New Dawn

That Marshall Allen’s solo debut should have profound echoes of Sun Ra is no surprise. The alto saxophonist is 100 years old, and has spent nearly 70 of those years devoted to the Afro-Saturnian composer-bandleader and his music—the last 30 as Arkestra leader himself. Who else should he sound like?

And yet, and yet. One does not attain Allen’s stature by mere emulation, meaning there’s more than an undercurrent of his own musical personality on New Dawn. For one thing, the album’s compositions are all his own—including the closing “Angels and Demons at Play,” a perennial in the Sun Ra Arkestra’s setlist. But where Ra delivered the 5/4 tune as a scorching Afro-jazz groove, Allen reduces it to a simmer: A sumptuous, funky rendition that enjoys its own nonchalance, with dublike echo effects on George Gray’s drums and Michael Ray and Cecil Brooks’s trumpets.

Indeed, “sumptuous” is a good descriptor of Allen’s approach to his and Ra’s shared legacy. “Boma” gets some of the heat Allen sheds from “Angels,” but the leader tempers that heat with a tremulous string quartet, surprisingly light-fingered guitar from Bruce Edwards, and his own alto playing, which has its wild and coarse streaks, but is also deceptively sinuous. Those same voices—plus Knoel Scott’s worldly, wise baritone—similarly soften the jump-blues of “Are You Ready.” One might not think so at first: The tune has got the party-time rhythm and attitude of early rock ‘n’ roll—a reminder of the 1950s Chicago in which Allen joined the Sun Ra Arkestra—and even a raunchy blues guitar intro, none of which gets stinted in any way. It’s the very lushness of the arrangement that serves as a cushion for its landfall. Even the unabashedly free “Sonny’s Dance” has a certain delicate splendor to it, with Allen playing sax in a whispery tone.

On the other hand, nobody needs to search for sumptuousness on “African Sunset” or “New Dawn.” The former is as gorgeous as its title, a slow-moving triumph of a ballad whose baritone-led melody glides over the strings (with Allen providing sci-fi movie sound effects on EWI and a striking prologue on the Japanese koto). The title track is primarily a feature for the smoky soul vocal of Neneh Cherry, but it’s equally so for an exquisite, viscous clarinet line (an uncredited Scott) that alternately doubles and harmonizes with the vocal. Think of New Dawn as a disciple bearing witness to his profit’s message—and emphasizing its richness.

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