
American Jazz musician and bandleader Marshall Allen plays on alto saxophone as he leads the Sun Ra Arkestra during a performance at Central Park SummerStage, New York, New York, July 30, 2005.
Photo by Jack Vartoogian/Getty Images.
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American Jazz musician and bandleader Marshall Allen plays on alto saxophone as he leads the Sun Ra Arkestra during a performance at Central Park SummerStage, New York, New York, July 30, 2005.
Allen, an alto saxophonist, has been leading the Sun Ra Arkestra since 1995.
After serving as the leader of the Sun Ra Arkestra for 30 years, alto saxophonist Marshall Allen is finally releasing his own solo album.
The 100-year-old musician has announced New Dawn, his solo debut that will be released on February 14 via Mexican Summer/Week-End Records. The jazz musician shared a new single from the album, its title track (which features Neneh Cherry), earlier this week. Previously, he shared the single “African Sunset” last year.
According to AL.com, New Dawn features seven tracks: “Prologue,” “African Sunset,” “New Dawn,” “Are You Ready,” “Sonny’s Dance,” “Boma” and “Angels and Demons at Play.”
Allen, who has led the Sun Ra Arkestra (named after the brilliant, Afrofuturist jazz musician Sun Ra) since 1995, spoke with Jazzwise last year about how he discovered — and ultimately joined — the Arkestra, sharing how it all began with coming across the group’s Super-Sonic Jazz album released in 1957.
“I had a job at a camera company, polishing lenses. One day, I got off work and bought that album. I took it home and listened to it and I was like, ‘Boy, what’s that band?’ The stuff they were doing, I’d never heard that before. It was far out and [had] different kinds of melodies,” he recalled. “So, I went back and asked the guy I bought the record off, ‘Where’s this band? This is a real band!’ He said, ‘Well, they’re right up there near you, about six blocks from where you live. They practice every night up there.’ So, I went and found ’em. I heard the band, and they sounded so good, I ran back and brought my horn!”
“‘Course, I was late for work the next day,” Allen continued. “I’d stayed up all night with Sun Ra because, after he got through rehearsing, we went over to hear a saxophone player in a club and then we went out to eat and, the next thing you know, it was four or five in the morning, and I went to work all late and sleepy and everything. That was when I met him. And he asked me to come to rehearsals.”
“I tried to get into the band and then I was lucky because some of the mainstay guys were moving to New York. In ‘58, [Sun Ra] finally let me in,” he added.