At 100, Marshall Allen isn’t done traveling the sonic spaceways

There was nothing out of the ordinary about the way that saxophonist, composer, and bandleader Marshall Allen celebrated his landmark 100th birthday on Friday night. The eve of his centennial was spent the same way he had spent so many nights of that long life: traveling the sonic spaceways with the Sun Ra Arkestra.

Nothing, except for the fact that “out of the ordinary” is exactly where the Arkestra has always felt most at home. On Friday, the cosmically focused big band illuminated the stage at Union Transfer with two hours of music, its indefatigable Maestro front and center throughout. There were no special guests or extra ceremony to mark the occasion. The Arkestra, with its sea of sequined robes, Pharaonic headgear, raucous eclecticism, and tendency to break out into rapturous dance, was spectacle enough.

The history of jazz itself doesn’t extend more than a few decades beyond Allen’s tenure on the planet, and the Arkestra’s music has always pulled from various points along that timeline. On Friday, experimental Sun Ra compositions like “Angels and Demons at Play” and “Rocket Number 9″ alternated with down-home blues and a lush arrangement of “Stranger in Paradise,” the latter contrasted by Allen’s blistering sax screech slicing through the elegance with a bracing-yet-playful disruption.

» READ MORE: At 99, he’s playing sold-out shows in sequined robes

Allen showed little sign of his age, evoking shrieks, squalls, and sputters from his alto saxophone. He summoned exotic textures and atmospheres on the EWI (a hybrid electronic synth-sax), striking a cymbal here, and singing and punching his arms into the air there, to command stabs and swells of sound from the band. He stayed behind on the stage as the band snaked its way through the crowd for its traditional processional, but danced his way off stage at the end of the evening. He was ushered back to the front by one of his sons to bask in a full-audience rendition of “Happy Birthday.”

“He’s the LeBron James of jazz!” hailed saxophonist Immanuel Wilkins over the phone last week. Wilkins, who has risen from a Philly sax prodigy to a Blue Note recording artist and one of the most acclaimed artists of his generation, played local performances with the Arkestra when he was just 12 years old.

“LeBron’s still playing at 40, and Marshall’s still playing at 100. Music really, tangibly has healing powers. It keeps you young.”

Born on May 25, 1924, in Louisville, Ky., Allen arrived in Philadelphia with his family during his teens. At 18, he enlisted in the Army’s 92nd Infantry Division — popularly known as the Buffalo Soldiers — and was stationed in Paris, where he spent the war years playing clarinet in the 17th Division Special Service Band. He stayed on to study at the Paris Conservatory of Music.

By the time he returned to the U.S. in 1951, Allen’s family had moved to Chicago, where he met the eccentric keyboardist / bandleader / philosopher Sun Ra. He joined the Arkestra, the band with which he would make the majority of his music for the remainder of his life. Following its namesake’s passing, Allen assumed the mantle in 1995 and has led the band ever since, garnering its long-overdue first Grammy nomination for its 2020 album Swirling.

Not long after taking up residency in its new long-term home, the South Philly venue Solar Myth, Ars Nova Workshop (which presented Friday’s performance) began regularly hosting Allen in small group settings with an ever-changing ensemble called Ghost Horizons.

» READ MORE: At 99 years old, Marshall Allen is still exploring Sun Ra’s ‘space music’

Drummer Chad Taylor, who has made his home in Philly for the past eight years, was part of that first performance and has returned for several since. “You can’t stop Marshall,” he laughed. “When you’ve been playing that long, everything you play is incredible. Your living experience comes out in the music.”

The most recent show, in January, teamed Allen and Arkestra guitarist DM Hotep with bassist James McNew of indie rock stalwarts Yo La Tengo and the War on Drugs drummer Charlie Hall. Speaking of Allen’s longevity, Hall called it “a testament to his ability to explore and be accepting, but also to be challenging. If you look over the history of jazz music, it’s all about these inflection points where things are challenged, but with respect and adherence to what’s come before you.”

Yo La Tengo has crossed paths with the Arkestra on numerous occasions over the past two decades, inviting Allen and band members to join them at concerts in Philly, San Francisco, Tokyo, and elsewhere, and regularly featuring them during the band’s annual eight-night Hanukkah residency at New York’s Bowery Ballroom.

“It’s a miracle!” said McNew about Allen’s 100th birthday. “It’s a legitimate, actual miracle. It defies explanation and logic, but he was chosen by music and chosen by humanity. And thank goodness.”

A previous version of the article misstated Ars Nova Workshop’s relationship with South Philly venue Solar Myth. The Workshop only has a long-term residency there.