SUN RA -Magic City. Impulse AS-9243 (QS) Is it really QUAD?

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Mark Anderson

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SUN RA -Magic City. Impulse AS-9243 (QS) was identified as a quad demonstration cut in Billboard on 06-19-76
Sun Ra-Magic City Billborad 1976-06-19.jpg


It was also listed in Quad Incorporated 1st Edition as a quad only release.
The album was originally released in Mono in 1966. The ABC reissue does not mention quad or remixing and with the only source listing just a song from the album being QS I wonder if this title should be removed from the Popular discography.
Does anyone have the album or other clues as to its "Quadiness"?
 
Wow, Sun Ra would definitely be a surround must. As it is, copies of albums were sometimes released in small batches -- some with unique art covers -- and all are highly collectible. I have some vinyl but it's not worth all that much, and certainly not surround! Guess it is possible they did a small batch of these.
 
Wow, Sun Ra would definitely be a surround must. As it is, copies of albums were sometimes released in small batches -- some with unique art covers -- and all are highly collectible. I have some vinyl but it's not worth all that much, and certainly not surround! Guess it is possible they did a small batch of these.

There were, in fact, 5 Sun Ra QS Quadraphonic releases:*

SUN RA -
Astro Black. Impulse AS-9255 (QS)
Discipline 27-II. El Saturn Records SR-538 (QS)
Magic City. Impulse AS-9243 (QS)
Pathways to Unknown Worlds. Impulse ASD-9298 (QS)
* Space is the Place. Blue Thumb BTS-41 (QS), BTE-M-841 (QS8),
BT.10021 (QS) [France]
{The titles above were released only in quad, no stereo version known}


*Er, perhaps 4, NOT counting the 'questionable' Magic City QS pressing.
 
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There were, in fact, 5 Sun Ra QS Quadraphonic releases:*

SUN RA -
Astro Black. Impulse AS-9255 (QS)
Discipline 27-II. El Saturn Records SR-538 (QS)
Magic City. Impulse AS-9243 (QS)
Pathways to Unknown Worlds. Impulse ASD-9298 (QS)
* Space is the Place. Blue Thumb BTS-41 (QS), BTE-M-841 (QS8),
BT.10021 (QS) [France]
{The titles above were released only in quad, no stereo version known}


*Er, perhaps 4, NOT counting the 'questionable' Magic City QS pressing.

Wow--I'd only known about Space Is the Place, in its Impulse QS-CD incarnation (IMPD-249). That one has a fairly active mix. What about the others? Especially curious about Magic City since, as Mark pointed out, the original 1960s release was in mono.
 
SUN RA -Magic City. Impulse AS-9243

Does anyone have the album or other clues as to its "Quadiness"?


First off, there’s no cut on this record titled “Interlude.” :unsure:

I have a battered copy I bought sealed as a cut-out in the 70s.
Cleaned it up this morning and gave it a spin through the Yamaha AVR in DPL II.

Wow!

:51QQ

Try this through a decoder and see if you hear what I hear.
(Lots of action in the rears.)

 
SUN RA -Magic City. Impulse AS-9243 (QS) was identified as a quad demonstration cut in Billboard on 06-19-76
View attachment 34727

It was also listed in Quad Incorporated 1st Edition as a quad only release.
The album was originally released in Mono in 1966. The ABC reissue does not mention quad or remixing and with the only source listing just a song from the album being QS I wonder if this title should be removed from the Popular discography.
Does anyone have the album or other clues as to its "Quadiness"?

Three Dog Night -Dog Style. ??
 
That Billboard listing has "Dog Style " as a new QS recommended tune from the album of the same name by Three Dog Night .

I checked the album # and ABC/Command CQD 40018 , belongs to Three Dog Night - "Coming Down Your Way "
still I can't help but notice that that's two different sources now that listed Three Dog Night -"Dog Style " being released in Quad (QS).
The other was of course Sansui 's 4 Channel Scene .

Makes me wonder if it might have been issued for Radio/Review copy , but then suppressed , never released commercially.
 
I have two copies of the abc Impulse record of Magic City. The labels and credits say it was recorded in 1960 and produced by Alton Abraham. No reference to quad or remixing by Ed Michel the ABC producer who worked on these sun ra reissues.

But let me add to the above according to the book Space is The Place by John Szwed The Magic City was recorded in 1965 not 1960 as the Impulse record says and issued in 1966 on Saturn.

I have a book The House That Trane Built the story of impulse records by Ashley Kahn. Pages 232-233 detail the sun ra distribution deal. There is a list of 20 titles and the author says only 9 got released. This is an error because I have a copy of Pathways to Unknown Worlds listed in this book as unreleased. It is a white label promo but is labled quad. The gatefold does detail that it was remixed from a 4 track master.

Among the tapes delivered to Impulse were 7 inch 7 1/2 ips reels. More than a few were mono and one multi 8 track tape which had never been released. Unfortunately they don't identify which albums these were.
Many of the impulse Sun Ra releases on Impulse carry this blurb: this recording originally released on Saturn .....
These recordings are not up to contemporary recording standards. The music is exceptional.

The book has an index listing albums prefix numbers and year of release. They assign AS/AQ 9243 and year 1973 to The Magic City. I believe the AQ quad prefix is a mistake in this listing no evidence Ed Michel ever remixed this or even if it was true stereo to begin with.
It's been a while since I listened to it to check. I would imagine the cd comes from the same master ABC cleaned up.

Ed Michel would probably have the definitive answer as to which Sun Ra albums were remixed in QS quad. I believe Astro Black is another QS remix release.
 
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I’m convinced it’s quad encoded from listening.
Bass clarinet, bass marimba, tympani thunder from every corner.
It’s certainly stereo with abundant phase shift for an encoder to work with.

A quad Easter Egg revealed 40+ years after I bought it.
https://www.discogs.com/Sun-Ra-The-Magic-City/release/1037601

It was the gatefold cover that first attracted me.

1536627590230.jpeg1536627997000.jpeg1536628218390.jpeg
 
Ed Michel would probably have the definitive answer as to which Sun Ra albums were remixed in QS quad. I believe Astro Black is another QS remix release.

Ed Michel does not list the album as being produced by him.
list of all the recordings I've produced

I am leaning way passed this being quad but who knows when I will get around to updating the popular and not quad pages. Plenty of time for others to chime in. I still need to give it a listen myself.
I sure wish I could get more input from folks but maybe the lack of input speaks for itself. No one knows where this being listed as quad started other than the Billboard article.
 
Which means Ed Michel only cleaned up the tapes for the impulse reissue. If he did not remix them into QS quad nobody did.
 
I found this on Discogs in the notes for a CD re-issue.
https://www.discogs.com/sell/item/708525563

First-generation Saturn pressings of The Magic City were monophonic.
A full stereo version had been issued on Sun Ra's Thoth subsidiary label sometime after 1969; however, it suffered from a technical flaw that prevented many copies of the LP from tracking cleanly through the first cut on side B.
A 1973 gatefold LP reissue on Impulse featured reprocessed stereo.


Maybe there's something about the re-processed stereo on the Impulse pressing that sounds especially "surroundy" when played through a decoder.
I'm certainly hearing something powerful and dramatic as I switch between stereo & PLII.

Perhaps that's how it came to be listed in the Billboard article, with an incorrect track name, as a demo-worthy cut to demonstrate the "best effects" of QS decoding.
The only other "Jazz" track on that list is Chuck Mangione.

Imagine walking into a hi-fi showroom 45 years ago, in a receptive state of mind, and hearing this blasting from four speakers.
The cover art only enhances the mood.
Artist Don Bied had some kind of trippy mammary theme going along with the magic mushrooms.

IMG_0088.jpgIMG_0085.jpgIMG_0086.jpgIMG_0087.jpg
 
Magic city was my introduction to Sun Ra......wow what a hard first listen like Ascension by John Coltrane.
If I would have heard this album back in the 70s.....I would have never come out of my room......
 
Thanks for that Ed Michel link , Mark .

I notice a few " not quad " of interest such as the Jim Hall Live on Horizon and BB KING -In London on ABC (yet there was a Q8 for BB King ).

And there are quad discs by BB king not listed so not mixed a
nd not encoded by Ed Michel I would assume , so mixed and encoded by someone else .

Interesting to note an un issued quad on Artist House by Dave Brubeck .
and a crapload of unissed quad discs by Sun Ra which are now available as on Evidence .

Also John Lee Hooker -Live at Soledad on Bluesway and an additional Impulse disc from Alice Coltrane.....Reflections On Creation And Space .

Anyways thanks for that link....very informative . :)
 
Thanks for that Ed Michel link , Mark .

Also John Lee Hooker -Live at Soledad on Bluesway and an additional Impulse disc from Alice Coltrane.....Reflections On Creation And Space .

. :)


Got my Alice Coltrane disc mixed up . It s/b "Universal Consciousness " as an addition...Impulse AS 9210 .
("Reflections On Creation And Space " is already listed.)
and the John Lee Hooker -"Live At Soledad" is already listed as well, only it's on ABC , not Bluesway .

Good to know fr Ed Michel , it's available on cd on a twofer .
 
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