Stereo 8 Sun Ra and The Magic City

Ra may have been (…) a self-made myth, but the contours of the myth were shaped by a kind of symbiotic dialogue, an inter-textual relationship, with the main narrative threads of African American history. This myth was not the work of a madman or a con man, but one of the most brilliant and comprehensive acts of self-representation in black culture.” – Graham Lock (in Blutopia)

Sun Ra, the uncontested leader of The Solar Myth Arkestra, was born Herman Poole Blount. The space jazz pioneer was 38 when he changed his name and fully embraced the possibilities of political self-affirmation. Using music, Sun Ra dedicated a lifetime to promoting his grand project of betterment for humanity.

Le Sony’r Ra (Sun Ra’s legal name) was born in Birmingham, Alabama. He relocated to Chicago in the 1940s where he acquired notoriety as a capable and prolific musician. The time Sun Ra spent performing in Illinois’ largest city had a profound impact on his art and political vision.

Throughout the 1950s, he radicalized his approach to music and performance. Sun Ra and his Arkestra traveled to Montreal in the summer of 1961 but unforeseen circumstances forced the ensemble to return south of the border earlier than anticipated. Sun Ra and his musicians eventually settled in New York City. It is there that The Magic City and the ensemble’s liberating jazz fully came to life.

The Magic City was first released on vinyl in 1966 by Sun Ra’s own Saturn label. The album was then reissued in two formats – LP and Stereo 8 – by Impulse records. The album’s title track was recorded during rehearsals that took place late in 1965. It has been suggested that the sessions were edited to fit on one side of an LP. It is worth noting that “The Magic City” occupies the greater part of three of an 8-track cartridge’s four programs.

The album’s title is a direct reference to Sun Ra’s birthplace in Alabama but it also serves as a means or appropriating and repositioning the past within a vision of the future. The Magic City is a metaphor for the transformations made possible by the redrawing of boundaries and the removal of identity constraints. It forms parts of Sun Ra’s grand project. John Szwed, in The Wire Primers, insists that “there had been other great attempts at collective improvisation (…) but none had the seamless quality of The Magic City; nor its secret formalism.

The excerpt below was converted from 8-track tape to digital audio. The version of “The Magic City” available here is enriched by occasional audio-bleed (adjacent tracks can be heard on the left hand side – this is known as double-tracking).

…challenging, but not necessarily unpleasant for the ear.

“the magic city”

Stereo 8 (Impulse Records A 8027-9243) – Track Listing:
Program A: The Magic City (part 1)
Program B: The Magic City (part 2)
Program C: The Magic City (part 3) – The Shadow World (part 1)
Program D: The Shadow World (part 2) – Abstract Eye – Abstract “I”

LP – Track Listing:
Side A: The Magic City
Side B: The Shadow World – Abstract Eye – Abstract “I”