Images of Arkestral Abandon 2011 - 2012

Two collections of audience photos from recent Sun Ra Arkestra performances.  First from Melbourne, Australia in June 2011 from our friend, TimN, (via Mona) of Exile on Moan Street, followed by a link to images from the February 11, 2012 performance at the SESC Pompeia in Sao Paolo, Brazil via Les Mains Noires.

 

 

HUGE Thanks to TimN!

(112) Full Resolution Pics

RS

HF

Marshall Allen on EVI
Melbourne June 2011

Saturn

Sao Paolo 10 Feb 2012

A Stunning collection of

Images from 11 Feb 2012
via Les Mains Noires

 

Sun Ra Arkestra - Points on a Space Age (video)

This film offers rare insight of the Arkestra and examines their current work (in the physical absence of Sun Ra) under the direction of Marshall Allen.

This wonderful video is available for sale at a very reasonable price at various sites online.  I had forgotten how much I enjoy watching it and hope that Marshall et al. are enjoying some profits from its release.

POINTS ON A SPACE AGE, filmed between Spring’06 and Spring ’07, explores the recent activity of the remaining members of the influential Sun Ra Arkestra.

The film examines the work the Arkestra in the physical absence of Sun Ra. After Sun Ra "left the planet" direction of the band was left to his most faithful musician and companion Marshall Allen (a member of the band since to mid 1950's). Since the passing of Ra, the band under the direction of Allen (now age 86) continues to maintain an active touring schedule and continues to recruit younger members into the Sun Ra lifestyle. A lifestyle committed to human development through the disciples of Music and Spirituality.

For director and producer Ephraim Asili, the fascination with the Arkestra began one day during the summer of ‘98 in Philadelphia:

It was a warm, clear, and sunny summer day. The Arkestra was giving a free concert in a park near their collective home/rehearsal space. Then it happened... Clear skies turned grey and a thunderstorm broke out. The audience evaporated. In the midst of all of this I stood in the rain as band members began jumping off of the bandstand, instruments in hand. I thought to myself “That’s it… Time to go”. Just as I began to leave I realized that the band was not running from the rain, they were starting some sort of procession through the park. The members began weaving through the storm and remaining spectators while at the same time playing some of the most beautiful and bizarre music that I had ever heard…
Complete transcript: below.

POINTS ON A SPACE AGE uses an approach as experimental as the band and functions to give those who have already seen the Arkestra an opportunity to experience them yet again, and for those that have not seen them it offers some insight into one of the most influential bands of the 20th Century.

The Arkestra, is an experimental big band formed in the mid 1950's around the teachings of, musician, philosopher, and spiritualist Sun Ra. Sun Ra, according to himself and his disciples believed that he was sent to this planet to prepare human beings for the world for the future, a future centered around space travel, and the human capacity to evolve with ever changing demands of a highly technological world. The members of Ra's band were not only band mates they were also disciples, students, and companions to their Guru bandleader. All band members where required to learn the philosophy of Ra, and many members lived with him as well. It was common for the band to practice of eight hours, only breaking for teachings, and then go out and play gigs. The band continued in this manner for approximately thirty years until Sun Ra "left the planet" in 1993. 

(2009 press release from PRlog)

 

Ephram Asili:

During the summer after graduating from high school I had my first encounter with the Sun Ra Arkestra. It was 1998. I was 18 years old. I had heard of Sun Ra but that was about it. It was a warm, clear, and sunny summer day. The Arkestra was giving a free concert in a park near their collective home/rehearsal space. When I arrived at the concert the first thing that I noticed was the lack of a piano or keyboard (Sun Ra’s instruments).  I soon learned that Sun Ra “left the planet” in 1993. When the band took the stage I was amazed by

1.     The number of musicians.

2.     The wild outfits.

3.     The diversity of age of the players.

4.     The passion contained within the playing.

Then it happened.

 Clear skies turned grey.

A thunderstorm broke out.

The audience evaporated.

      In the midst of all of this I stood in the rain as band members began jumping off of the bandstand, instruments in hand. I thought to myself “That’s it. Time to go”. Just as I began to leave I realized that the band was not running from the rain, they were starting some sort of procession through the park. The members began weaving through the storm and remaining spectators while at the same time playing some of the most beautiful and bizarre music that I had ever heard.

The rain didn’t let up.

The band continued to walk/dance/ play.

I was soaked (no umbrella).

I left the band played.

I returned home wondering if the band was still out there.

Walking/strolling/ playing.

Another year would go by before I got another chance to see the band.  The next concert I saw was another free concert in Philadelphia, this time in Rittenhouse Square. The experience was equally wonderful and I knew then that I had to look into the mysterious Sun Ra and his Arkestra. Years passed and I made it a point to see them play at least once a year, I bought some of their albums (of which there are hundreds), and I became increasingly interested in the philosophical and spiritual teachings of Sun Ra.

Seven years after seeing the band for the first time it occurred to me to make a video with the remaining members of the Arkestra. I was 25 and studying film at Temple University in Philadelphia.  I had access to equipment, loads of inspiration and absolutely no contact with the band at all. I spent weeks figuring out a way to get close to the band with no success. I continued my film studies and began making short films at school. One weekend I picked up a camera and hopped on the subway to go home. When I got situated on the train with my stuff I looked to my left, and guess who is sitting right next to me? Tyrone Hill (long time trombone player from the Arkestra, and a close friend of Sun Ra).

We “got to talking” and he told me that he played on street corners sometimes and that he was on his way to City Hall to play. He noticed my camera and offered to let me tape him playing. I did of course, and that was the beginning of my relationship with the Arkesra. About a week after meeting Tyrone he invited me to shoot at another gig he was playing. It was Marshall Allen’s 83^rd birthday party, and in true Marshall Allen fashion he was playing a concert for everyone else. That night Tyrone introduced me to Marshall and several other Arkestra members. Soon after I began hanging out at the Sun Ra House/Community/Rehearsal space. It was also at that time that we began shooting what eventually became Points on a Space Age.

Unfortunately Tyrone Hill did not live to see the completion of the project. He “left the planet” on March 11, 2007. I finished production shortly after, edited the work with coeditor Dan Kremer, and that was that.

It is worth noting that Tyrone Hill appears throughout the video, and there is actually footage from his memorial service in the video as well. Tyrone’s story as played out in the video can be viewed on the one hand as a metaphor for the Arkestra itself. On the other it can be seen as a metaphor of the great music culture that gave birth to bands like the Arkestra, and visionaries like Sun Ra. Quoting a line from the video “ the final chapter is being written right now”. Points on a Space Age is a glimpse into this final chapter.

Picture Infinity: Marshall Allen & The Sun Ra Arkestra

 

I highly recommend this wonderful book.  The small, hardcover edition is filled with candid photos of the Arkestra and includes a fair number of brief articles, each well written and interesting.  My copy arrived two weeks ago and each time I pick it up, I find myself savoring every page.  Perhaps the best purchase I've made this year.

Picture Infinity: Marshall Allen & The Sun Ra Arkestra
Sibylle Zerr
152 pages, paperback
ISBN: 978-3-00-035497-7
Self Published
2011

Half a dozen books covering the life, times and music of enigmatic big band leader Sun Ra have appeared since his death in 1993, aged 79. Detailed biography, collections of interviews, early writings, poetry and street corner pamphlets give substantial insight into his artistic and philosophical roots. Weightier, academic tomes have studied the impact of jazz's most prolific composer on American history and culture.

What these studies have in common—and the very thing that sets Sibylle Zerr's book apart—is that they tend to treat Sun Ra's death as the end of the line, a full stop in the history of the Arkestra, the big band Ra formed in the early 1950s. But as Zerr relates, the band barely paused for breath, continuing under tenor saxophonist John Gilmore until he passed away two years later in 1995. And for the past 17 years the Sun Ra Arkestra has continued to plot its unique course under the leadership of alto saxophonist Marshall Allen.

Zerr—a cultural anthropologist and journalist—has been following Sun Ra's Arkestra since 2003, and brings something of an insider's view into the workings of the big band, and, by extension, the continuing, self-perpetuating legacy of Sun Ra.

At 152 pages, of which 86 are photographs, this is neither a comprehensive history of Sun Ra's Arkestra, nor of Allen. Instead, Zerr weaves the observations and thoughts of Allen and current Arkestra members into the text of carefully crafted essays. A number of Sun Ra's colorful quotations and philosophical utterances-cum-poetry serve as a backdrop to these thoughts and Zerr's own insightful observations. These threads combine to create a vivid picture of a unique musical institution, one sustained by the musical vision and enduring myth of Sun Ra.

"I'm actually painting pictures of infinity with my music," Ra said in 1970, "that's why a lot of people can't understand it." What many people couldn't understand was Ra's esoteric cosmic philosophy, his claim to have been born on Saturn, his self-created myth, and the Arkestra's dressing-up in sequined robes that are part-Pharonic and part-Flash Gordon props. This mixture of Egyptology, cosmology, Afro-Futurism and the neo-hippy message of love and peace probably caused way more confusion than the sweeping musical reach of Ra's Arkestra. Zerr, as an unabashed acolyte, rationalizes this aspect of the Arkestra's personality in relatively convincing terms.

The colorful regalia and seemingly New Age universal view partly explains the Arkestra's continuing cult following, but it also underlines—though not intentionally on the author's part—why Sun Ra remains something of a controversial figure. It's almost impossible to consider Sun Ra's music without the image, myth and countless space metaphors getting in the way. Zerr states—without the slightest hint of irony—"Until today, the musical genius of Sun Ra is clouded in an astral nebula of misunderstanding." Ra, however, was not without a sense of humor, once informing President Richard Nixon he had "24 hours to get off the planet."

In the Arkestra's personal idiom band members are not born but "arrive" on the planet and later "depart." Deceased members are referred to as "ancestors." The Arkestra doesn't arrive for a concert; it "docks" at "4pm terrestrial time." Zerr recounts how some of the Arkestra members believe that current pianist Farid Barron was chosen by Sun Ra, a dozen years after the leader departed. Barron himself says: "I feel that I have been initiated into a sacred fraternal order." Allen's house—and home to Arkestra members since 1968—is called The Ark.

The real strength of the book lies in Zerr's vivid descriptions of the Arkestra on stage and her astute comparisons between Ra's dictatorial running of the band and Allen's more accommodating—though no less focused—approach. This provides a very real sense of the Arkestra's evolution and continuing growth. The musicians' devotion to Ra's musical ethos leaps off the pages and will convince even the most skeptical reader that this is no ghost band, but a thriving organism.

Whilst Zerr refers to the tremendous breadth and almost unparalleled scope of the Arkestra's music, interestingly, the Arkestra members do not readily identify with the term "free jazz": "Sun Ra did not like the word freedom," explains trombonist Tyrone Hill. "He liked discipline. It takes a lot of discipline to play this music. You have to know when to play it free and when not to." 

(continue reading at All About Jazz)