I was lucky enough to have seen Sun Ra and his Arkestra, I think at least 4-5 times, I can't remember exactly.

They got some mainstream notoriety and pub in the late 80s after they appeared on Hal Wilner's Disney album, Stay Awake, so they were on Sanborn's Sunday Night show, and came to Slims in SF, it was a great show. Other times it was smaller venues: Koncepts Cultural Gallery in Oakland, which was an actual small gallery during the daytime, and this one time at a high school auditorium in the Hunters Point/Bayview neighborhood in SF, which at that time was considered a less desirable area, in any case, I digress...What I remember about that concert besides the weird setting - the auditorium served as the lunch cafeteria, so there were these cafeteria benches and tables off to the side, the band outnumbered the audience, I think there were fewer than a dozen people in attendance. That didn't deter them; they just put on a great performance. It felt poignant to me at that moment.