North Philadelphia

A city.
A father.
A sound.

The Ben Franklin Bridge, Old City, the skyline he grew up under — the streets that shaped Atakatune, student of Sun Ra, and carried him from a North Philly rowhouse to the congas of the Arkestra.

Enter the story

the tapes • the film • the family • north philly • the arkestra • the tapes • the film • the family • north philly • the arkestra •

A companion to the memoir

Dad. Sun Ra. North Philly. The full story.

He was the youngest member of Sun Ra’s Arkestra. He was my father. This is where his voice, his art, and the people who knew him live now — a companion to the memoir I am writing, and a room that keeps opening.

Takatune (Stanley Leon Morgan) in silver agbada, peace sign — TAKATUNE Stanley Leon Morgan

Takatune, age 19 — portrait — Takatune, age 19

Dad in the studio — cap, shades, headphones on, hands on the congas

My father holding me in a wicker peacock chair — Holding me

My father with all four of us kids — All the kids

Four ways in.

Take the door that fits your mood. All of them lead back to him.

01
Listen

Twenty-two recordings. Dad, Mom, Yaya, Leonya. Sun Ra stories. The final conversation.
22 tapes 4h 18m total
02
Look

North Philadelphia. M. Hall Stanton. Dad’s art. Photographs from the years that made me.
Photo essays growing weekly
03
Watch

I Am A Promise. The documentary that filmed my elementary school, shared here with the filmmakers’ permission.
Members only free signup
04
Sun Ra’s Arkestra: Takatune Years

Every studio and official live Sun Ra album released during the years Dad was in the Arkestra. Cover art, labels, and one-tap links to listen.
74 albums 1971–1992

The tape ledger.

Every recorded conversation, transcribed and dated. Filter by who’s speaking or what they’re talking about.

01

Baby of the Band

Dad on being the youngest in Sun Ra’s Arkestra, how the elders taught him, and what it meant to grow up inside a cosmic-jazz family.

DAD SUN RA 2018‑10‑17 58:16
02

Talking about Mom

Dad on my mother — how they met, what she carried, and the marriage he keeps returning to.

DAD FAMILY 2018‑10‑17 48:37
03

Sun Ra & band politics

Rehearsals, road stories, and the leader who called them all together.

DAD SUN RA 2018‑10‑17 20:36
04

Missing Kwame

Dad talks about my brother. Grief, and what came after.

DAD KWAME 2018‑10‑17 33:27
05

About Janet (Grandma)

The woman who held everyone together. Dad on his mother, the house she ran, the lessons he still hears.

DAD FAMILY 2018‑10‑17 21:09
06

Morgan family business

The people, the trades, the way this family made a living and a name.

DAD FAMILY 2018‑10‑17 15:56
07

Aunt Pierr’s music collection

The records that were around before Dad was in the Arkestra. What he grew up hearing.

DAD SUN RA 2018‑10‑17 15:01
08

The final discussion

October 23, 2018. The last conversation we recorded together.

DAD 2018‑10‑23 6:05

North Philly, from where I’m looking.

Two addresses hold everything. 2458 N Chadwick — my childhood home. 2438 N Bouvier — my grandmother’s, where we landed after we were removed from my mother’s home. A few miles up in Germantown, 5626 Morton Street stands as the Sun Ra House, the Arkestra’s home base since 1968.

The block, in living color.

North Philadelphia in the summer of 1973 — the year my father was 19, playing behind Sun Ra. Photographed by Dick Swanson for the EPA’s Documerica project. Public domain, courtesy the U.S. National Archives.

North Philadelphia rowhouses at golden hour with kids playing in the street and a corner bodega, c. 1973

Kids playing in the street beside a yellow van and red brick rowhouses, North Philadelphia, 1973

A young girl in an argyle vest sitting on the stone steps of a North Philadelphia rowhouse, 1973

A young child in a red shirt and red plaid pants standing before a graffiti-covered wall, North Philadelphia, 1973

A man in a vacant lot with an abandoned car and salvaged furniture, North Philadelphia, 1973

Children playing in a North Philadelphia housing development playground, 1973

A small child walking down a North Philadelphia block lined with rowhouses and parked cars, 1973

Neighbors gathered on the front stoop of 2205 in North Philadelphia, 1973

A boy on the sidewalk beside a North Philadelphia rowhouse with flower boxes over the awning, 1973

A long row of North Philadelphia rowhouse marble stoops receding down the block, 1973

A boy crouching at the edge of a fountain, hands raised, North Philadelphia, 1973

A mother in a patterned dress and her young son at the edge of a fountain, backs to the camera, North Philadelphia, 1973

North Philadelphia rowhouse with white and black facade between brick neighbors, autumn leaves on the sidewalk

Red brick rowhouse with striped awning and blue trim, 2400 block of Bouvier Street

Red brick North Philadelphia rowhouse with iron security door

The family, from where I’m looking.

Rooms, blocks, and gatherings that raised me — Dad, my siblings, and the people who filled the house. Tap any photo to enlarge.

Dad in the wicker peacock chair, red room

Golden-hour photograph of a North Philadelphia rowhouse block in the late 1970s

2458 N Chadwick Street rowhouse block, North Philadelphia

2438 N Bouvier Street, grandmother’s house, dark navy rowhome with black storm door

5626 Morton Street, Germantown — the Sun Ra House

The Sun Ra House with its painted Afrofuturistic front door, Morton Street, Germantown

Morton Street looking west toward the Sun Ra house block, stone rowhomes with covered porches

I Am A Promise.

The 1993 Academy Award-winning documentary that filmed our elementary school, M. Hall Stanton. I have permission from the filmmakers to share it here.

1993 · 90 MIN · ACADEMY AWARD WINNER

The Podcast

An upcoming limited documentary podcast.

Built from recorded conversations with my father, family memory, North Philadelphia history, and the world around the Arkestra, Baby of the Band is becoming a limited documentary podcast.

The tapes remain open here in the archive. The podcast will shape that material into a new listening experience.

In development Trailer coming soon

Get trailer updates

The Arkestra wing

Sun Ra called it a family before he called it a band.

Dad’s years with the Arkestra are the throughline of this archive. I’m assembling a timeline, the tapes he told me himself, and interviews with the people who played beside him.

1970s
Dad joins the Arkestra. The youngest in the room.
The road
Germany, festivals, late-night rehearsals in Philadelphia.
2017
Our first recorded conversation about Sun Ra.
In progress
Interviews with former Arkestra members and family. If you knew him — I want to hear from you.

Did you know Dad? Get in touch →

Sun Ra’s Arkestra: Takatune Years.

Every studio and official live album Sun Ra released during the years Dad was in the band. Compiled from Wikipedia and cross-referenced against the Sun Ra Music catalog. JSON

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Tier 02 · Coming next

Plus compilations & archival live releases

Expands tier 01 with contemporaneous compilations and the archival live releases that surfaced during Sun Ra’s lifetime. Estimated 100–140 titles.

Contemporaneous compilations (e.g. Sunrise in Different Dimensions reissues)
Archival live releases from the 1971–1992 window
Notable European festival sets (Berlin, Donaueschingen, Montreux)
Cross-references from AllMusic and Bandcamp

Tier 03 · Long term

The complete Saturn catalog

The full recorded output: Saturn one-offs, obscure pressings, and everything Sun Ra Research has catalogued. 200+ releases, sourced from the Campbell bibliography.

Robert L. Campbell, The Earthly Recordings of Sun Ra
Alton Abraham Collection (University of Chicago)
Saturn Records catalog numbers & dating
Cross-referenced against Discogs pressings

Primary source: Sun Ra discography — Wikipedia. Where sources conflict, the widely accepted release year is used; Saturn releases were often undated on the sleeve.

Sun Ra, in his own voice.

A living catalog of Sun Ra himself — lectures, interviews, TV, and declamations pulled from public YouTube uploads. Curated to feature Sun Ra’s voice, not tributes. JSON

Loading the tapes…

Sources: Sun Ra Music Channel, the Alton Abraham archive, Emperor Xavier Dujuan, CEddy10165 (Sun Ra Arkive), and Intergalaxtic Music: Sun Ra tapes. All videos link out to YouTube.

From the memoir.

Before anyone wrote a report about us, or decided what we were, my father’s voice filled the house. It was deep and heavy, and it carried an echo that lived in the front room and traveled the hallway like a ghost. When he called my name, the sound didn’t just arrive, it wrapped itself around our lead-filled plaster walls before it reached me.
CHAPTER 1 Sound and structure

See the book page →

Drop 001 ✦ Limited run

Wear the tape.

Four pieces in the first drop. The Takatune poster on cotton tee and heavyweight hoodie, in bone and midnight. Reserve your size below—we’ll email you the moment they’re ready to ship, first come first served.

Baby of the Band Tee Bone

Heavyweight cotton · chest print

$38

Baby of the Band Tee Midnight

Heavyweight cotton · chest print

$38

Baby of the Band Hoodie Bone

Heavyweight fleece · pullover · chest print

$68

Baby of the Band Hoodie Midnight

Heavyweight fleece · pullover · chest print

$68

Pre-order model. No payment now—we send you a private link the moment your size ships, so you never miss the drop.

A city. A father. A sound.

Dad. Sun Ra. North Philly. The full story.

Four ways in.

Listen

Look

Watch

Sun Ra’s Arkestra: Takatune Years

The tape ledger.

Baby of the Band

Talking about Mom

Sun Ra & band politics

Missing Kwame

About Janet (Grandma)

Morgan family business

Aunt Pierr’s music collection

The final discussion