Meshell Ndegeocello is spearheading the next installment in the ongoing Sun Ra tribute series, Red Hot + Ra, with the LP Red Hot & Ra: The Magic City, out April 12.
The LP isn’t a traditional “tribute” album filled with covers. Rather, Ndegeocello and her numerous collaborators honored Sun Ra with totally new compositions that used the intergalactic jazz giant’s ideas, words, and melodies.
The first offering from the album, “#9 Venus the Living Myth,” incorporates elements from Sun Ra’s “Rocket Number 9” and “The Living Myth” and features a saxophone duet between Sun Ra Arkestra leader Marshall Allen and rising Philadelphia jazz star Immanuel Wilkins. It’s actually a reunion of sorts, as Wilkins performed a series of shows with the Arkestra back when he was just 10 years old.
Ndegeocello’s work on The Magic City — as well as her recent Grammy-winning Blue Note album The Omnichord Real Book — was deeply influenced by reading John Szwed’s biography of the jazz legend, Space Is the Place: The Lives and Times of Sun Ra.
“I haven’t been the same since reading that book,” she said in a statement. “I think it’s what inspired The Omnichord Real Book, in the sense of, ‘what happens when you’re no longer driven by youth?’ Sun Ra’s music is a living organism, and once you immerse yourself in his work, his life, you recognize there’s a fork in the road — that you really have to make choices, because there’s so many other realms and dimensions to explore Musically.”
She added: “I want people to walk away [from this album] understanding that [life] is really of your own design. The mind is the only part we really have control over, and do the best to live the life you want to live.”
Along with Ndegeocello, Allen, and Wilkins, The Magic City features contributions from jazz saxophonist Darius Jones, vocalist/composer Justin Hicks (who plays in Ndegeocello’s live band), drummers Deantoni Parks and Kojo Roney, bassist Rashaan Carter, multi-instrumentalist Stuart Bogie, guitarist Christopher Bruce, violinist Eddy Kwon, and keyboardists Daniel Mintseris and Jebin Bruni. Ndegeocello co-produced the album with Hector Castillo.
The first two Red Hot & Ra tribute albums were released last year. Red Hot & Ra: Nuclear War was inspired by Sun Ra’s 1982 track of the same name and featured contributions from artists like Georgia Anne Muldrow, Angel Bat Dawid, Malcolm Jiyane Tree-O, and Irreversible Entanglements (an accompanying remix album was also released). Meanwhile, Red Hot & Ra: Solar featured an array of Brazilian musicians from numerous genres paying tribute to Sun Ra.
