Marshall Belford Allen is a native Kentuckian born in Louisville on May 25, 1924. He is most famously known for his avant-garde jazz and free jazz work with bandleader / keyboardist Sun Ra, with whom he recorded from the late 1950s until Ra's passing in 1993. Allen plays the alto saxophone, oboe, piccolo, flute, and EVI. Aside from Sun Ra's Arkestra, Allen recorded with Paul Bley's band in 1964 and Olatunji's group in the mid-1960s. Allen has been the Arkestra's bandleader since the deaths of Ra and John Gilmore.

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