Flotation Device 2024-05-26 - Marshall Allen at 100

Flotation Device celebrates the 110th birthday of Sun Ra and the 100th birthday of Marshall Allen, his longtime alto saxophonist and for the past 30 years the leader of his legendary Arkestra. We dive into a new archival album that documents a pair of mid-70s Chicago gigs showing the Arkestra in vintage form, and we survey Allen’s obscure but remarkable corpus of recordings made without Sun Ra. Afterwards, we look for Sun Ra's influence among younger proponents of multivalent improvisation, while Jeffrey Gavett implores the members of the Ekmeles vocal ensemble to sing in and out of tune with themselves. We pay our respects to the late Larry Polansky and Chas Smith, and sample Salvatore Sciarrino’s instrumental noise music through a cello concerto that's just turned 50. Bára Gísladóttir combines noise and dark ambient styles in a gripping new double bass concerto, and a sinuous Hosokawa chamber work that's just gotten its first recording rounds out this wide-ranging playlist.