Editing Marshall Allen (section)

===Music career===
Allen played in Europe with jazz pianist [[Art Simmons]] and saxophonist [[James Moody (saxophonist)|James Moody]].<ref name="LarkinGE"/>

Allen is best known for his mastery of explosive, jarring, chaotic sound effects on the alto saxophone. Some have referred to this as a "pyrotechnic" playing style.<ref>{{cite web |url=https://www.npr.org/sections/ablogsupreme/2009/06/a_sideman_in_the_limelight_mar.html |title=A Sideman In The Limelight: Marshall Allen |website=[[NPR]] | year=2009 |access-date=2023-01-23}}</ref> He has said that he "wanted to play on a broader sound basis rather than on chords" (1971 interview with [[Tam Fiofori]])<ref>Cited in {{cite book | author=Wilmer, Val |author-link=Val Wilmer|title=As Serious as Your Life | publisher=Quartet | year=1977 | isbn=0-7043-3164-0}}</ref>). The opportunity came through his long association with [[Sun Ra]], with whom he performed almost exclusively from 1958 to Ra's death in 1993, although he did record outside [[The Sun Ra Arkestra]], with [[Paul Bley]]'s group in 1964 and [[Babatunde Olatunji|Olatunji]]'s group during the mid-1960s.<ref name="LarkinGE"/> Critic [[Scott Yanow]] has described Allen's playing as "[[Johnny Hodges]] from another dimension".

After Sun Ra died, first [[John Gilmore (musician)|John Gilmore]] led the Arkestra, then Allen took over as leader.<ref name="Sullivan 2024"/> The Arkestra recorded two albums with Allen as their bandleader. In May 2004, Allen celebrated his 80th birthday on stage with the Arkestra, as part of their performance at the Ninth [[Vision Festival]] in New York City. Allen gave other performances on his birthday in 2008 at Sullivan Hall and at [[Iridium Jazz Club]] in 2018, both in New York City.

Allen often appeared in New York-area collaborations with bassist [[Henry Grimes]] and has also participated in the "Innerzone Orchestra" together with Francisco Mora Catlett, [[Carl Craig]] and others in an appreciation of Sun Ra's music. He performed the part of Sun Ra, the Egyptian god, in The Eighth Hour of Amduat, an opera with text from a 5000-year-old book on the sun's nightly journey through the underworld.