BOSTON (AP) — Gov. Deval Patrick is planning to attend a 100th anniversary celebration of legendary avant-garde jazz band leader Sun Ra at the Berklee College of Music.
Patrick has a special connection to the bandleader and self-proclaimed visitor from Saturn who inspired a generation of adventurous jazz and rock musicians and whose career is being celebrated Thursday.
Patrick’s father, Laurdine “Pat” Patrick, was a baritone saxophone player with Sun Ra’s Arkestra.
The Patrick family has donated Pat Patrick’s collection to Berklee’s Africana Studies Archive, including musical scores, photographs and recordings.
The governor has said his relationship with his father was strained after the elder Patrick left the family to perform with the band. But he says they reconnected after he saw his father perform at a nightclub when he was in his third year of law school.