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Marshall Allen

Marshall Allen - alto saxophone, flute, clarinet, oboe, kora, and E.V.I. (Electronic Valve Instrument).

Marshall Belford Allen, alto saxophonist, multi-instrumentalist, composer, bandleader, and arranger, was born May 25, 1924 in Louisville, Kentucky and started clarinet lessons at age 10. At 18, he enlisted in the Army's 92nd Infantry (renowned as the Buffalo Soldiers), playing clarinet and alto saxophone in the 17th Division Special Service Band. Stationed in Paris during World War II, he played with pianist Art Simmons and saxophonist Don Byas, and he toured and recorded with James Moody during the late '40's. Upon honorable discharge, Mr. Allen enrolled in the Paris Conservatory of Music, studying clarinet with Delacluse. Returning to the States in 1951, Marshall settled in Chicago, where he led his own bands, playing in clubs and dance halls, while writing his own music and arrangements, as he continues to do today.

During the mid-'50's, Marshall met Sun Ra and became a student of his precepts. After joining the Sun Ra Arkestra in 1958, Marshall Allen led Sun Ra's formidable reed section for over 40 years (a role akin to the position of Johnny Hodges in the Duke Ellington orchestra). Marshall Allen lived, rehearsed, toured and recorded with Sun Ra almost exclusively for much of his musical career, leading the reed section during the time that the Sun Ra Arkestra won the "Downbeat" polls as number-one big band in 1988 and 1989. As a featured soloist with the Arkestra, Marshall pioneered the avante-garde jazz movement of the early '60's, expanding a style rooted in Johnny Hodges and Don Byas, and influencing all leading avante-garde saxophonists thereafter. During this time, Marshall also invented a woodwind instrument he called the "morrow," utilizing a saxophone mouthpiece attached to an open-hole wooden body. (This instrument is currently being marketed under another name, as Marshall never secured a patent on his invention).

Marshall Allen was one of the first jazz musicians to play traditional African music and what is now called "world music," working frequently with Olatunji and his Drums of Passion. In fact, Marshall is most likely the sole jazz musician who builds and plays the kora (a popular West African multi-stringed instrument), and he has been a major factor in its introduction to American audiences, as well as the world at large.

Marshall Allen is featured on over 200 Sun Ra releases, as well as appearing as special guest soloist in concert and on recordings with such diverse groups as NRBQ, Phish, Sonic Youth, Diggable Planets, Terry Adams, and Medeski, Martin & Wood.

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6
Album Review

Sun Ra: At The Showcase (Live In Chicago, 1976-1977)

Read "At The Showcase (Live In Chicago, 1976-1977)" reviewed by Troy Dostert


Describing the music of Sun Ra is always challenging--perhaps even more so when it is documented on a live recording. A case in point is this offering from the Jazz Detective label, a substantial slice of Ra taken from two concerts at Chicago's Jazz Showcase in the mid-'70s. It can be dense and opaque, even impenetrable at times. But it also swings mightily, with a generous big-band sound which should appeal to all but the most close- minded jazz listeners. ...

6
Album Review

Terry Adams: Terrible [Deluxe Edition]

Read "Terrible [Deluxe Edition]" reviewed by Dave Linn


Terry Adams is best known for his work with the seminal band, NRBQ (New Rhythm & Blues Quartet). Their self-titled debut (Columbia, 1969), included Sun Ra's “Rocket Number Nine." The follow-up was a collaboration with early rock legend Carl Perkins called Boppin' The Blues. In 1974 singer, songwriter, and guitarist extraordinaire, Big Al Anderson and drummer Tom Ardolino joined the band. For the next 20 years that lineup thrilled live audiences around the world. In 1994, Anderson (dismayed by the ...

Album Review

Tyler Mitchell Octet: Sun Ra's Journey Featuring Marshall Allen

Read "Sun Ra's Journey Featuring Marshall Allen" reviewed by Alberto Bazzurro


Alternando momenti in cui si avverte chiara l'eredità del dedicatario dell'opera (sua la metà dei brani) ad altri un po' più routinieri, i primi e i secondi impreziositi dai graffi dell'ospite d'onore Marshall Allen, che di Sun Ra fu come tutti sappiamo uomo di fiducia per svariati decenni (e che ai tempi dell'incisione in oggetto, live allo Smalls nell'agosto 2021, aveva da qualche mese varcato la soglia dei 97!), si sdipana questo pregevole lavoro a firma di Tyler Mitchell, newyorchese, ...

Album Review

Sun Ra Arkestra: Living Sky

Read "Living Sky" reviewed by Stefano Merighi


Mentre la Enterplanetary Koncepts continua a sfornare inediti della Sun Ra Arkestra, il roccioso Marshall Allen--che va per i 100 il prossimo anno...-riesce a concepire di tanto in tanto nuove produzioni. Dopo l'apprezzato Swirling, ecco Living Sky, inciso a Philadelphia nel 2021, ancora sotto lo choc del COVID. E appare proprio come una seduta di musica dolcemente terapeutica questa raccolta di brani tenui, riposanti, deliziosi. Il gruppo raduna 19 elementi, che sotto la guida di Allen imbastiscono una ...

9
Album Review

Sun Ra: Space Is The Place (Music From The Original Soundtrack)

Read "Space Is The Place (Music From The Original Soundtrack)" reviewed by Doug Collette


The outlandish persona Sun Ra created and maintained for himself over the years may sometimes distract from the adventurous intent of the music he made. Yet it is testament to his vigorous loyalty to both the music as means of communicating his cosmic ideology and the basic tenets of his unconventional means of creativity that neither theme intruded dangerously upon the other during the course of his sixty-some year career. In a fittingly limited edition run (for both ...

8
Album Review

Sun Ra & His Intergalactic Solar Arkestra: Space Is The Place (Music From The Original Soundtrack)

Read "Space Is The Place (Music From The Original Soundtrack)" reviewed by Mark Corroto


Do not expect The Criterion Collection to reissue the 1974 film Space Is The Place anytime soon. It is though, a cult classic in the truest sense of the word. Sun Ra and his Arkestra had been at the forefront of avant-garde music, developing and refining his vision since the 1950s. Today listeners are most likely acquainted with Ra's claims of being from Saturn and his mission to save our doomed planet. Back in the late 1960s and early 70s ...

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Liner Notes

Sun Ra at Inter​-​Media Arts, 1991

Read "Sun Ra at Inter​-​Media Arts, 1991" reviewed by Howard Mandel


On April 10, 1991, the night of this concert at Inter-Media Art Center in Huntington, Long Island, Sun Ra was near the apogee of his earthly transit. Having led his transformative iterations of his Arkestra around the globe for an unlikely if not unimaginable four decades, the visionary composer, keyboardist, conceptualist and cosmologist was, even though in recovery from a stroke, at the peak of his powers, two years from breaking free of his local orbit entirely. He ...

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3

Festival

October Revolution 2018: John Zorn, The music of Legendary Hasaan with Christian McBride, Wolf Eyes & Marshall Allen, and more!

October Revolution 2018: John Zorn, The music of Legendary Hasaan with Christian McBride, Wolf Eyes & Marshall Allen, and more!

Source: Ars Nova Workshop

ACCLAIMED PHILADELPHIA FESTIVAL EXPANDS LINEUP The October Revolution of Jazz & Contemporary Music, a four-day international music festival presented by Ars Nova Workshop, in partnership with FringeArts, has confirmed several additional artists for its 2018 lineup as well as announcing single-day tickets. Featuring some of the most groundbreaking and uncategorizable artists in modern music, Ars Nova is pleased to announce that John Zorn, Tomeka Reid Quartet with Mary Halvorson, Christian McBride, as well as Wolf Eyes featuring Marshall Allen all ...

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Book / Magazine

New book: Picture Infinity - Marshall Allen & The Sun Ra Arkestra

Source: aurelia boro

Multi-instrumentalist Marshall Allen is among the most striking voices in jazz. His explosive alto saxophone is signature sound of the Sun Ra Arkestra, an iconic African-American big band which he joined in 1958. Succeeding the bands legendary founder Sun Ra who already in his lifetime has turned into a myth of its own, Marshall Allen has directed the Sun Ra Arkestra since 1995. Under the guidance of the 87-year old maestro, the Sun Ra Arkestra has not only survived all ...

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Music Industry

IN + OUT RECORDS announces new releases from Johnny Griffin, the Sun Ra Arkestra under the direction of Marshall Allen, and Ratko Zjaca with John Patitucci, Steve Gadd and Randy Brecker

IN + OUT RECORDS announces new releases from Johnny Griffin, the Sun Ra Arkestra under the direction of Marshall Allen, and Ratko Zjaca with John Patitucci, Steve Gadd and Randy Brecker

Source: Michael Ricci

IN + OUT RECORDS, one of Europe's most enterprising and acclaimed independent jazz labels, with a reputation as a producer of recordings of the highest musical and technical quality established through its twenty-plus years of releasing cutting edge music created by both American and European artists, announces its second release of new recordings to be distributed exclusively in the United States by the Allegro Media Group. Following up on its initial Allegro distributed release of recordings by Billy Cobham, Odean ...

159

Interview

Under Your Skin / Rockyoumentally Interviews: Terence Blanchard, Eric Mingus, Marshall Allen, Leena Conquest & Wu Fei

Under Your Skin / Rockyoumentally Interviews: Terence Blanchard, Eric Mingus, Marshall Allen, Leena Conquest & Wu Fei

Source: All About Jazz

“Under Your Skin" is a cultural mosaic on the art of music and its creators. Terence Blanchard Interview - Working with Spike Lee / Katrina Eric Mingus Interview Leena Conquest Interview Wu Fei Interview ...

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Performance / Tour

The Vision Club presents Henry Grimes / Marshall Allen Saturday March 19 10PM

The Vision Club presents Henry Grimes / Marshall Allen Saturday March 19 10PM

Source: All About Jazz

March 16, 2005 To: Listings/Critics/Features From: The Vision Festival / www.visionfestival.org PRESS Contact: Jim Eigo [email protected] / 845.986.1677 Non-press inquiries, call 212.696.6681 or send email to [email protected] A R T S F O R A R T 508 East 6th Street #3, NYC 10009 Saturday March 19, 2005 THE VISION CLUB presents 10pm Henry Grimes / Marshall Allen At Clemente Soto Velez - LES Gallery 107 Suffolk Street at Rivington Continuing along their 2005 US tour, prodigal bassist Henry Grimes ...

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Performance / Tour

Henry Grimes & Marshall Allen: Spaceship on the Highway! (3/O5)

Henry Grimes & Marshall Allen:  Spaceship on the Highway! (3/O5)

Source: All About Jazz

February 24, 2005 To: Listings/Critics/Features From: JAZZ PROMO SERVICES Friday, March 4th through Saturday, March 19th, 'O5: Henry Grimes & Marshall Allen SPACESHIP ON THE HIGHWAY ! a road tour of the northeastern U.S. < > < > > > < > Contact: Margaret Davis, (212) 841-O899, > < > < > Friday, March 4th: Henry Grimes & Marshall Allen, An Die Musik, 4O9 North Charles St., 2nd floor, Baltimore, Maryland, sets at 8 & 1O p.m., 888-221-617O, , . ...

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Event

Henry Grimes & Marshall Allen on Tour - March 4-19, 2005

Henry Grimes & Marshall Allen on Tour - March 4-19, 2005

Source: All About Jazz

Friday, March 4th through Saturday, March 19th, 2005 Henry Grimes & Marshall Allen SPACESHIP ON THE HIGHWAY ! A road tour of the northeastern U.S. Contact: Margaret Davis, (212) 841-O899, [email protected] Friday, March 4th: Henry Grimes & Marshall Allen, An Die Musik, 4O9 North Charles St., 2nd floor, Baltimore, Maryland, sets at 8 & 1O p.m., 888-221-617O, www.andiemusiklive.com, [email protected]. Sunday, March 6th: Henry Grimes & Marshall Allen, Brew House (not a brewery, but the former Duquesne ...

Photos

Music

Recordings: As Leader | As Sideperson

Terrible [Deluxe...

Omnivore Recordings
2024

buy

At The Showcase (Live...

Jazz Detective
2024

buy

Sun Ra at the...

Jazz Detective
2024

buy

Sun Ra's Journey...

Cellar Music Group
2023

buy

Space Is The Place...

Self Produced
2023

buy

Dancing Shadows

Mahakala Music
2022

buy

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