Marshall Allen’s Ghost Horizons – ‘Live In Philadelphia’ (2025)

feature photo: Ryan Collerd

A Sun Ra acolyte and an avant-garde superstar in his own right, saxophonist/composer/bandleader Marshall Allen is spending his second century busily doing something he never did in the first: making records under his own name.

Allen waited until after becoming 100 years old before putting forth his first proper debut album New Dawn earlier in 2025. Only about three months later comes the follow-up. Allen is again solely at the helm, this time for Live In Philadelphia (Ars Nova Workshop + Otherly Love) but leading other music luminaries in a bar setting.

Finally making music solely under his own name thirty-plus years after the Earth departure of Sun Ra, Allen hadn’t escaped the long shadow of his absent boss, but as someone who first joined the Sun Ra Arkestra in 1957 and has led it since 1995, that ‘shadow’ is Marshall’s, too. Even while New Dawn is a Marshall Allen statement apart from Sun Ra, it’s got everything in it that will appear to Sun Ra fans. As it should.

Live In Philadelphia makes even less effort to differentiate Marshall from his old boss, but the premise behind it involves openly embracing that heritage while moving it forward with the current generation of improvisors.

Marshall Allen’s new Ghost Horizons ensemble came about on the instigation of concert hosting outfit Ars Nova Workshop, which finally settled on a permanent venue in the old Arkestra home base of Philadelphia called Solar Myth. Ars Nova invited Marshall to lead a series of performances at the new joint and while he might have been able to just park the Arkestra there and do its thing, Marshall along with Arkestra guitarist DM Hotep have instead opted to lead a revolving set of guest musicians who share the Sun Ra tradition of making highly extemporaneous music on the fringes. Some of these invitees are very well known, some even fall outside the broad realm of jazz altogether (like members from The War On Drugs and Yo La Tengo). All, however, are good at what they do, and they use their own unique characteristics to fit into the Sun Ra/Allen Way.

Like the Arkestra, Ghost Horizons often throws together touchpoints of different eras together and in doing so, makes it timelessly on the vanguard: Allen jousts with trombone player Dave Davis over a rapid bass walk New Thing style on “Seductive Fantasy,” as DM Hotep rocks hard on electric guitar. “Space Ghost” is a 50s style swing showered by futuristic sounds.

As long as the space theme is adhered, there are no rules that the band has to adhere to for anything else. Out of the mist, a groove emerges in “Square The Circle” (video above), Allen’s alto sax skirting along the line separating tonality and atonality. “We’ll Wait For You/Hit That Jive, Jack” lazily swings amid recited verses of space travel and then blasts off and goes right into the abyss. “The Hills” and “In The Silence Of The Infinite” dispense with jazz altogether, opting for almost purely, cosmic synth sounds.

Wolf Eyes (Nate Young, John Olson) bring their electronic noise to “Back To You” and “Warn Them,” which, come to think of it, conforms with the weird, spacey circuit bent character that’s part and parcel to the Sun Ra legacy. “The Last Transmission” is one of several brief segues on this collection, but notable for Allen creating intergalactic tones from his EWI as James Brandon Lewis responds with his grounded tenor sax, with William Parker and Chad Taylor manning the rhythm section.

“Cosmic Dreamer, Ode to Elegua” melds galactic jazz with African folk music, thanks to the addition of the Ade Ilu Lukumi Bata Ensemble. As Sun Ra recognized so long ago, the mystical qualities of these two forms of music gets amplified when you combine them together. Beyond that, Kash Killion’s cello provides the right foil for Allen’s alto sax fury. The cheery, Weather Report-like “Rindima” similarly brings an African marketplace aura to the futuristic sounds, this time led by Hotep’s electric kalimba.

Michael Ray’s trumpet bellows all around “Stay Lifted,” competing for attention with Allen’s EWI, and anchored by Tcheser Holmes’ drums and Luke Stewart’s upright bass even after Elliott Levin goes off on sax. With Philly natives saxophonist Immanuel Wilkens and keyboardist Brian Marsella on board, “Slip Stream” is a mellower fusion workout with an early 70s, Solar Myth Approach vibe.

On an album full of outlier music stars, no star shone brighter than the one who has been around the longest. Marshall Allen is the living embodiment of the miracle of jazz.

Live In Philadelphia goes on sale worldwide May 23, 2025, just two days shy of Allen’s 101st birthday…and one day after Sun Ra’s. Pre-order/order it from Bandcamp.

*** Marshall Allen CD’s and vinyl on Amazon ***
*** Sun Ra CD’s and vinyl on Amazon ***

S. Victor Aaron

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