May 25, 1924 Marshall Allen's 100th! and May 22, 1946 Famadou Don Moye
The Art Ensemble of Chicago was before my time and Sun Ra came only once at the New Music Americas, and danged if I arrived too late to get into that one!
FROM THE ART ENSEMBLE OF CHICAGO:
Famadou Don Moye: May 22, 1946
FROM THE SUN RA ARKESTRA:
Marshall Allen: May 25, 1924 Louisville, Kentucky
https://baltimore.org/event/the-sun-ra-arkestra-celebrates-marshall-allens-100th-birthday/
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marshall_Allen
♪ NMA Hartford, July 1, 1984
Sun Ra at Bushnell Park Mad Murphy’s
7/1 - Sun Ra did not appear in Bushnell Park, mostly because only amphibious creatures could have survived the monsoon in Bushnell Park. Thus things were pushed indoors to Mad Murphy's Bar, where bodies were packed wall- to-wall and the air was too heavy to breathe; took a raincheck.
- David Hicks, "A Cross Country Music Tour" Perpectives of New Music Vol 22 no. 1-2 Autumn 1983 pp. 519-531
The week began with a spiritually cosmic night of Sun Ra and his Heliocentric Arkestra.
- Brooke Wentz report for High Fidelity 1984 November indicating she was able to get in
Missed this one. Thought that the band we had just seen was Sun Ra. Informed a member or two of the band that they had just missed the last concert. Only later did I understand the look on his face. Besides, it was going to be too crowded in that small bar. Still...Stew saw it. He got to talk to a couple of friends in the basement before the gig with some members of the group, but it was so crowded, that they had to come up through the stage. The place held maybe two hundred at most and there was at least four hundred that day. He faced Sun Ra, with the Fender Rhodes separating them. There were also singing dancing ladies. They were closer. His new song at the time was "Nuclear War" (with the line "get down on your knees and kiss your ass goodbye"). They didn't.
- Georges Dupuis from my diary
Festivals ought to be festive. And so the organizers of this year's New Music America bash had at least the right kind of idea when for their opening on July 1 they arranged special New Music America cas (each with an art installation of its own) on a train from New York to the festival's site in Hartford; a performance in Penn Station to send it off; a performance and ribbon-cuttnig ceremony at Hartford's Union Station to receive it; a processino from Union Station to nearby Bushnell park (with the University of Hartford band playing a "Mega March" jointly written by 50 composers); and finally - to start the festival's public concerts on a suitably exuberant and ecumenical note - a free concert in Bushnell Park by the wildest, most joyous name in jazz, Sun Ra.
But things didn't quite work out as planned. Sun Ra was rained out and performed nearly three hours late in a club never meant to hold even half the crowd that tried to jam its way in. The Mega March was also hard hit by the rain, and because of a misunderstanding about whether it woudl occur at all was very nearly dispersed by police. The train was fun - there was a bar car, and most of us knew each other - but the car hung with plants and ceramic chimes was muggy and (because the chimes swung) treacherous on curves. Installations of any kind were superfluous in any case. In Hartford we'd be glutted by music. What we neded on the train wasn't art, but a party.
- Geoffrey Stokes, Village Voice July 24 - "New Music Back to Normal"
Philadelphia Inquirer visits with Marshall Allen at 99:
Allen leading part of the Arkestra ten years ago, and yes, Mad Murphy’s was that small!
♪
Famadou Don Moye: May 22, 1946 Rochester, NY
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Don_Moye
Curiously, like David Byrne, the Art Ensemble of Chicago found themselves on closing day of the 1980 Minnesota and 1981 San Francisco festivals, though I doubt if anyone was complaining. Unfortunately, closing day as it turns out is a bad day for collecting memorabilia on a festival, and I’ve got very little on their two performances (so far).
♪ Minnesota 1980, San Francisco 1981
Art Ensemble of Chicago end of festival concert 1980
* one review.
And the much-touted Art Ensemble of Chicago, making its local debut, put on an absolutely marvelous, spirited performance of ensemvle and solo improvisation in various styles of jazz and black music at Sunday’s closing concert, at the Guthrie Theatre.
- Jon Bream, Minneapolis Star, June 17, 1980
yeesh, and that’s all I could find (so far!) about either performance. So I guess it’s time for you to put away the substack and bring out the box set if you want to celebrate Moye’s birthday! CDs 3 to 5 (maybe your library has it?) features works penned by Moye.
*