Ari Benjamin Meyers Marshall Allen, 99, Astronaut, 2024

Shot in HD video, the nearly 18-minute work is centered on Marshall Allen, world-renowned free and avant-garde jazz musician and current leader of the legendary Sun Ra Arkestra, of which he has been a permanent member since 1958. For the film, Ari Benjamin Meyers composed two original scores for Allen to perform, inviting him to engage in an intimate conversation through music about the spontaneity of making music, the rigors of rehearsal and the potential of collaboration. The film combines documentary and fictional, even fantastical, elements.

The camera portrays Allen privately rehearsing a seemingly nostalgic melody in his Philadelphia residence, the Arkestral Institute of Sun Ra, which has been the band’s home, rehearsal hall, and frontier of musical exploration for over five decades. On the brink of his one hundredth birthday, he interprets Meyers’ composition on the alto saxophone, and turns the occasional memory lapse into prompts for improvisation, exposing both his frail age and his brilliant virtuosity. Meanwhile, we wander through the house that, like a palimpsest, manifests the rich history and eclectic activities of the Sun Ra Arkestra through futuristic props and images of ancient cosmologies.