Latest news with #SunRaArkestra
Yahoo
10-05-2025
- Entertainment
- Yahoo
Longtime Arkestra member Marshall Allen sitting out Sun Ra Festival in Birmingham
BIRMINGHAM, Ala. (WIAT) — Marshall Allen, a jazz musician who has been associated with the Sun Ra Arkestra for nearly 70 years, will not be part of the upcoming festival in Birmingham celebrating the singular Herman Blount, better known as 'Sun Ra.' Marshall Allen, who will celebrate his 101st birthday on May 26, has been part of Sun Ra's band for decades, first joining when Blount was based in Chicago in the 1950s, continuing on through Sun Ra's death in 1993 and leading the band ever since. As longest serving member of the Arkestra, Allen led the band to its first Grammy nomination for 'Swirling,' a collection of Sun Ra standards released in 2020. Sun Ra took his music from Birmingham to outer space. For the first time, his band is nominated for a Grammy Lee Shook, organizer for the Sun Ra Festival being held May 21-24, confirmed that Allen, who has cut back on his performances with the band in recent years due to health concerns, would not be able to come to Birmingham for the festival. 'It will be his 101st birthday on May 26th, and we wanted to make it his birthday party as well, but have been told he cannot come because he does not fly anymore,' Shook said. 'We even had an angel donor offer to fly a private jet up to get him and take him back to Philly so he could be here for it, but alas his doctor said no, which we just found out about.' Shook said there are plans in the works to have Marshall take part in the festival through a Zoom call sometime during the festival, but nothing has been finalized yet. In an interview with CBS 42 ahead of his 100th birthday, Allen talked about how he is still creating music, but that life on the road at his age is just not realistic. 'You're always running after trains and planes and carrying all that baggage,' Allen said. 'I'm not so tired I can't work, but traveling is rough.' Nonetheless, Allen is still keeping busy with music, releasing his debut solo album, 'New Dawn,' in February, as well as taking part in recent collaborations with Meshell Ndegeocello on the Sun Ra-inspired album 'Red Hot & Ra: Magic City' and the Kronos Quartet on 'Outer Spaceways Incorporated – Kronos Quartet & Friends Meet Sun Ra.' Sun Ra, who took the public persona as an alien from Saturn, was born and raised in Birmingham, playing music with different bands before leaving for Chicago in 1945. Although he never reached the same cultural peaks as his contemporaries, Sun Ra and his music have continued to reach new generations and is considered a pivotal figure in afrofuturism, which reconfigures the Black experience through science fiction. He is buried at Elmwood Cemetery. More information on the Sun Ra Festival can be found here. Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
Yahoo
30-04-2025
- Entertainment
- Yahoo
Marshall Allen reflects on his journey through jazz
At the golden age of 100, Marshall Allen is still on tour. He's promoting New Dawn, his first solo album with his name and was honored Saturday with the National Endowment for the Arts Jazz Masters Fellowship. Allen grew up in Louisville, Kentucky, listening to the sounds of Duke Ellington's jazz orchestra. The clarinet was the first instrument Allen learned to play. He then learned the saxophone, while serving in the Army band during World War II. "I'm going in like I'm going to be a hero. I'm going to do this and that, but when I got that reality of Army life, it was … it was different," he said. His sound is unique because he doesn't just play the written melody, he adds random notes at random times to reflect how the songs make him feel. "You just have to depend on the spirit of the song," Allen said. How Allen played and his reasons why changed in the late 1950s when he met Herman Poole Blount, known as Sun Ra. The composer and leader of "Sun Ra Arkestra" later welcomed Allen into his group, but not without criticism. "He said 'You sound good, had a tone and your disk and it sound good, but it's not what I want.' I said, 'Now what is it that you want?' He is saying … 'I want to hear what you don't know.'" Sun Ra's fascination with outer space and the true freedom it could offer inspired his cosmic blend of jazz, Afrofuturism and spiritual expression. He encouraged his artists to play from the heart and improvise when they "felt the spirit." For years, the group lived together in Philadelphia and practiced relentlessly. "Rehearsed day and night," Allen said. "I had to get my discipline together." When Sun Ra died in the early 1990s, Allen became the new leader. For the last 30 years he has been teaching musicians the art of playing what they don't know. Jazz music journey Allen said jazz music is just as important today as it was when he was starting out. The routine of preparing for a show and testing his instruments never seems to get old for Allen, who turns 101 next month, and recently performed in Brooklyn, New York. "I've been doing this so long," he said. "70, 80, 90 years." It's been time well spent doing what he loves, which is making people feel something. He said what keeps him going with jazz is, "the spirit of things and not knowing everything." As for the next generation of musicians, Allen said they "have to earn it." "If you want to play music, you have to get it," he said. "You have to be in a spirit. You have to play what you don't know." Kristi Noem says she's "very confident" undocumented migrants stole her purse Ashlie Crosson named 2025 National Teacher of the Year Supreme Court appears poised to side with student with disability in school discrimination case
CBS News
30-04-2025
- Entertainment
- CBS News
Jazz legend Marshall Allen reflects on his music journey at 100 years old: "You just have to depend on the spirit of the song"
At the golden age of 100, Marshall Allen is still on tour. He's promoting New Dawn, his first solo album with his name and was honored Saturday with the National Endowment for the Arts Jazz Masters Fellowship. Allen grew up in Louisville, Kentucky, listening to the sounds of Duke Ellington's jazz orchestra. The clarinet was the first instrument Allen learned to play. He then learned the saxophone, while serving in the Army band during World War II. "I'm going in like I'm going to be a hero. I'm going to do this and that, but when I got that reality of Army life, it was … it was different," he said. His sound is unique because he doesn't just play the written melody, he adds random notes at random times to reflect how the songs make him feel. "You just have to depend on the spirit of the song," Allen said. How Allen played and his reasons why changed in the late 1950s when he met Herman Poole Blount, known as Sun Ra. The composer and leader of "Sun Ra Arkestra" later welcomed Allen into his group, but not without criticism. "He said 'You sound good, had a tone and your disk and it sound good, but it's not what I want.' I said, 'Now what is it that you want?' He is saying … 'I want to hear what you don't know.'" Sun Ra's fascination with outer space and the true freedom it could offer inspired his cosmic blend of jazz, Afrofuturism and spiritual expression. He encouraged his artists to play from the heart and improvise when they "felt the spirit." For years, the group lived together in Philadelphia and practiced relentlessly. "Rehearsed day and night," Allen said. "I had to get my discipline together." When Sun Ra died in the early 1990s, Allen became the new leader. For the last 30 years he has been teaching musicians the art of playing what they don't know. Jazz music journey Allen said jazz music is just as important today as it was when he was starting out. The routine of preparing for a show and testing his instruments never seems to get old for Allen, who turns 101 next month, and recently performed in Brooklyn, New York. "I've been doing this so long," he said. "70, 80, 90 years." It's been time well spent doing what he loves, which is making people feel something. He said what keeps him going with jazz is, "the spirit of things and not knowing everything." As for the next generation of musicians, Allen said they "have to earn it." "If you want to play music, you have to get it," he said. "You have to be in a spirit. You have to play what you don't know."
The Guardian
11-03-2025
- Entertainment
- The Guardian
Womadelaide 2025: Róisín Murphy, Khruangbin and more lead a blissful, sweltering weekend
As the sun set on day three of Womadelaide, under the bat colony at Tainmuntilla (Botanic Park), the audience were in a trance. Brooklyn-based Colombian musician Ela Minus mixed her voice with synthesisers, prompting a roar from the crowd; strobe lighting pulsed over the moving mass of bodies. The surrounding pine trees somehow seemed to make the reverb echo even stronger, lifting us up through the canopy to the open stars above. Minus' music is complex and expansive, pop music meets house. We were all hypnotised, dancing as one, slick with a day's worth of sunblock and sweat. Her 45-minute set was over too fast: a set so good it sent me into a stupor for two hours, aimlessly wandering in search of something that could possibly continue the high. Adelaide sweltered through this year's Womadelaide weekend, with daytime temperatures hovering around 35C on Saturday and Sunday before hitting 40C on Monday. Stage seven, under the flying fox camp, saw performances moved or rescheduled during the day. The heat stress proved to be too much for one tree, which dropped a branch on several punters on Monday evening, with one man taken to hospital with concussion. The artists, perhaps, hadn't realised the extent of the heat – or chose to ignore it. Ngaiire started her set in a voluminous red dress; Róisín Murphy began in a black suit and a fur hood; and Sun Ra Arkestra were decked out in sequins and metallics. Despite this, they all performed with incredible energy – and this energy was given back to them in spades. At Murphy's boisterous pop set on Saturday night, there was a forward momentum to the crowd; a drive to share space even more intimately. Murphy embraced this, climbing on to the crowd barrier, hugging and taking photos with her fans. In this heat, Emily Wurramara stood apart – in a long flowy skirt and a bikini top – her rich soulful voice giving way to a conversational artist who just wanted to have fun with her audience in the summer heat. Last year's festival saw protests after the Palestinian Jordanian band 47Soul were uninvited. Returning to Womadelaide this year, they performed without incident, a Palestinian flag draped on the stage, flags and keffiyehs held aloft in the crowd. At their Saturday afternoon set, Walaa Sbeit touched on the events of last year. 'It was frustrating for us, the justification of why you would withdraw an invitation to us,' he said. To the overwhelming support of the audience, he asked: 'Are you ready for some more anti-colonial music? Are you ready for some more anti-racist music? Are you ready for some more free Palestine music?' This year, despite the heat, Womadelaide felt easy. There was the hectic dancing and the always eclectic and soul-revilatising music. The crowds gathered thick at the front of stages – especially after the sun went down. But while there were crowds, it never felt crowded. Most of the day, the only lines were for ice-cream. Even in the thickest crowds, there was space to dance, or to simply watch. This was perhaps best exemplified by the festival's closing act: Khruangbin's psychedelic rock left the audience blissed out, swaying in an easy vibe. On a mostly languid Saturday afternoon, I found what I was looking for in Lindigo, a maloya band from Réunion Island. In the full sun, people were dancing to the drums, the bass, the accordion: a joyous, melodic cacophony. Spray bottles of water – a mainstay across the weekend – were squirted in time with the beat. Towards the end of their set, Lindigo came down into the audience. We were directed in our dance moves, artists and audience moving in sync. In the heat, it felt like something magic. These magic moments kept happening. I joined at the back of the crowd for Nana Benz du Togo halfway through their set. Less than five minutes later, the crowd had grown by another 10 metres of dancing bodies; another five minutes, another 10 metres. At the Scottish folk band Talisk, I watched a dozen people hold hands in a circle on the edge of the crowd, jigging faster and faster. First Nations rap group 3% brought up a member of the crowd to sing on their Like A Version cover of Youngblood: Eloise easily held her own among the professionals of the festival. Much of the highlights were the musicians who make fascinating connections between musical genres: Estonia's Duo Ruut played a delicate concert, where they manipulated a zither with a violin bow and drum sticks; Digable Planets were a funky melding of hip-hop and jazz; and Amaru Tribe richly played between traditional Latin American music and electronica. Sunday was a day of big sounds. I travelled from Andrew Gurruwiwi Band to Bala Desejo to Saigon Soul Revival to Sun Ra Arkestra to Talisk: all of them joyous and effortlessly cool, their music full, at every stage a dancing mass of bodies. Nils Frahm closed out the evening at 11pm. After the frantic energy of the day, Frahm's complex and mediative music was just what we needed to send us into the night. As the temperature finally dipped below 30C, the crowd settled. Some stood at the stages; but most of us sat or lay down, embracing the cool grass and the stillness. I looked up at the stars, letting the combination of electronica and piano wash over me, feeling as one with the music and the park. As I watched the sky, perfectly in sync with Frahm, I even caught a shooting star. Womadelaide 2025 was held 7-11 March
