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Sun Ra Arkestra

Personnel

Marshall Allen - leader, alto sax, flute, clarinet, EVI (Electronic Valve Instrument)
Knoel Scott - alto sax
James Stewart - tenor sax
Mike Watson - bass clarinet
Danny Thompson - baritone sax, flute
Michael Ray - trumpet
Cecil Brooks - trumpet
Ryan Frasier - trumpet
Vincent Chauncey - french horn
Dave Davis - trombone
Emmet McDonald - trombone
Tyler Mitchell - bass
Wayne Anthony Smith, Jr. - drums
Elson Nascimento - surdo, percussion
Dave Hotep - electric guitar
Tara Middleton - vocals, violin
George Burton - piano
Teddy Thomas - percussion

Tags

6
Live Review

Sun Ra Arkestra at Great American Music Hall

Read "Sun Ra Arkestra at Great American Music Hall" reviewed by Harry S. Pariser


Sun Ra Arkestra SFJAZZ Center San Francisco, California February 6-8, 2024 Over the decades, music venues in jny: San Francisco have come and gone, but one constant remains: Great American Music Hall. A house of ill repute when it first opened in 1907, the building has gone through several transitions as a musical performance space and has even served the Loyal Order of the Moose as a meeting hall. In 1972, visionary Tom Bradshaw refurbished ...

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 ...

3
Live Review

Sun Ra Arkestra at SFJAZZ Center

Read "Sun Ra Arkestra at SFJAZZ Center" reviewed by Harry S. Pariser


Sun Ra Arkestra SFJAZZ Center Summer Season San Francisco July 18-21, 2023 Though on the surface, Dead & Company and the Sun Ra Arkestra--the first a Grateful Dead offshoot focusing on rock tunes featuring extended jams, the other an avant-garde jazz ensemble that remains ahead of its time--might seem really different, in fact they share surprising similarities. Both recently performed multi-night concerts in San Francisco. Dead & Company which has inherited The Grateful Dead's ...

10
Album Review

Sun Ra Arkestra directed by Marshall Allen: Living Sky

Read "Living Sky" reviewed by Mark Corroto


In 2022, Sun Ra has been gone nearly thirty years, but thanks to maestro Marshall Allen his Arkestra has survived. Allen had been a member of Sun Ra's band since the late 1950s and it has been under Allen's leadership since 1995. Fans that have enjoyed the Arkestra in concert certainly hoped for the band to record and it wasn't until the splendid Swirling (Strut) was released in 2020 that wish was fulfilled. The Marshall Allen-led the Arkestra's second offering, ...

7
Album Review

Sun Ra Arkestra directed by Marshall Allen: Living Sky

Read "Living Sky" reviewed by Chris May


When Sun Ra aficionado and Omni Sound Records founder Ahmet Ulug reached out to Sun Ra Arkestra leader Marshall Allen to commission a new album from the band, he gave Allen a tight brief. Ulug said that he wanted something: “Spiritual and hypnotic... down tempo, melodic and grooving... Music that is accessible and healing." Even though the crisis the world endured in 2020 and 2021 called out for such music, Ulug's directions to the veteran sonic-warrior may seem ...

Album Review

Sun Ra Arkestra: Nothing Is... Completed & Revisited

Read "Nothing Is... Completed & Revisited" reviewed by Maurizio Comandini


L'etichetta svizzera Ezz-thetics sta facendo un lavoro eccellente con capolavori degli anni sessanta riproposti in edizione da loro stessi definita 'revisited' che cerca di fare ordine e chiarezza anche su momenti un po' dimenticati che meritano di essere riscoperti e pienamente apprezzati. Tutto questo è ancora più necessario quando ci troviamo alle prese con la discografia di Sun Ra, uno dei primi artisti a scegliere di auto-prodursi con la mitica etichetta Saturn, piena di episodi memorabili ma ...

3
Album Review

Sun Ra Arkestra: Nothing Is...Completed & Revisited

Read "Nothing Is...Completed & Revisited" reviewed by Chris May


The 1966 concert recording which comprises this album--here in a new, audio-improved edition—has travelled the discographical spaceways in what, when it comes to Sun Ra, is properly circuitous and confusing fashion. Eight tracks from it were scheduled for release by ESP-Disk in 1967 or 1968 as The Heliocentric Worlds Of Sun Ra Volume III, complete with a catalogue number (ESP 1046), but the release never happened. The same tracks were then issued by ESP as the LP Nothing Is in ...

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1

Recording

Sun Ra Arkestra Veteran Drummer Wayne Smith, Jr. Releases 'Be Still,' A Powerful Venture In Emotion And Tranquility

Sun Ra Arkestra Veteran Drummer Wayne Smith, Jr. Releases 'Be Still,' A Powerful Venture In Emotion And Tranquility

Source: Outside in Music

Wayne Smith Jr. is a drummer, composer, and educator with a multifaceted palette of soundscapes and genres at his disposal. Having toured across three continents, performed throughout the New York, Philadelphia, and Washington, D.C. music scenes, and currently working as a staple member of the legendary Sun Ra Arkestra, Smith’s accolades rightly herald his abilities as a master craftsman of the drum set. Described as an “inventive drummer who displays an in-depth musical consciousness,” and who is “willing to embrace ...

30

Festival

Sun Ra Arkestra Headlines 2nd Annual Beacon Jazz Festival -- June 25, Riverfront Park, Beacon, NY

Sun Ra Arkestra Headlines 2nd Annual Beacon Jazz Festival -- June 25, Riverfront Park, Beacon, NY

Source: James Keepnews

The legendary cosmic jazz of Sun Ra Arkestra—under the direction of their longtime, nonagenarian alto saxophonist, Marshall Allen—headlines the second annual Beacon Jazz Festival. Sponsored by Birches Associates and once more celebrating this quintessential American music, alongside the distilleries, craft vendors, culture and natural splendor of the Hudson Valley, the second Beacon Jazz Festival will take place on Saturday, June 25 from 2-7 PM at Pete and Toshi Seeger Riverfront Park in Beacon, NY. In addition to presenting Sun Ra ...

1

Festival

Veronica’s Tales Jazz Festival (Slovenia) Set for June 18 to 21

Veronica’s Tales Jazz Festival (Slovenia) Set for June 18 to 21

Source: Michael Ricci

June 18 will see the launch of the first edition of the Veronica's Tales Jazz Festival in Kamnik Slovenia. The four day festival will be held at the historical castle “Zaprice" and run from June 18th, up to and including Saturday June 21st. Performances start every evening at 19.00, with the main stars of the festival performing at 21.00. The Veronica’s Tales festival is one of the new breed of festivals that have been popping up in eastern Europe over ...

96

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 ...

107

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 ...

255

Performance / Tour

The Magic City: Sun Ra Arkestra at University City (Philadelphia) on July 24

The Magic City: Sun Ra Arkestra at University City (Philadelphia) on July 24

Source: Ars Nova Workshop

The last time we heard from the Sun Ra Arkestra was on May 25th at Johnny Brenda's when Ars Nova Workshop hosted Maestro Marshall Allen's 86th birthday celebration. Through two high-energy sets that had the audience either dancing feverishly or contemplatively traversing the spaceways, the group demonstrated the unrivalled expertise, joy, and passion that have been the foundation for their musical journeys since Sun Ra founded the Arkestra in the mid-1950s.

At 6PM on Saturday, July 24, the Sun Ra ...

157

Recording

Sun Ra Arkestra - Sunrise in Different Dimensions (Hatology)

Sun Ra Arkestra - Sunrise in Different Dimensions (Hatology)

Source: Master of a Small House

The solitary entry by the Saturnian in the Swiss label's catalog, this set earns its third pressing on compact disc with this newly-minted hatOLOGY edition. It's singular in several other senses as well. Culled by producer Werner X. Uehlinger from the band's first night stand at Willisau in the winter of 1980, the track list skews toward the standards that were a regular part of the band's repertoire, but infrequent inclusions on record. Space chants and Ra originals commonly took ...

372

Event

A Real Jazz Party! Second Annual Jazz up Down and Around with the Sun Ra Arkestra in Philadelphia on April 25th

A Real Jazz Party! Second Annual Jazz up Down and Around with the Sun Ra Arkestra in Philadelphia on April 25th

Source: Michael Ricci

Join the Party! It's LifeLine's second annual JAZZ UP DOWN AND AROUND event thanks to funding by the William King Foundation and support by the University of the Arts, Philadelphia Jazz Heritage Project, All About Jazz and WRTI radio.

Hear jazz in all directions with:

Sun Ra Arkestra under the direction of Marshall Allen Warren Oree & The Arpeggio Jazz Ensemble The University of the Arts Jazz Band.

APRIL 25, 2010 THE ...

196

Music Industry

Sun Ra Arkestra Member/Father of Massachusetts Governor's Collection Dedicated to Berklee S Africana Studies Archive

Sun Ra Arkestra Member/Father of Massachusetts Governor's Collection Dedicated to Berklee S Africana Studies Archive

Source: Michael Ricci

Massachusetts Governor Deval Patrick, and his family, is honoring his late father s musical and cultural legacy by donating the vast collection of jazz musician, composer and arranger Laurdine Kenneth Pat" Patrick to Berklee College of Music s Africana Studies Archive. The historical Pat Patrick Collection comprises hundreds of scores, photographs, personal materials, and recordings. A dedication ceremony and celebration of Pat Patrick s life and work will be held on March 24 at the college s Africana Studies Archive. ...

420

Performance / Tour

Ars Nova Workshop Presents: Peter Brotzmann/Nasheet Waits, Offonoff, Matana Roberts and the Sun Ra Arkestra!

Ars Nova Workshop Presents: Peter Brotzmann/Nasheet Waits, Offonoff, Matana Roberts and the Sun Ra Arkestra!

Source: All About Jazz

Ars Nova Workshop presents: Wednesday, May 6, 8pm BROTZMANN / WAITS DUO Peter Brotzmann, reeds Nasheet Waits, drums Philadelphia Art Alliance, 251 S. 18th Street $12 General Admission The founding father of the European Free Jazz movement, German saxophonist Peter Brotzmann has made important contributions with Last Exit (with Bill Laswell, Sonny Sharrock and Ronald Shannon Jackson), Die Like a Dog (with William Parker, Hamid Drake and Toshinori Kondo) and his Chicago- ...

Bonnie Kane
multi-instrumentalist
Jeffrey Morgan
saxophone

Photos

Concerts

May 19 Sun

Music

Recordings: As Leader | As Sideperson

Living Sky

Omni Sound
2022

buy

Seductive Fantasy

Strut Records
2020

buy

Babylon

In+out record
2015

buy

Live At The Paradox

In+out record
2010

buy

Videos

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