Sun Ra Arkestra

Ars Nova Workshop celebrates the 100th birthday of Maestro Marshall Allen with a once-in-a-century performance by the Sun Ra Arkestra at Union Transfer on Friday, May 24.

On May 25, 2024, the iconic alto saxophonist, multi-instrumentalist and bandleader Marshall Allen will celebrate his 100th spin around the sun, a momentous occasion for Philadelphia’s most revered interstellar jazzman. Since the opening of Solar Myth in November 2022, the venue has become a home base for Allen, who has performed regularly with his amorphous Ghost Horizons ensemble and as a special guest with numerous artists, sharing the stage with the likes of Irreversible Entanglements, Immanuel Wilkins, The War on Drugs’ Charlie Hall, Yo La Tengo’s James McNew, Chad Taylor, Eric Revis, Wolf Eyes and others. For this special occasion Ars Nova Workshop will host Allen at Union Transfer with a sure-to-be memorable commemoration of the indefatigable Allen’s centennial. Marshall will once again take the helm of the Sun Ra Arkestra, the cosmos-transiting ensemble of which he’s been a member for more than six decades and led for three. For this evening there will be no more thrilling place on the planet – or any other.