Marshall Allen Celebrates Sun Ra

This seems to be a good year for reviving my interest in Sun Ra. At the beginning of this past May, I wrote about the release of Sun Ra at the Showcase: Live in Chicago, which accounted for performances in both February of 1976 and November of 1977. Listening to that album reminded me of when my wife and I were living in Los Angeles and went to at least one of Ra’s performances with his Arkestra.

Cover of the album begin discussed (from the Amazon.com Web page)

Ra died on May 30, 1993. After that, Marshall Allen took over leading the band, which kept Ra’s name in the title as the Sun Ra Arkestra. This past May 25 marked Allen’s 100th birthday. For that occasion IN+OUT Records invited the 24 musicians in this band to make a recording in its studio. The result was released today under the title Lights On A Satellite, and it is now available through an Amazon.com Web page.

I have to confess that there were a few episodes during my listening experience that shifted my attention in a somewhat unorthodox direction. This was particularly the case with the ensemble’s take on David Rose’s “Holiday for Strings.” This was the theme song for The Red Skelton Show, which was always introduced by a chorus singing “David Rose and his ORRRRchestra” (which was about as inspiring as fingernails on a blackboard)! Spike Jones also had his way with the tune, having it sung by a clucking chicken. Allen introduces the tune on Lights On A Satellite with a bit of his own tongue in cheek; and, while his rhetoric verges on the raucous, he never descends into the absurdities of the last century! (Mind you, the gong at the end of “Friendly Galaxy” also brings Jones to mind!)