Close your airlock and engage your warp drive to find out why “Space Is the Place”

Alto saxophonist Marshall Allen has been on a worldwide 95th birthday celebration tour since January, blasting off to Stockholm, London, Jersey City, Budapest, Paris, and other dazzling ports of call. His Musically Manned Orbiting Vehicle (MMOV) containing the Sun Ra Arkestra landed in Philly in June at Union Transfer, and it was quite a night. Fans can catch this space age band at various venues around the world.

Marshall Allen, a living “jazz deity.” (Image courtesy of sunraarkestra.com.)

Born in Louisville, Kentucky, in 1924, Allen started early on the clarinet. He enlisted in World War II at age 18 with the Buffalo Soldiers, who liberated Italy, and went on to play with the Special Services entertainment division in Paris. This young alto player quickly got attention from saxophonists Don Byas and Coleman Hawkins, and this association ultimately evolved into a tour (and recording) with James Moody’s Boptet, leading to Allen’s sojourn at the Paris Conservatory of Music.

A life transformed

Then he met Sun Ra in the early 1950s, and his life was transformed. Ra’s mystical world and mission of human elevation changed Allen’s ideas about what music could inspire and do for spiritual uplift. So the alto saxophonist stayed and a unique movement was born.