The Arkestra

Leaders of the Arkestra: Marshall Allen, Sun Ra

The Sun Ra Arkestra didn't cease to exist after its leader Sun Ra died in 1993. John Gilmore took over as leader in 1993 followed by Marshall Allen in 1995. Marshall Allen joined the Arkestra in 1958 and now, 64 years(!) later, at age 98, still leads the Arkestra. I've painted all three, Sun Ra, Gilmore, and Allen as at least three recordings (and maybe more) will be listed in the top 100 this year. Sun Ra is coupled with Allen, while drummer Clifford Jarvis accompanies tenor sax player John Gilmore on a second painting. A third features three women who were part of the Arkestra. The singers June Tyson, who performed with Sun Ra, and Tara Middleton, the singer of the current incarnation of the Arkestra, and dancer Ife Toyo, who performed with the Arkestra in the early seventies.

John Gilmore/Clifford Jarvis

I've always liked the music of Sun Ra but only recently I feel like I've come to understand his music a little better. I watched the film Space Is the Place, which in and of itself is not a great movie, it's like a B- or Blaxploitation movie, but it does show Ra's intentions and the Arkestra in concert. I never thought of Sun Ra in the context of the Civil Rights Movement, but the movie surely directs you in that direction. Of course, Sun Ra was right there in the midst of it. I've read that Sun Ra was at odds with the Black Panther movement over the issue of how to fight for equal right and against discrimination. The objectives are the same, beautifully laid out in the famous Martin Luther King "I have a dream" speech. Sun Ra's objective was to move African Americans to a different planet. The new planet must be taken metaphorically although Sun Ra took space very seriously. The method to move the people to outer space was music. Hence the name of his band: Arkestra. To create a better world he visualized a better world. The key, I think, of Sun Ra's music is visualization. If it can be visualized it can be a reality. The idea of visualization is closely linked to the practice of (neo) shamanism. Sun Ra was certainly a shamanic figure. (Some years ago I wrote about Rahsaan Roland Kirk as a modern shaman. It's perhaps odd to think of Kirk in terms of visualization, but I have no doubt blind people visualize in the same manner, or better, and non-blind people.)

June Tyson/Tara Middleton/Ife Toyo of the Arkestra

The three songs of inclusion are Space Is the Place, Heliocentric, and a solo improvisation without title by Sun Ra on keyboards. Retrospective and another untitled improvisation by the full Arkestra from 1981, are two other possible tracks included in this year's list. All recordings are from before 1993, when Sun Ra was still leading the Arkestra. Other tracks that scored points this year include two by the Arkestra after 1993, in Sun Ra's name but led by Marshall Allen.

All smiles: CRASS members Joy de Vivre, Eve Libertine, and Gee Vaucher

At the same time I painted the triple portraits of Arkestra members I also painted one of members of the British punk band CRASS. I chose the female band members this time: Joy de Vivre, Eve Libertine, and Gee Vaucher. The song in the Top 100 2022 is the same as in 2021: The medley Step Aside/Rocky Eyes/Mouthing the Words from the album Penis Envy.


 

CRASS

Gee Vaucher/Penny Rimbuad

 

Gee Vaucher and Crass (2)

Gee Vaucher
9" x 8", oil on wood, 2014

Less than two weeks after I painted a portrait of Gee Vaucher, I painted a second one, softer, yet nearly identical to the first. The song from the top 100 it illustrates is Nagasaki Nightmare, a single by Crass from 1981. The softness of the painting is in stark contrast with the rawness of the song. Yet the song, and the music of Crass in general have something sweet to it. Sweet as in human honesty, some kind of universal sweetness. The musicians of the collective that were Crass at the time of Nagasaki Nightmare, were Steve Ignorant, Penny Rimbaud, N.A. Palmer, Joy de Vivre, Eve Libertine, Pete Wright, and Phil Free.

Gee Vaucher and Crass

Gee Vaucher
9" x 8", oil on wood, 2014

Gee Vaucher is a visual artist who made a name designing graphics for the English punk band Crass. It is interesting to note that, without being involved in the musical process, she is listed as a band member of Crass. It shows the band's intention to be more than just another punk band. What it wants is to be a total 'action' collective. I have to say that Crass is really one of the more advanced bands that came from the punk era. Certainly one of the more sophisticated and 'Art' of the punk bands that were around that time. Crass was formed in 1977 by Steve Ignorant and Penny Rimbaud. According to the Wikipedia page the band name came from a David Bowie lyric but I think that it's 'cross' with an 'a' superimposed on the 'o' resulting in the anarchy sign in the middle of the name. This is further reinforced by the album title Stations of the CrⒶss. It was actually Vaucher's artwork that made me pick up an interest in the music, thirty-five years after Stations of the CrⒶss was made.