Audio By Carbonatix
Reed expert Marshall Allen took over as bandleader for the legendary Sun Ra Arkestra in 1995. In its current fourteen-piece road act, the Ark still draws inspiration from ancient Egypt and science fiction. By phone from the late Ra’s house in Philadelphia, Allen, 81, discusses his old boss, space travel and the dangers of sound.
Westword: You were with the Buffalo Soldiers during World War II, correct?
Marshall Allen: That’s right. I was in Europe, but I was in the background, with the bands and the morale-building. We played V-Day in Reims for Eisenhower. Then I went to Paris to study clarinet at the Conservatory. I moved to Chicago, and that’s where I met Sun Ra. He had us hee-hawin’ around, runnin’ all night. He wanted to fill you up with philosophy and clean your mind. That got to be frustrating: I was trying to break out of the habit of being taught. And Sun Ra comes and un-teaches all of that!
He made the Arkestra rehearse seven days a week?
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Well, he had this gift of seeing the potential in a person and could blank out all the rigamaroo. If you didn’t do what you was supposed to do, he’d cuss you out right quick. He didn’t take no stuff. I’m not Sun Ra, but I practice and study and write music every day. I don’t rehearse the band every day, but I can get ’em in and out, rehearse maybe twice a week. So I’m gonna try to be as creative as the creator will let me.
Today’s Arkestra is often referred to as a Œghost band.’ Is that accurate?
Not us. We goin’ out, keepin’ Sun Ra’s spirit alive, playing all the music that was played by the old bands — with smoovement and sincereness. Sun Ra worked all his life and left a treasure for us to keep studyin’ and steppin’with. We’re still representin’.
Still traveling the spaceways?
Yeah! You got to go somewhere. But the space age is here to stay. There’s no place you can run away. In the old days, they was lookin’ at us like, ‘Wow! Where they coming from?’ Talkin’ ’bout goin’ to the moon, even though God won’t let you. Next thing you know, Sputnik was up, and everything else. But in the spirit of playing, you can do anything, go anywhere with a pure heart. Music can do a lot of things. Sound can mold and destroy at the same time. The French had a sound gun that could split fifty feet of reinforced concrete in one second! Sound can also help your spirit, like food does your body. I’m trying to use sound to mold people into a better order of being. They’ve ruined this planet, and it’s rebelling — bringin’ Katrina. It’s a dangerous job, dealing with sound. You can make people ugly, make ’em riot. But we got to better the condition with the vibrations of the day.
