Name: Lights On A Satellite
SKU: 619429

On the occasion of the 100th birthday of Marshall Allen, IN OUT Records invited the Sun Ra Arkestra into the studio with 24 musicians.

MARSHALL ALLEN 100 YEARS JUBILEE EDITION. 180GV. BLACK VINYL.

One of 3 Collector's vinyl sets

As if from the farthest reaches of space, a tremendous positive energy has come to us via "Light on a Satellite": It is Sun Ra's music, played by his Arkestra, more than 30 years after the legendary band founder's earthly demise - or, in other words, after his reported ascent to Saturn. Under the direction of Marshall Allen, the NEA Jazz Master (2025) and multi-instrumentalist, who celebrated his 100th birthday on May 25, 2024, Sun Ra's big band has arrived safely in the 21st century, after traveling Sun Ra's space ways for almost 70 years. This album pays tribute to the lifetime achievement of Marshall Allen, who leads the Sun Ra Arkestra since 1993. Recorded in Studio A at New York's Power Station on June 16, 2024, the album celebrates the mastery of the exceptional musician Marshall Allen as a multi-instrumentalist, arranger, bandleader, teacher, and guardian of Sun Ra's unique legacy.

Perhaps this day will one day become part of the collective jazz memory, for what we are experiencing here is a simultaneity of the non-simultaneous, projected into the future, a time machine traveling through 100 years of jazz, out of the free approach of the Sun Ra Arkestra and in its signature groove right into the heart of swing - with a century-old jazz master as captain. That in itself is a superlative. We are even more inspired by the power with which the virtuoso Marshall Allen continues his life's vocation.

As a tribute to the life's work of Marshall Allen, Frank Kleinschmidt of IN OUT Records invited the Sun Ra Arkestra into the studio with 24 musicians in the largest possible line-up, with the goal of documenting the music in its polyphony and expansion in space and time in the best possible way. It is not only the variety of instruments used, but also the fact that musicians from four generations come together with a repertoire that spans 100 years of jazz history.

Track Listing:

Disc 1:

Lights On A Satellite
Dorothys Dance
Big Johns Special
Images
Friendly Galaxy

Disc 2:

Baby Wont You Please Be Mine
Holiday For Strings
Tapestry From An Asteroid
Reflects Motion
Joy Delight
Way Down Yonder In New Orleans