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‘A man cannot learn without discipline’: jazz guru Marshall Allen on life with Sun Ra – and turning 100

From fighting in a second world war cavalry unit to sharing in a vision for an interstellar Black utopia, the multi-instrumentalist – in a rare audience at his astonishing practice space – has had a musical journey like no other

The room is almost as eclectic as Ra was in life: a cornucopia of intergalactic sculptures, celestial regalia, portraits and paintings, plaques of honorary citizenship in Atlanta and New Orleans, a working upright bass with deep lacerations, even a hi-hat that has completely rusted. But as you sit in the rehearsal space, it is difficult not to feel the energy shift, a powerful omnipresence from all the Arkestra members – past and present – who performed in that room, especially Ra himself: someone who revelled in the avant garde and reimagined the possibilities in experimental music, while reaffirming Black pride in the here and now. It was around that time Ra would have his extraterrestrial encounter, and when he arrived in Chicago, he closely studied science fiction and reinterpretations of spiritual scriptures, coupled with a heightened awareness of the Black American struggle and his people’s ancient Egyptian connections.

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