Sun Ra - The Magic City (1965)

I'm pleased to offer today a remarkable-sounding stereo release of what is now recognized as one of Sun Ra's masterworks.  Many thanks to Rev.b for the generous gift and to I-) for scouring the web for appropriate images to share here.

The boundaries of Sun Ra's self-proclaimed "space jazz" underwent a transformation in the mid-'60s. The Magic City is an aural snapshot of that metamorphic process. Many enthusiasts and scholars consider this to be among Ra's most definitive studio recordings. Although the "city" in the album's title was thought to have been New York -- where the disc was recorded -- it is actually Ra's earthly birthplace of Birmingham, AL. The Magic City consists of four free jazz compositions: the album side-length title track, "The Shadow World," "Abstract Eye," and "Abstract I" -- two variants of a common work. These pieces are essentially ensemble improvisations recorded live. Any direction from Ra, indicating the order of soloists for instance, would be given either through his playing or with hand signals. Sun Ra & His Solar Myth Arkestra took up residency in Manhattan's East Village in the early to mid-'60s. Their neighbors included Pharaoh Sanders as well as Babatunde Olatunji. In fact, "The Shadow World," "Abstract Eye," and "Abstract I" were actually recorded in Olatunji's loft. The title track begins with weaving distant and frenetic lines from Ronnie Boykins (bass) and Ra (piano, clavoline), connected by intermittent eruptions from Roger Blank (drums). All the while, Marshall Allen's dreamlike piccolo randomly maneuvers through the sonic haze. The piece also contains an ensemble onslaught that abruptly contrasts with everything experienced up through that point. In the wake of the innately earthbound "Magic City" are three comparatively shorter pieces with subtle undercurrents that return Ra to space motifs. For example, the importance of sonic contrast defines "The Shadow World" by juxtaposing the lightly churning bass and cymbal into some surreal keyboard interjections from Ra. The Magic City also comes with an insightful liner notes essay from Ra scholar John F. Szwed, aiding in understanding the circumstances surrounding this piece of free jazz genius.

AMG Review by Lindsay Planer

The Magic City on 8-Track Tape!
Thanks to the original ripper.

Sun Ra had turned a few heads since he first came to New York, but now something truly radical was happening in his music.  The performances were growing longer, the rhythms wilder and more complex, and the soloists were being encouraged to go even further beyond their means.  Tommy Hunter returned from Sweden after nine months where he had been in film school and was stunned to see how much the Arkestra had changed:  "It was like a fire storm coming off the bandstand."  Whatever one hears in Sun Ra's music before or after this period, it's clear that 1965 was a turning point, and that the recording of The Magic City was the clearest signal of the change.

"The Magic City" was a promotional slogan for Birmingham, a boast about its quick rise and development after minerals were first discovered there, and the words on the huge sign in front of the train station which greeted Sun Ra every day as he left the house.  Despite his bitterness about Birmingham, he still had affection for the town, and, just as he had done for Chicago, he wrote a number of compositions which memorialized the city and the state of Alabama ("Magic City Blues," "The Place of Five Points," "West End Side of Magic City") or played Alabama praise songs by others, such as Parish and Perkins's "Stars Fell on Alabama" or Jothan Callins's "Alabama."  But as the drawing on the original cover of the album suggests, The Magic City was also a city of fantasy, "a city without evil, a city of possibilities and beauty," as Alton Abraham put it.  And in a poem, Ra described the Magic City as "the universe of the Magi."

The Magic City

This city is the Universe
Because it is that city of all natural creation
It is surrounded by the wilderness
The encircling forest of the edge of itself
All that is endlessly beyond
This city is the Magi's thought
This city is the magic of the Magi's thought.
The idea, the calculated knowledge of it
Eternally balanced by the uncalculated presence of
The intuition potential intruder / the beam
Harmonic precision celestial being
Chromatic rays race.

Walter Miller suggested that being a Gemini, Sonny always consciously expressed doubleness in his work, especially in the pairing of "outer space with earthly matters."

"The Magic City" as collectively improvised and lacks a fixed theme as such, though individual statements and isolated notes flow together to form an incremental melody.  Sun Ra simultaneously plays piano and Selmer Clavioline ("the purest sound I ever got from an electric instrument"), usually in conjunction with Ronnie Boykin's bowed bass, but also at times with Roger Blank's reverbed drums, Robert Cunningham's bass clarinet, or Marshall Allen's piccolo.  The piece ebbs and flows, with duos and trios appearing and disappearing, yet always returning to Ra's quietly gyrating keyboards and Boykin's singing bass lines.  Almost three-quarters of the way through, saxophones begin to enter in various configurations:  Danny Davis's alto first, then John Gilmore's tenor, Pat Patrick's baritone, and finally the altos of Marshall Allen and Harry Spencer.  There is a sudden ensemble cry at the end, and then a quiet return to Ra and Boykins.

…"The Magic City," like many of his compositions from this period, was sketched out with only a rough sequence of solos and a mutual understanding which came from grueling daily rehearsals.  Sun Ra gave it order by pointing to players, and by signaling with numbers which referred to prepared themes and effects, and with hand gestures that directed the musicians what to play during collective improvisation -- what composer Butch Morris would later call "conduction."  Ornette Coleman's earlier Free Jazz and John Coltrane's contemporaneous Ascension were also collective improvisations but neither had the seamless quality of "The Magic City," nor its secret formalism.  It was not played at concerts, John Gilmore said, because it was "unreproducible, a tapestry of sound."

Szwed pp. 212-214

The Magic City

115. [102]  Sun Ra and his Solar Arkestra

Sun Ra (p, e-celeste, bass marimba, tymp -1, sun harp, dragon drum -2, 3); Teddy Nance (tb); Bernard Pettaway (btb); Marshall Allen (as, picc, perc); Danny Davis (as -1, 3); John Gilmore (ts -1, perc -2, 3); Pat Patrick (bars -1; tymp -2); Robert Cummings (bcl -1; perc -2, 3); Ronnie Boykins (b); Jimmy Johnson (d).

New York City, April-May 1965

The Shadow World (Ra) -1
Other Worlds (Ra) -1
Abstract Eye (Ra) -2
Abstract "I" (Ra) -3

Three of these tracks were originally issued on Side B of Saturn LPB 711, The Magic City, in 1966.  In 1967 it was given the catalog number 403.  Later issues on Thoth Intergalactic LPB 711 (black label, c. 1969) and El Saturn LP 403 (1970s).  All titles reissued in 1973 on Impulse AS-9243 and on Evidence 22069 [CD] in 1993.

According to James Jacson, "The Shadow World," "Abstract Eye" and "Abstract 'I'" were recorded at Olatunji's loft in New York City.  However, the Evidence reissue reveals that "The Shadow World" was recorded in mono and the two "Abstracts" in stereo, suggesting at least two different sessions.  A 12" pressing from Variety Recording Services has recently come to light.  According to John Szwed, one side consists of "The Shadow World" and what were then labeled "Abstract Experiment Take 1" and "Abstract Experiment Take 2."  The B side contains three tracks labeled "The Other People's World"; these have not yet been checked.  According to Seth Tisue, Impulse 1973, Impulsivity, was a 2-LP sampler that was circulated to radio stations in 1973.  "Abstract 'I'" was also included in a Sun Ra sampler derived from Evidence and released in 1997 on Japanese Paddle Wheel KICJ 315.

"Other Worlds" has the same personnel and the same sonic ambience as "The Shadow World" (except that it is recorded in stereo).  It was first released in 1989 on Blast First BFFP 42 (UK, LP and CD), Torso 33132 (Netherlands), and Restless 71427 [CD], all titled Out There a Minute.

118. [105]  Sun Ra and his Solar Arkestra

Sun Ra (Clavioline, p); Walter Miller (tp); Ali Hassan (tb); Marshall Allen (as, fl, picc); Danny Davis (as, fl); Harry Spencer (as); John Gilmore (ts); Pat Patrick (bars, fl); Robert Cummings (bcl); Ronnie Boykins (b); Roger Blank (d); James Jacson (perc); Tommy Hunter (reverb).

Rehearsal, NYC,
around September 24, 1965

The Magic City (Ra)

First issued as Side A of Saturn LPB 711, The Magic City, in 1966.  In 1967 this LP was given the catalog number 403.  Later issues on Thoth Intergalactic LPB 711 (black label, c. 1969) and El Saturn LP 403 (1970s).  All titles reissued in 1973 on Impulse AS-9243 (in "hideous fake stereo," according to Victor Schonfield, which was Saturn's doing, per Ed Michel).  All titles were reissued in 1993 on Evidence 22069 [CD].  The session date is courtesy of Bob Rusch; it is not known where the rehearsal took place.  Fall 1965 is clear on personnel and stylistic grounds alone, and was given as the date as far back as Julian Vein's discography (the 1960 date proclaimed by Impulse has zero credibility).

Personnel from the Saturn jacket, except Jacson says he was also present.  According to Walter Miller, Clifford Thornton was also on trumpet, but his contribution is inaudible (and could have been edited out; there are at least two tape splices in the piece as issued, and Tommy Hunter says that Sun Ra was highly adept at tape editing).  The Saturn release edited out the last 1:25 of "The Magic City"; the Evidence release, unlike the Impulse, does not fade the ending.

from Campbell/Trent - The Earthly Recordings 2nd ed.

The Magic City
Sun Ra
[Believed to be Thoth Intergalactic LPB 711 (1969)]

1. The Magic City   27:27
2. The Shadow World   10:35
3. Abstract Eye   2:47
4. Abstract "I"   4:01


-FLAC-
RS
HF


-320-
RS
MF






The Magic City
Sun Ra
Evidence ECD 22067-2

1. The Magic City   27:26
2. The Shadow World   10:58
3. Abstract Eye   2:52
4. Abstract "I"   4:08


-FLAC-
RS
HF




-320-
RS
MF