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Marshall Allen
New Dawn
Week-End - Cat No: WE13
- updated:2026-07-01
Marshall Allen, the 100-year-old leader of the Sun Ra Arkestra, has released his first solo debut album, *New Dawn*—the first album he’s released under his own name in over 70 years of musical activity! What’s more, every track is an original composition!! From the opening track featuring his own kora and percussion—which immediately grabs you by the heart—a timeless, heartfelt cosmic jazz masterpiece has been born, truly “fusing the past and the future, tradition and discovery.” Featuring Neneh Cherry as a guest artist. Black vinyl analog LP. Includes an inner sleeve. Highly recommended by Newtone. Now back in stock!
Track List
Two days after his 100th birthday, Marshall Allen started recording New Dawn, his debut solo album. A member of Sun Ra’s Arkestra since 1958, Allen assumed leadership of the band in 1995. Throughout his nearly seventy-year career, Allen has never released a solo album under his own name, and yet, instead of capping such a legendary output, New Dawn seems to herald a new beginning. A love letter to spacetime, it channels a century of musical intelligence into seven tracks, showing Allen at his most protean—freely moving from relaxed, transdimensional palettes to bluesy big band and beyond.
One of music’s vanguard avant-saxophonists, Allen continues to deliver durational feats during the Arkestra’s gigs. Still, the compositional energy contained on New Dawn is striking. Allen was approached with the idea of a solo record by Week-End Records’ Jan Lankisch. The Arkestra’s Knoel Scott — who has lived with Allen at the Arkestral Institute of Sun Ra since the 1980s — worked with Allen to pore over the archive of unrecorded material and develop this debut. Scott assembled some of Philadelphia’s brightest jazz stars as well as some Arkestra veterans for the sessions. New Dawn was then recorded over a couple of days in Philadelphia, with additional recordings to be added in the coming weeks and months. The legendary Neneh Cherry will lend her unmistakable voice to the title track “New Dawn”.
Though greatly informed by the philosophy of Sun Ra and his Saturnian teachings—traverse jazz’s traditions, dig deep into spiritual geographies — New Dawn signals Allen as his own singular voice, one that’s swinging and bopping and reflecting into the future, with no sign of stopping. Week-End Records is proud to release this debut solo album by Marshall Allen.
“New Dawn is clearly an extension of Ra’s legacy and sound, but it’s also a masterful endeavour filtered through Allen’s tastes and approach”. – John Morrison, The Wire, November 2024 (cover story)
Musicians: Marshall Allen – Kora, EWI, Alto Sax Knoel Scott – Baritone Sax, Congas, Drums Cecil Brooks – Trumpet Bruce Edwards – Guitar Jamaaladeen Tacuma – Bass Richard Hill – Bass Timothy Ragsdale – Bass Owen Brown Jr – 1st Violin Akiko Arendt – 1st Violin Cristina Ardelean Montelongo – 1st Violin Derek Washington – 2nd Violin Elias Feldmann – 2nd Violin Dimitra Karageorgopoulou – 2nd Violin Michael Ireland – Viola Vasileios Vasileiadis – Viola Joseph Richard Carvell – Bass Ilektra-Despoina Stevi – Cello Jorik Bergman – Flute George Gray – Drums Jan Lankisch – Percussion
Special Guest: Neneh Cherry - Voice
One of music’s vanguard avant-saxophonists, Allen continues to deliver durational feats during the Arkestra’s gigs. Still, the compositional energy contained on New Dawn is striking. Allen was approached with the idea of a solo record by Week-End Records’ Jan Lankisch. The Arkestra’s Knoel Scott — who has lived with Allen at the Arkestral Institute of Sun Ra since the 1980s — worked with Allen to pore over the archive of unrecorded material and develop this debut. Scott assembled some of Philadelphia’s brightest jazz stars as well as some Arkestra veterans for the sessions. New Dawn was then recorded over a couple of days in Philadelphia, with additional recordings to be added in the coming weeks and months. The legendary Neneh Cherry will lend her unmistakable voice to the title track “New Dawn”.
Though greatly informed by the philosophy of Sun Ra and his Saturnian teachings—traverse jazz’s traditions, dig deep into spiritual geographies — New Dawn signals Allen as his own singular voice, one that’s swinging and bopping and reflecting into the future, with no sign of stopping. Week-End Records is proud to release this debut solo album by Marshall Allen.
“New Dawn is clearly an extension of Ra’s legacy and sound, but it’s also a masterful endeavour filtered through Allen’s tastes and approach”. – John Morrison, The Wire, November 2024 (cover story)
Musicians: Marshall Allen – Kora, EWI, Alto Sax Knoel Scott – Baritone Sax, Congas, Drums Cecil Brooks – Trumpet Bruce Edwards – Guitar Jamaaladeen Tacuma – Bass Richard Hill – Bass Timothy Ragsdale – Bass Owen Brown Jr – 1st Violin Akiko Arendt – 1st Violin Cristina Ardelean Montelongo – 1st Violin Derek Washington – 2nd Violin Elias Feldmann – 2nd Violin Dimitra Karageorgopoulou – 2nd Violin Michael Ireland – Viola Vasileios Vasileiadis – Viola Joseph Richard Carvell – Bass Ilektra-Despoina Stevi – Cello Jorik Bergman – Flute George Gray – Drums Jan Lankisch – Percussion
Special Guest: Neneh Cherry - Voice
He has been a member of the Sun Ra Arkestra for many years since 1958, and since 1995, as the leader of the Arkestra, he has continued to support the group for many years even after Sun Ra’s passing. Now, the living legend and avant-garde saxophonist Marshall Allen, who has been active in music for over 70 years, has released his first solo debut album on Week-End Records.
The album opens with the opening track A1, “Prologue,” featuring Marshall Allen’s own kora performance and percussion alone. A2 “African Sunset” (sample 1) is a heartfelt, exotic space jazz masterpiece that exquisitely blends the soothing, timeless feel of African jazz with spacey electronic sound effects. and the album’s title track, A3 “New Dawn” (sample2)—a warm, nostalgic jazz masterpiece—features lyrics by Knoel Scott, a key figure in the album’s production who has been a member of the Arkestra since the 1980s and has lived alongside Marshall Allen as part of the Arkestra Institute, combined with guest vocals by Neneh Cherry, the warm and nostalgic jazz masterpiece A3 “New Dawn” (sample 2)—which also serves as the album’s title track—is simply wonderful. Furthermore, the avant-garde cosmic jazz track B3, “Angels And Demons At Play” (sample 3), which incorporates spacey electronic sound effects that evoke a faintly dubby atmosphere, is equally captivating. The album features seven gem-like tracks—each meticulously crafted from previously unreleased and archived material—that truly serve as “a love letter to time and space conveying the transience and transcendence of a century of music” and “a fusion of past and future, tradition and discovery.” The birth of a timeless, heartfelt cosmic jazz masterpiece. (Original Japanese text by COMPUMA)