‘Creative Freedom’ salon in Hamilton, N.J. to celebrate avant-garde artists like Marshall Allen, Salvador Jiménez-Flores

From Camden and Cherry Hill to Trenton and the Jersey Shore, what about life in New Jersey do you want WHYY News to cover? Let us know.

Third Way Cultural Alliance, a nonprofit arts, education and cultural organization that supports socially conscious music projects, is partnering with Grounds For Sculpture this summer on a program celebrating creative freedom through music, art and conversation.

“Creative Freedom: A Salon Experience,” featuring avant-garde jazz performer Marshall Allen, interdisciplinary artist Salvador Jiménez-Flores and jazz funk bassist Jamaaladeen Tacuma, is coming to Grounds for Sculpture in Hamilton, New Jersey, on July 18.

“Creative Freedom” will take place in the east gallery of the 42-acre not-for-profit sculpture park, arboretum and museum, where a portion of the Jiménez-Flores exhibition “Raices & Resistencias” is on display. The evening will feature new music from Allen’s unreleased album, “101: An Audio Odyssey,” performed by Allen and Tacuma, and a conversation with Jiménez-Flores about the need for creative freedom. The trio will also share personal stories about music and art they have created.

More about the artists

Marshall Allen

At 101 years old, Marshall Allen is a legendary alto saxophone player and a featured artist with the American jazz group Sun Ra Arkestra. Born in Louisville, Kentucky, Allen’s musical career spans six decades. He is a globally known, Grammy Award-nominated recording artist, musician, writer and producer.

He joined the U.S. Army during World War II and served in the 92nd Infantry Division, becoming a member of the military’s famous all-Black Buffalo Soldiers Unit. When the war ended, he studied at the Paris Conservatory School of Music.

After touring Europe, Allen returned to the United States and worked with musicians, artists and producers in the jazz circuits of New York, Chicago and his home base of Philadelphia. Allen joined the Sun Ra Arkestra in 1958 and eventually led and directed the band following the passing of John Gilmore in 1995. Since then, he has continued to perform and collaborate with various musicians, bands and artists.

Jamaaladeen Tacuma

Jazz, funk and avant-garde bassist Jamaaladeen Tacuma began performing with organist Charles Earland as a teenager, joining Ornette Coleman’s Prime Time at the age of 19. He has carried his commitment to Philadelphia, his hometown, throughout his career, with achievements including the 2018 Benny Golson Award, which includes a proclamation from the city, and the Liberty Bell Award, one of the city’s highest honors.

Other awards include the Marcus Garvey Foundation 50th Anniversary Award, The 2011 Pew Fellowship in the Arts, The Uptown Theater Hall of Fame Award and The Philadelphia Clef Club of Jazz Best Bassist in 2017.

Salvador Jiménez-Flores

Salvador Jiménez-Flores describes himself as an interdisciplinary artist whose work is playful and provocative, addressing critical issues of colonization, migration, cultural fusion and resilience. He is a professor for the School of the Art Institute of Chicago, where he is currently based.

He centers his creative work on experiences as a bicultural immigrant. A recipient of many awards, fellowships, grants and residencies, Jiménez-Flores is a recipient of the Joan Mitchell Foundation Painters & Sculptors Grants, The New England Foundation for the Arts and Threewalls’ RaD Lab+Outside the Walls Fellowship Grant, and he is a 2021 United States Artist Fellow.