The Magic City is an American jazz album created by Sun Ra and his band Solar Arkestra. It was recorded in two sessions in 1965 and released on Sun Ra's music label, El Saturn Records, in 1966. The album could fall under the category of jazz called avant-garde. Initially, going into the album, I had no clue what I would expect for the sole reason I had no idea who Sun Ra was nor what his music sounded like. I basically went in cold, just eager to find new music I may like. Was I horribly mistaken…
After listening to 30 seconds of the first track, The Magic City, I had to turn it off. I hated it with a burning passion. "What about this makes the album be considered jazz?" I thought to myself. Nothing about that song made sense to me. However, I did have a basic understanding of what avant-garde jazz was, a style of music that combines avant-garde music and jazz with a significantly emphasized bases of improvisation. It has a similar origin to free jazz. The two subgenres are my least favorite in jazz, mainly because they are chaotic. None of the melodies make sense in the genres; they almost always feel extremely out of place. This can be applied entirely to Sun Ra's album The Magic City as well. The album sounded like the feeling of confusion if it had a sound, with a mix of an 80s space track film. I was beyond lost on why someone would create music that sounded like that. So I did more research on Sun Ra's vision and reasoning for making the album, and it was pretty fascinating.
Sun Ra was a pioneer in the Afrofuturism aesthetic. Afrofuturism is an aesthetic that's centered around Black history and culture and incorporates science-fiction, technology, and futuristic elements into literature, music, and the visual arts. It addresses themes and concerns of the African diaspora through technoculture and speculative fiction, encompassing a range of media and artists with a shared interest in envisioning black futures that stem from Afro-diasporic experiences. In the musical sense, Afrofuturism represents a diaspora of music that is non-traditional, focusing on the topics of blackness and space.
Furthermore, Sun Ra used the Afrofuturism aesthetic to explain his ideology further. He would frequently challenge conventions surrounding his relationship with identity and politics, mainly topics that dealt with race. He viewed that Black people don't exist in this society on Earth because if they did (in his words), they wouldn't need to seek equal rights. Instead, they would have statutes in all of the world's nations, as white people do. He believed that Black people could never find freedom or peace on Earth and that real emancipation resides in the cosmos. He used Afrofuturism along with music to further emphasize this point. In addition, he used space travel as a metaphor for Black liberation.
That's just the surface level of Sun Ra's philosophy; the best way to describe it is like mining in a cave. The deeper you go, the more you find, though it will take a long time. He rejected the idea of his world views being seen as a philosophy but rather as an equation that is based on logic and earthliness. He presents a unified conception, combining music, myth, and performance into his multi-factored equations. Every single factor of the "Sun Ra experience" is a manifestation of his equations, from his music to business practices. His mission was to elevate humanity beyond its current earthbound state, tied to outmoded conceptions of life and death when the potential future of immortality waits for them. As stated previously, Sun Ra was considered to be an early pioneer of the Afrofuturism movement and aesthetics through his music and other works. Sun Ra's influence can be seen throughout many aspects of black music. He grounded his practice in a musical tradition of performing blackness that can still be seen in today's world. He was one of the first jazz leaders to use two double basses, play the electric keyboard, and use extensive percussion and polyrhythms to explore modal music and pioneer solo and group freeform improvisation.
This album was a reflection of everything previously mentioned. He takes the listener through a journey in space in this album. He uses instruments in a nonconventional way to create sounds that feel like they came out of a science fiction movie. This album adds to his "equations" that black people can only find peace in the stars far away. The journey he is taking to listeners is to the sacred place, a better tomorrow, the magic city. After further research on Sun Ra and why he creates the music he does, I grew a massive appreciation for his craft. He was able to explain enormous philosophical and political ideas in an extremely unique way that has never been seen before.
I have come to the conclusion that this album is more of an art piece than anything else. I feel like the album wasn't necessarily meant solely for the listening experience but rather as a small part of a large story that Sun Ra has been telling his audience throughout the years. I feel as though he wanted to create something that was surreal and obscure to get people thinking about what the purpose of it was. He developed a musical style that seemed like it was a mistake, something so bizarre that no one in their right mind would ever create. So maybe he wanted the audience to not think of this album or of his music in general as a mistake but rather not think of it in the traditional way they are seen, as negative. But instead, focus on the positive characteristics of why it was created, think more outside that box, and translate that into their views on how society works. All in all, I feel like the whole idea of this album is to keep that open-mindedness in all aspects of life and not to only think in a way society wants us to.
- Sage Miles :p
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