Clavius Productions presents a very special evening with the award-winning Tuvan throat singers the Alash Ensemble, joined by the legendary Marshall Allen and other members of the Sun Ra Arkestra, as well as Elliott Levin. This is one event not to be missed!
Tuesday, June 19
Warehouse Theater
1017 7th St NW WDC
http://www.warehousetheater.com/ 8pm, $15, all ages!
Alash Ensemble with Marshall Allen, Elliott Levin, and Other Extra-Terrestrial Special Guests
Alash Ensemble http://www.alashensemble.com/ Alash takes its name from the Alash River, which runs through the musicians' native region of Tuva. The ensemble members are graduates of the Kyzyl Arts College and students of Kongar-ool Ondar, the master throat singer and former member of the Tuvan parliament who is featured in the movie Genghis Blues. In 1999 they formed the ensemble that evolved into Alash, and Kongar-ool Ondar became the artistic director. The musicians have all been trained in traditional Tuvan music since childhood, but they also know and love western music. They add non-traditional instruments, old and new, including guitars and accordions, and they draw upon their knowledge of complex rhythms and western harmonies to expand their musical possibilities.
In 2004, Alash won first prize at the International Symposium "Khoomei," throat singing competition. The group won "Best Folk Music Group" in 2000 and 2003, and they came to the United States for a concert tour in 2006 under the Open World Leaders program of the Library of Congress and National Endowment for the Arts.
Marshall Allen http://www.elrarecords.com/ma.html Marshall Belford Allen, alto saxophonist, multi-instrumentalist, composer, bandleader, and arranger, was born May 25, 1924 in Louisville, Kentucky and started clarinet lessons at age 10. At 18, he enlisted in the Army's 92nd Infantry (renowned as the Buffalo Soldiers), playing clarinet and alto saxophone in the 17th Division Special Service Band. Stationed in Paris during World War II, he played with pianist Art Simmons and saxophonist Don Byas, and he toured and recorded with James Moody during the late '40's. Upon honorable discharge, Mr. Allen enrolled in the Paris Conservatory of Music, studying clarinet with Delacluse. Returning to the States in 1951, Marshall settled in Chicago, where he led his own bands, playing in clubs and dance halls, while writing his own music and arrangements, as he continues to do today.
During the mid-'50s, Marshall met Sun Ra and became a student of his precepts. After joining the Sun Ra Arkestra in 1958, Marshall Allen led Sun Ra's formidable reed section for over 40 years (a role akin to the position of Johnny Hodges in the Duke Ellington orchestra). Marshall Allen lived, rehearsed, toured and recorded with Sun Ra almost exclusively for much of his musical career, leading the reed section during the time that the Sun Ra Arkestra won the "Downbeat" polls as number-one big band in 1988 and 1989. As a featured soloist with the Arkestra, Marshall pioneered the avante-garde jazz movement of the early '60s, expanding a style rooted in Johnny Hodges and Don Byas, and influencing all leading avant-garde saxophonists thereafter. During this time, Marshall also invented a woodwind instrument he called the "morrow," utilizing a saxophone mouthpiece attached to an open-hole wooden body. (This instrument is currently being marketed under another name, as Marshall never secured a patent on his invention).
Marshall Allen was one of the first jazz musicians to play traditional African music and what is now called "world music," working frequently with Olatunji and his Drums of Passion. In fact, Marshall is most likely the sole jazz musician who builds and plays the kora (a popular West African multi-stringed instrument), and he has been a major factor in its introduction to American audiences, as well as the world at large.
Marshall Allen is featured on over 200 Sun Ra releases, as well as appearing as special guest soloist in concert and on recordings with such diverse groups as NRBQ, Phish, Sonic Youth, Diggable Planets, Terry Adams, and Medeski, Martin & Wood.
Perhaps most significantly, Marshall Allen assumed the helm of the Sun Ra Arkestra in 1995 after the ascension of Sun Ra in 1993 and John Gilmore in 1995. Mr. Allen continues to reside at the Sun Ra Residence in Philadelphia, composing, writing and arranging for the Arkestra much like his mentor, totally committed to a life of discipline centered totally on the study, research, and further development of Sun Ra's musical precepts.
Marshall maintains the Sun Ra residence as a living museum dedicated to the compilation, restoration and preservation of Sun Ra's music, memorabilia, and artifacts. Marshall has launched the Sun Ra Arkestra into a dimension beyond that of mere "ghost" band by writing fresh arrangements of Sun Ra's music, as well as composing new music for the Arkestra. He works unceasingly to keep the big-band tradition alive, reworking arrangements of the music of Fletcher Henderson and Jimmie Lunceford for the Arkestra to play, along with many other American standards.
Marshall Allen is recognized all over the world as the premier avant-garde saxophonist, appearing in solo concert in London in 1995, duet with Terry Adams in 1997 in Canada, and featured in articles in JazzTimes (12/02), Signal to Noise Magazine, and innumerable other music magazines and radio and TV interviews. He is frequently called upon to give master classes, lectures, and demonstrations of Sun Ra's musical precepts, and he Keeps himself accessible to all who have an interest in Sun Ra's legacy.
Marshall Allen plays the alto saxophone, flute, clarinet, oboe, kora, and E.V.I. (Electronic Valve Instrument).
Elliot Levin http://www.radical3over2.com/elliott/levin.html http://www.myspace.com/elliottlevin Have you seen this man walking the streets of Philly? His signature single dread emits musical spores over sidewalks, music halls, and coffeehouses. Elliott Levin is the ubiquitous Philadelphia musician. He has played with everyone...reading his poetry into his flute, literally, improvising with Charles Cohen, Rick Iannacone, and New Ghost, the list is long. A discography appears below.
Elliott studied music and creative writing at the University of Oregon. He also studied extensively with Michael Guera (former saxophonist with the Philadelphia Orchestra), Cecil Taylor (pianist/composer/improvisor),
and Claire Polin (flutist/composer).
Elliott has performed with groups including Cecil Taylor's Ensemble, Harold Melvin & the Blue Notes, Odeon Pope's Sax Choir, Scram!, New Ghost, Atzilut (Fourth World), and Talking Free Bebop. He has collaborated in performance with poets Miguel Algarin, Gloria Tropp, Mbali Umoja, Marty Watt, and Frank Messina & Spoken Motion, among many others. Venues played have included Carnegie Hall, Lincoln Center, The United Nations, The U.S. Embassy in Moscow, Yale University, The Greek Theater, Watts Towers, Lollapalooza, and scores of galleries, clubs, and theaters. In 1999, he performed at the Crossing Borders Festival in the Hague, the Sexial Jazz Festival in Lisbon and Portugal, The Alternative Festival in Prague, and the Sonic Logos Festival in Philadelphia.
Elliott has received awards from New American Radio (New York), The City of Los Angeles Cultural Affairs Department, the Pennsylvania Council for the Arts and the California Endowment for the Humanities.
A prolific poet, Eliott's work has appeared in the L.A. Weekly, Blue Beat Jacket (Japan), The Painted Word, Po' Fly, Vital Pulse, Poets & Prophets, and Intervals: The Poems of Musicians (Beehive & Sisyphus Press). A Book of Poetry by Elliott Levin was published in 1996 (Heat Press, Los Angeles).
Born in 1953, Elliott Levin is a Philadelphia born and based jazz musician and poet. For 10 years he toured the world with Harold Melvin & The Blue otes, as saxophonist in The Sound of Philadelphia band. He is currently a member also of drummer (Ornette Coleman, James Blood Ulmer, Lounge Lizards) G. Calvin Weston's BIG TREE (
www.calvinweston.com), Animus (world/fusion music), and The Philadelphia Phenomenon (with Jamaaladeen Tacuma, Rick Iannacone, and Calvin Weston).
CURRENT RECORDINGS:
When We Were Young - Calvin Weston's Big Tree (
www.alwaysapleasure.com)
Opportunities & Advantages - Marshall Allen & Tyrone Hill (CIMP)
Live in Berlin - Cecil Taylor's Ensemble (FMP)
Alan Silva's Vision Orchestra (Eremite)
[The Motion of Emotion - Elliott Levin Quartet (CIMP Ltd, 1998)
A Fine Intensity - Elliott Levin-Tyrone Hill Quartet (CIMP Ltd, 1999)
Souletide - Elliott Levin-Tyrone Hill Quartet (CIMP Ltd, 2000)
Live at the Tin Angel - Animus (Animus, 1999)
Live Upstairs at Nick's - New Ghost (ESP)
Olduvai Music (Tiwa Records)
Iltar (Tiwa Records)
Poetry in Philadelphia (Welcome Worlds Cassettes)
A Gift of Ghosts (New American Radio)
Postcards from the Edge...On the Road (New American Radio)
The Fourth World (Jack Kessler Productions)
If It Dropped In Your Neighborhood You'd Look Up Too! (West Philadelphia Compilation, Starfish Productions)
