There have been several messages posted to the Saturn List regarding the Sun Ra Arkestra under the direction of Marshall Allen concert at the Knitting Factory August 14, 2000. I trust that the following review of the event with some clarifications on some of the information recently posted will help those interested. First of all, there was no agreement between the Knitting Factory and the Sun Ra Arkestra under the direction of Marshall Allen to do a live stream or Webcast of the event. Please rest assured that if there was going to be such a "Webcast", you would hear about it in advance through the Saturn List, since prior arrangements would be needed in order for this to occur.

The pre-show sound check was challenging, since there was a new sound person working that had not worked with the Arkestra before. He ultimately did a great job for the sound in the audience, even though the mix was louder than normal for an Arkestra show. This was in part due to DJ Spooky's participation, since his sound check mixed much louder than the Arkestra and they had to balance the two when performing together, mostly by dialing up the Arkestra several notches over their normal sound levels. One problem that the Arkestra faced was that the on stage monitors did not allow some of the musicians to hear each other, but the Arkestra adapted in the same way they have in the past and still put on a good show by adjusting to the conditions.

One thing to look for in the near future would be transcripts of interviews done with Marshall Allen, Ya Ya Abdul Majid, and Noël Scott done after the sound checks and prior to the event. These were recorded by staff from space.com and they did video and audio recording of these interviews. I sat in on Marshall's interview and the questions were well researched and on target for the Arkestra.

The concert was preceeded by the various authors and publishers involved with Dark Matter : a Century of Speculative Fiction from the African Diaspora talking about their involvement with the book. The event was focused on the celebration of the release of this anthology of black writers in the field of speculative and science fiction. One author read his contribution. One of the contributors to the book was DJ Spooky himself. He said a few words regarding his work in the book and then followed the book discussion by doing a solo set. At the end of his set, he motioned the Arkestra to come onstage and one of the Arkestra members gave him appropriate space garb to wear, thus annointing DJ Spooky as a member of the Arkestra for the show.

The Arkestra consisted of Marshall Allen (leader, alto sax, flute), Art Jenkins (vocals, percussion, megaphone a.k.a. 'the secret weapon'), Ya Ya Abdul Majid (tenor sax, percussion), Noël Scott (alto sax, percussion), DJ Spooky (turntables, computer, miscellaneous electronic devices), Najee (trumpet), Fred Adams (trumpet), Tyrone Hill (trombone), Dave Davis (trombone), Luquman Ali (drums), Elson Nascimento do Santos (surdo, percussion), Jimmi Esspirit (percussion), Teddy Thomas (percussion), Charles Ellerbee (guitar), and John Ore (bass).

Marshall opened with The Satellites are Spinning and followed with Greetings from the Century of 21 as the second chart. This featured Ya Ya on tenor and Marshall turned up the pace a bit with a smoking alto solo. Next, Better Music (Will Create a Better World) was performed, the first piece from the Arkestra's most recent A Song For The Sun CD.

Following that was another release from the new CD Blue Set that saw Charles Ellerbee featured in an intense guitar solo, followed by Noël Scott on alto and a great solo by John Ore on bass. Fifth chart for the night was Cosmic Hop.

Then Marshall featured a new composition Deputy Hotel that he explained to me was one that Sun Ra started and that Marshall recently completed. The history behind this tune was regarding a hotel in Europe called the Deputy Hotel and the fact that Marshall's nickname was "Deputy" when Sun Ra was around was not lost on this chart. It is a somewhat slow chart, but very melodic with a pacing that highlighted the collective instrumentation skills of the band. The seventh chart was They're Peepin', also from the most recent CD. Then, Lights on a Satellite was featured, giving Marshall a chance to show his finesse on his wood flute. On Carefree, one of the critical keys on Marshall's alto broke, and in spite of that, he continued by first trying to attach the broken key to one of his fingers using a rubber band, then abandoning this idea and working around the problem for the rest of the set. The tenth tune was The Second Stop is Jupiter / Next Stop Mars / Space Is The Place / If We Can't Go Nowhere Here medley. They closed with We Travel The Spaceways as they snaked throughout the standing room audience at the Knitting Factory.

Overall, the addition of DJ Spooky for the whole set (instead of the end of the set as originally expected) caused the Arkestra to have a slightly different set that would allow DJ Spooky to follow Marshall's lead on the charts, since DJ Spooky did not previously rehearse with the band. The interchange between him and Charles Ellerbee was extremely interesting, as the electronic groove was pumped up with the dynamics of those two during the evening. It would be interesting to see what would happen if DJ Spooky did some rehearsing with the Arkestra and could participate more actively in a show. The core of the Arkestra, now based mostly in Philadelphia, is improving with the rehearsals that Marshall Allen is conducting and the introduction of new arrangements and compositions continues to add to the excitement at each live show.

—Greg Drusdow

Return to the Review Index	Return to Saturn

---