The Magic City

Infobox Album
Name = The Magic City
Type = Album
Artist = Sun Ra


Released = 1965
Recorded = 1965, New York City
Genre = Jazz
Length = 45:16
Label = Saturn, Impulse!, Evidence,
Producer = Infinity Inc., Alton Abraham,1993 reissue prod. Jerry Gordon
Reviews =
* Allmusic Rating|4|5 [http://www.allmusic.com/cg/amg.dll?p=amg&sql=10:7n821vg8zzpa link]
Last album =
This album = "The Magic City"
(1965)
Next album = "The Heliocentric Worlds of Sun Ra, Volume One"
(1965)

"The Magic City" is a 1965 album by Sun Ra.

It is notable especially for the title track, on which "the Arkestra's range of feelings and sound is expressed in a design that's simply unprecedented in jazz" [cite book | author=Litweiler, John | title=The Freedom Principle: Jazz After 1958 | publisher=Da Capo | year=1984|id=ISBN 0-306-80377-1|pages=146] . While it begins with use of tape echo recalling the experiments on "Art Forms of Dimensions Tomorrow", the key features quickly emerge: Ra's simultaneous piano and clavioline intertwining with Boykins' bass as the underpinning for new long-forms of group music-making which draw on varying sub-ensembles from the Arkestra through the course of the piece.

"The Magic City" is an early indication and prime example of the direction in which the music of the Sun Ra Arkestra would move, leading almost immediately to "The Heliocentric Worlds of Sun Ra" later in the same year.

Track listing

# "The Magic City" – 27:22
# "The Shadow World" – 10:55
# "Abstract Eye" – 2:51
# "Abstract "I"" – 4:08

Personnel

*Sun Ra - piano, clavioline
*Pat Patrick - baritone saxophone, flute, tympani
*John Gilmore - tenor saxophone
*Marshall Allen - alto saxophone, flute, oboe, piccolo
*Danny Davis - alto saxophone, flute
*Harry Spencer - alto saxophone
*Robert Cummings - bass clarinet
*Walter Miller - trumpet
*Chris Capers - trumpet
*Ali Hassan - trombone
*Teddy Nance - trombone
*Bernard Pettaway - trombone
*Roger Blank - Percussion
*Ronnie Boykins - bass
*Jimhmi Johnson - Percussion

References