Sounds of Justice
Sun Ra Arkestra & 
William Parker's Inside Songs of Curtis Mayfield

March 4, 7:00pm 
Celebrating 25 Years of Arts for Art​

The Town Hall
123 W 43rd St, New York, NY 10036

Tickets On Sale January 16

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7:30pm William Parker's Inside Songs of Curtis Mayfield
William Parker - bass
Leena Conquest - vocals
Thomas Sayers Ellis - poetry
Lewis Barnes - trumpet
Darryl Foster - soprano saxophone
Rob Brown - alto saxophone
James Brandon Lewis - tenor saxophone 
Dave Sewelson - baritone saxophone
Steve Swell - trombone
Dave Burrell - piano
Cooper-Moore - organ
Hamid Drake - drums
​Moon Lasso - video art

9:00pm The Sun Ra Arkestra under the direction of Marshall Allen
Marshall Allen - director, alto sax, flute
Tara Middleton - vocals
D. Hotep - guitar
Melanie Dyer - viola
Nina Bogomas - harp
Knoel Scott - vocals, saxes
Robert Landham - alto sax
James Stewart - tenor sax 
Danny Ray Thompson - baritone sax 
Michael Ray - trumpet
Dave Davis - trombone
Emmett McDonald - trombone
Robert Stringer - trombone
Vincent Chancey - french horn 
Elson Nascimento - percussion, surdo 
Ron Mcbee - percussion
Tyler Mitchell - bass 
Wayne A. Smith - drums
Marvin Bugalu Smith - drums

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Arts for Art celebrates 25 years of programming with Sounds of Justice, a night of intergenerational FreeJazz/AfroFuturism, on March 4th at NYC’s historic The Town Hall. Both the Sun Ra Arkestra under direction of Marshall Allen and William Parker’s Inside Songs of Curtis Mayfield are steeped in a commitment to the ideals of music and art as agents of social change, exemplifying the very ethos of Arts for Art. This boundary-breaking blend of FreeJazz, funk, R&B, and soul aesthetics looks both back and into the future, bridging time and space to share warnings, hope, and inspiration. 

Under the leadership of Marshall Allen, the Arkestra carries the Sun Ra experience of sound, dance, song, light, and color into the present. Having joined the Arkestra in the 1950s, Allen is uniquely positioned to move this performance tradition forward, further cementing Sun Ra and the Arkestra’s twinned legacies as both progenitors and practitioners of the genre now called AfroFuturism. The Town Hall performance will include video art and painting by NYC artist William Mazza to create a synesthetic sight/sound experience of Sun Ra and his mind-bending view of the universe.
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William Parker’s highly acclaimed, intensely free Inside Songs of Curtis Mayfield builds upon both the text and music of the politically engaged and activist singer-songwriter. This latest version of Parker’s ongoing project includes an expanded band with vocalist Leena Conquest joined by Thomas Sayers Ellis performing Amiri Baraka’s and his own poetry. Filmmaker Moon Lasso’a impressionistic video portrayal of the texts and sounds of Curtis Mayfield and William Parker will complete the experience. 


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