Week-End Germany Vinyl & CDs

Review: Sun Ra Arkestra's bandleader since 1958, Marshall Allen, will always be known for his hyper-effected sax wayfarings; he treats a simple monophonic brass instrument as a vessel for psychic voyaging, onstage and off. Perhaps, however, this has meant he's been too freewheeling in his approach: Somehow, in over 70 years since joining the Arkestra, Allen had never recorded a solo album. That all changed just two days after his 100th birthday, resulting in what you hear here. Now the debut album by a live legend unfolds, like a rogue planet hidden behind a supernova. This proverbial "new dawn" draws on both new beginnings and legacies, waxing gibbous between big band swing, freer-form danceoffs, and even a vocal hoverer with Neneh Cherry.