Honoring the 105th anniversary of Sun Ra’s arrival on Planet Earth and the 95th Birthday of Marshall Allen, Sun Ra Arkestra starts another European tour in Spring 2019.
Sun Ra left this planet in 1993. Since 1995, the group has performed under the direction of alto saxophonist Marshall Allen. Marshall Allen, as Musical Director of the Arkestra, is now in his 60th year of continuous activity within the Arkestra. Marshall has been in the Sun Ra Arkestra 23 years longer than Sun Ra himself. In Spring 2019 Marshall Allen will turn 95 years young, an incredible achievement which they are going to celebrate with an unforgettable European Spring tour.
Sun Ra was one of the greatest and least known jazz artists of the last four decades, whose influence on diverse musicians is little known to the general public. A pianist and band leader, his style ranged from retro swing to avant free, and often in the same piece. His band could play a swinging Gershwin tune and almost imperceptibly soar into their free cosmic equational tones as if they possessed a single mind.
Ra, or "Sonny" as some called him, was a keyboard improviser of great originality, but I think his foremost talent was for inspiring and teaching creative musicians to improvise freely but together. This tension between freedom and coherence was something he explored with abundant energy and skill. Sun Ra took his leave of us in 1993. The Arkestra still performs today, under the able direction of alto saxophonist Marshall Allen.
Sun Ra said and wrote many strange things while he was upon this planet. The easy, mindless reaction is to just label him "weird" and hide behind that facile label. Another possibility is that he was passionately engaged in and by his creative mythology, and that what he really meant could only be articulated in his music.
Marshall Allen - director, alto sax, flute
Cecil Brooks - trumpet
Tara Middleton - vocal, violin
Knoel Scott - évocal, saxophones
James Stewart - tenor sax
Danny Ray Thompson - baritone sax
Dave Davis - trombone
Farid Barron - piano
Francis Middleton - guitar
Elson Nascimento - percussion, surdo
Tyler Mitchell - double bass
Wayne A. Smith - drums
http://www.sunraarkestra.com/
