Sun Ra Arkestra

APPEARING: BROOKLYN MARATHON @ THE OPERA HOUSE

Saturday, January 14, 2023

A key member of Sun Ra's Arkestra, alto saxophonist Marshall Allen is a distinctive performer whose style bridges early swing and bop traditions with the non-chordal note choices, and explosive, pyrotechnic sound clusters associated with the free jazz movement. Following his emergence in the 1940s, Allen rose to prominence playing with the Arkestra in the '50s, and later assumed leadership of the group after the deaths of Ra and his immediate successor John Gilmore. Along with his extensive recorded output with Ra, including 1972's Space Is the Place, Allen was a regular collaborator of Babatunde Olatunji, with whom he emerged as one of the first jazz musicians to fuse the avant-garde with traditional African music. He has also paired up for albums with Odean Pope, Ed Blackwell, Medeski, Martin & Wood, and others. In 2014, he curated the career-spanning Arkestra anthology In the Orbit of Ra, and in 2019 joined Arkestra bandmate Danny Ray Thompson for Ceremonial Healing.