Marshall Allen

A pivotal figure in Sun Ra's Arkestra, alto saxophonist Marshall Allen developed a singular approach that merged the swing and bop eras with the non-chordal phrasing and explosive, pyrotechnic clusters characteristic of free jazz. Emerging during the 1940s, he gained visibility through his Arkestra work in the 1950s and took leadership of the ensemble following the deaths of Sun Ra and his immediate successor John Gilmore. Beyond his extensive Arkestra catalog, highlighted by the 1972 release Space Is the Place, Allen frequently collaborated with Babatunde Olatunji, becoming one of the earliest jazz artists to merge avant-garde improvisation with traditional African music. Additional partnerships yielded recordings with Odean Pope, Ed Blackwell, Medeski, Martin & Wood, and others. In 2014 he assembled the career-spanning Arkestra anthology In the Orbit of Ra, and in 2019 he reunited with Arkestra colleague Danny Ray Thompson on Ceremonial Healing.

Marshall Allen was born May 25, 1924, in Louisville, Kentucky, and began clarinet study at age ten. Enlisting in 1942 with the U.S. Army's Buffalo Soldiers, he performed on clarinet and alto saxophone in the 17th Division Special Service Band and later formed a trio in Paris with pianist Art Simmons and guitarist Don Byas. After touring and recording with James Moody throughout the late 1940s, he attended the Paris Conservatory of Music and returned to the United States in 1951, establishing residence in Chicago where he organized a dance band and began composing original material.

Around 1956 Allen encountered Sun Ra and joined the pianist's Arkestra two years later. He directed its reed section for more than four decades, earning recognition as one of the postwar period's most distinctive and original saxophonists. Together with tenorist John Gilmore and baritone saxophonist Pat Patrick, he appeared on more than 200 Sun Ra sessions, among them the acclaimed 1958 Jazz in Silhouette, 1969 Atlantis, 1973 Space Is the Place, and 1986 Hours After. He also devised a personal reed instrument called the "morrow" by fitting a saxophone mouthpiece to an open-hole wooden body, though he never secured a patent; the design later reached the market under alternate names.

During Arkestra breaks, Allen performed regularly with Olatunji and his Drums of Passion and acquired skill in constructing and playing the West African kora. He further contributed to live appearances and recordings by subsequent-generation artists such as the jam band Phish, the avant-rock group Sonic Youth, and the hip-hop collective Digable Planets.

Following Sun Ra's death in 1993, leadership passed to John Gilmore, who died two years afterward; Allen then assumed direction of the 18-piece ensemble and guided it well into the new millennium. Alongside master classes, lectures, and demonstrations of Sun Ra's principles, he established the El Ra label, which issued later Arkestra projects including the 1999 A Song for the Sun and the 2004 Music for the 21st Century.

In 2014 he curated the two-disc Arkestra retrospective In the Orbit of Ra and joined Chicago DJ Jamal Moss's Hieroglyphic Being project for the techno and free-jazz album We Are Not the First. He next recorded 2016's In This Moment with saxophonist Odean Pope. Ceremonial Healing, issued for Record Store Day 2019, documented Allen alongside Arkestra bandmate Danny Ray Thompson, keyboardist Jamie Saft, bassist Trevor Dunn, drummer Balazs Pandi, and guest trombonist Roswell Rudd.