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Sun Ra Arkestra: Swirling
by Chris May
Saturn moved into the ascendant in October 2020 when the Sun Ra Arkestra under the direction of alto saxophonist Marshall Allen released its first studio album in over twenty years. Swirling presents new arrangements of both well-known and more obscure Ra tunes, played by a fifteen-piece lineup which includes band veterans and relative newcomers. It is a welcome addition to the Arkestra's near seventy-year catalogue. When Ra passed in 1993, tenor saxophonist John Gilmore, an on-off band ...
Continue ReadingKing Khan: The Infinite Ones
by Chris May
Something about the vibe of this completely wonderful album, and the milieu which its record label inhabits, puts one in mind of Beat poet Lawrence Ferlinghetti's self-published limited-editions of the 1960s. These were, according to information given on page three, “Printed, published, freaked out, & zapped by the Fuck You/ press at a secret grope-bunker somewhere in the Lower East Side, New York City, U.S.A." King Khan (a.k.a. A.A. Khan or the artist formerly known as The ...
Continue ReadingSun Ra Arkestra: Seductive Fantasy
by Ian Patterson
It seems entirely fitting that “Seductive Fantasy," the single from the Sun Ra Arkestra's first studio album in twenty years, should be a reworking of an old song, one that dates back over forty years to On Jupiter (El Saturn, 1979). With Sun Ra it was ever thus; old is new and new is old. The original “Seductive Fantasy" was a sprawling, seventeen-minute affair that morphed from loose groove and extended soloing into increasingly abstract, and almost arrhythmic terrain. Significantly ...
Continue ReadingSun Ra Arkestra: Live In Kalisz 1986
by Ian Patterson
In December 1986, the Sun Ra Arkestra performed at the 13th International Jazz Piano Festival in Kalisz. The Arkestra was making its first ever appearance in Poland and the historic occasion was duly recorded for posterity. The tapes, however, languished in a basement, unloved and forgotten, until they were unearthed over three decades later. Thanks to vinyl specialists Lanquidity Records, they have been remastered and released--on striking yellow vinyl--for the first time. The sound quality isn't always perfect-- a couple ...
Continue ReadingMoers Festival Interviews: Marshall Allen
by Martin Longley
The Sun Ra Arkestra are spending a lot of time on the road in recent months, and since this interview was conducted a few weeks ago, their saxophonist and musical leader Marshall Allen has celebrated his 95th birthday. Your scribe met with him following an opening night gig at the Liège jazzfest in Belgium. It was in the all-standing Reflektor club, which immediately encouraged a more informal audience response, complete with drinking, gyrating and, when it was time for the ...
Continue ReadingSibylle Zerr: Picture Infinity - Marshall Allen & The Sun Ra Arkestra
by Ian Patterson
Picture Infinity: Marshall Allen & The Sun Ra Arkestra Sibylle Zerr 152 pages, paperback ISBN: 978-3-00-035497-7 Self Published 2011Half a dozen books covering the life, times and music of enigmatic big band leader Sun Ra have appeared since his death in 1993, aged 79. Detailed biography, collections of interviews, early writings, poetry and street corner pamphlets give substantial insight into his artistic and philosophical roots. Weightier, academic tomes have studied the impact of ...
Continue ReadingKonstruKt with Marshall Allen: Vibrations of the Day
by AAJ Italy Staff
Ormai è ufficiale: sulla mappa dell'avant-jazz contemporaneo è segnata anche Istanbul. Grazie all'instancabile opera del chitarrista Umut Çaglar e dell'etichetta re:konstruKt, nella capitale turca, dal 2008, si agita e scalcia un agguerrito manipolo di improvvisatori. Una scena? Più che altro un collettivo dai confini molto labili, attorno al quale gravitano una trentina di indigeni e numerosi adepti sparsi per il mondo. Che ci fa un collettivo avant-jazz a Istanbul? Scherzi della globalizzazione, quella buona, che è sinonimo di idee che ...
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