students of the Lukumi tradition under the guidance of percussionist/omo aña Chuckie Joseph, a lifelong Yoruba cultural scholar. It’s been said a million times that all music originates in West Africa ¬ and by returning the focus to its origins, SLF achieves a natural eclectism that serves as a fountain of ingenuity. Ancient to the future, indeed. For this special performance, an expanded 12-piece SLF performs featuring some of the most notable names in Philadelphia’s exploratory music scene including members of the Sun Ra Arkestra, Make A Rising, and Shot x Shot.

Planet Y: Yanni Papadopoulos (dg-20 Casio digital guitar), Charles Cohen, (Buchla Music Easel)

Sonic Liberation Front: Todd Margasak (cornet), Terry Lawson (tenor saxophone/flute), Dan Scofield (alto saxophone), Julian Pressley (alto saxophone), Brent White (trombone), dmHotep (guitar), Travis Woodson (guitar), Matt Engle (double-bass), Chuck Joseph (Bata drums/drumkit), Shawn “Dade” Beckett (Bata drums/percussion), Khari Clemmons (Bata drums), Kevin Diehl (Bata drums/drumkit)

ABOUT THE EXHIBITION

Jazz pioneer, bandleader, mystic, philosopher, and consummate Afro-Futurist, Sun Ra, (born Herman Poole Blount 1914, Birmingham, Alabama, died 1993) and his personal mythology have grown increasingly relevant to a broad range of artists and communities. “Pathways to Unknown Worlds: Sun Ra, El Saturn & Chicago’s Afro-Futurist Underground, 1954-1968” presents a collection of paintings, drawings, prints, manuscripts, ephemera, and video produced by and about Ra and his associates–much of it previously unseen.

This exhibition, on view at the Institute of Contemporary Art April 24 – August 2, 2009 in the second floor gallery, examines how Ra and his dynamic, continually-evolving ensemble, the Philadelphia-based Arkestra, crafted both their otherworldly image and fiercely independent approach to self-production.

Highlights of the exhibition include original drawings for their 1960’s albums Art Forms of Dimensions Tomorrow and Other Planes of There, and five newly discovered typed and annotated broadsheets. Until recently, only one such broadsheet was known to exist – the one that Ra gave saxophonist John Coltrane in 1956. The show will also include the unpublished manuscript, The Magic Lie, a book of Ra’s poetry, which has become influential in the nascent Black Islamic movement. In addition to these documents, the film Spaceways, by Edward English, will be on view. The film documents Ra and his Arkestra (a deliberate re-spelling of “orchestra”), in 1968, as they prepare to perform at Carnegie Hall.

Early in his career, Sun Ra spent virtually all of his time and energy on Chicago’s south side, identifying with broader struggles for black power and identity, and saw his music as a key element in that struggle. As well as Sun Ra’s connection to the incipient grass-roots Afro-Futurist movement in Chicago, he also has a connection to Philadelphia. In 1968, Sun Ra brought the Arkestra to Philadelphia, where his band mate Marshall Allen inherited a house on Morton Street in Germantown. The house served as band headquarters until Sun Ra’s death in 1993. The Arkestra continues to perform under the leadership of Marshall Allen, who still resides at the Germantown house.

Long admired among fans of progressive jazz, Ra and his personal mythology have grown increasingly relevant and influential to a broad range of artists and communities. His music touched on the entire history of jazz, but he was also a pioneer of electronic and space music, and free improvisation.

Sun Ra developed a complicated persona of cosmic philosophies and lyrical poetry that made him a pioneer of Afro-futurism (a term coined by cultural critic Mark Dery in his 1994 essay “Black to the Future.”)

“Pathways to Unknown Worlds” is curated by John Corbett, Anthony Elms and Terri Kapsalis for the Hyde Park Art Center, Chicago and is coordinated at the ICA by Whitney Lauder Curatorial Fellow Stamatina Gregory. This exhibition is accompanied by a catalogue.