Jun 3, 2025 11:25 AM
In Memoriam: Al Foster, 1943–2025
Al Foster, a drummer regarded for his fluency across the bebop, post-bop and funk/fusion lineages of jazz, died May 28…
“I want to build an organization that is reflective of the values of improvisation,” says Mark Christman, founder of Ars Nova Workshop.
(Photo: Courtesy Mark Christman)Robert Whalley moved to Philadelphia in the early 2000s with an omnivorous appetite for music. Growing up in England, he was into the punk scene, and made his way to New York and Los Angeles before finding Philly and a love for jazz. He wasn’t entirely unfamiliar — he’d seen Sun Ra and the Art Ensemble of Chicago in concert years earlier — but a King Crimson show led him into progressive rock and old Soft Machine records, where he discovered Elton Dean. With that, he bought a saxophone, signed up for lessons and started seeking out gigs. When a new venue specializing in jazz and music outside the mainstream opened, he was ready for it.
“Solar Myth opened and there were a lot of interesting shows,” he said. With records for sale and a neighborhood bar feel, Whalley was soon meeting people and learning history. “It’s a great place. I love it.”
Despite the casual ambience, Solar Myth was founded on 25 years of experience putting on shows at more than 50 venues across the city. The joint effort of presenting organization Ars Nova Workshop, and local beer-and-burger establishment Fountain Porter, Solar Myth is housed in a former country-and-western bar on the city’s historic Broad Street. The front room functions as a watering hole, while in the back Ars Nova brings recognized figures in avant-garde jazz and experimental music to Philadelphia, as they’ve been doing for 25 years.
Solar Myth started off strong this year. In the first month, they hosted saxophonists Marshall Allen, Zoh Amba and Lotte Anker, guitarists Marisa Anderson and Miles Okazaki and the Chicago band Bitchin’ Bajas. That sort of diversity and name recognition among those in the know has been a constant since its first concert in November 2000: Chris Speed’s yeah NO at the Plays & Players Theater, a 1913 house about a dozen blocks from the current home.
Ars Nova’s ongoing 25th anniversary celebration series includes the return of Sun Ra Arkestra leader Allen and appearances by the James Brandon Lewis Quartet, Kahil El’Zabar and David Murray, and the electronic duo Matmos.
After 25 years, the programming has grown and the organization has expanded, but the mission has remained the same, according to founder and executive and artistic director Mark Christman.
“I really didn’t have expectations for the work to support us,” Christman said, looking back to Ars Nova’s beginnings. “I had a full-time job to pay my bills for the first 15 years. I wanted to be near these artists and the world of art and ideas. I was prepared to not make a living from it. It took a while for that dream to evolve into ‘maybe I could do this as a real job and not a hobby.’”
Christman describes the ways Ars Nova has changed over 25 years as a “shift from the transactional to the relational.” Ars Nova Workshop now supports a staff of three full-time employees in addition to himself, works with guest curators and is guided by a board of directors. The nonprofit organization has moved beyond concert promoter to collaborating with artists on screenings, discussions, and podcasts.
“I saw it to be really limiting,” he said of working purely as a concert producer. “I saw it was not always the best way to contextualize these artists and their ideas. Even early on, there were small exhibits and discursive materials.
“The problem,” he said, “is that we didn’t really push them as hard as the events that we actually had tickets to sell for.”
The organization has made more of an effort to broaden its conception of programming over the last decade — or, as Christman puts it, to be “more involved in that intersection of the black box and the white box” — adding gallery exhibits and other sorts of presentations to supplement the concerts.
The Workshop has also made a very gradual venture into running a record label. In 2020, they released Soundpath, a 40-minute take on a Muhal Richard Abrams composition (available on CD and download) by saxophonist Bobby Zankel’s large ensemble, Warriors of the Wonderful Sound. After some delay, the fledgling label — also under the Ars Nova Workshop name — issued its second title, Live In Philadelphia, a collection of live recordings by Marshall Allen’s Ghost Horizons (Ars Nova Workshop/Otherly Love Records), in May. The album comes in the wake of Allen’s celebrated New Dawn (Weekend Records), the centenarian’s first solo album. Plans are underway for more releases mined from the archives.
Over the years, Christman has “learned what this music really means, and what it means to me,” he said.
“I’ve learned to employ the ideas and the values of jazz and improvisation,” such as humility and challenging conformity. It’s a music of resistance, of solidarity, and I want to build an organization that is reflective of the values of improvisation.”
Christman is also giving thought to what producers and promoters can contribute to the musical ecosystem, or even what their obligations might be.
“The next 25 years is really about, how do you present this kind of work and what does that mean?”
Christman wants to challenge the “unhealthy environments” that such artists as Coltrane and Ra worked in and which persist today, from inequitable finances to poor living conditions. Christman and company helped with much needed renovations to the Sun Ra house in 2021 and more recently have been working with the Coltrane family on an upcoming exhibition and to restore the saxophonist’s Philadelphia home, a National Historic Landmark that has fallen into disrepair.
Calling John Coltrane “the architect of the greatest American invention,” Christman said the house stands as an example of the injustices musicians labor under. Coltrane bought the house in 1952 and retained it until the end of his life. Today, it’s falling apart.
“The house is in a very sad state,” Christman said. “It’s a reminder that there’s a lot of healing and work that still needs to be done in America.” DB
Foster was truly a drummer to the stars, including Miles Davis, Sonny Rollins and Joe Henderson.
Jun 3, 2025 11:25 AM
Al Foster, a drummer regarded for his fluency across the bebop, post-bop and funk/fusion lineages of jazz, died May 28…
“Branford’s playing has steadily improved,” says younger brother Wynton Marsalis. “He’s just gotten more and more serious.”
May 20, 2025 11:58 AM
Branford Marsalis was on the road again. Coffee cup in hand, the saxophonist — sporting a gray hoodie and a look of…
Roscoe Mitchell will receive a Lifetime Achievement award at this year’s Vision Festival.
May 27, 2025 6:21 PM
Arts for Art has announced the full lineup for the 2025 Vision Festival, which will run June 2–7 at Roulette…
Benny Benack III and his quartet took the Midwest Jazz Collective’s route for a test run this spring.
Jun 3, 2025 10:31 AM
The time and labor required to tour is, for many musicians, daunting at best and prohibitive at worst. It’s hardly…
To record Dream Manifest (Dom Recs), Croker convened artists from his current and recent past ensembles, plus special guests.
Jun 10, 2025 4:13 PM
Partway through his early set at Smoke Jazz Club, Theo Croker blinks the room back into focus. He leans over the piano.…
