Philly music this week: Marshall Allen, Questlove’s Sly Stone movie, Yasmin Williams, and more

This week in Philly music features a 100-year-old saxophonist releasing his first solo album, a reborn 1970s British funk group, a virtuoso guitarist, and a Scottish rock band — all playing in Montgomery County, though not together. Plus, Questlove’s much anticipated new music documentary is making its streaming debut.

That music doc — the follow-up to the Oscar- and Grammy-winning Summer of Soul — is Sly Lives! aka The Burden of Black Genius. It’s a love letter to Sylvester Stewart, better known as Sly Stone, the genre-splicing rock and funk pioneer and leader of Sly & the Family Stone, who were also standout performers in Summer of Soul.

The new film, streaming Thursday on Hulu, features thoughtful analysis from D’Angelo and Vernon Reid of Living Colour, along with vintage interviews with Stone himself and electrifying performance footage. It examines the pressures placed on Black artists who refuse to conform to the marketplace’s expectations.

On Philly area stages Thursday, Atmosphere, the veteran Minnesota underground hip-hop duo of rapper Slug and producer Ant whose most recent album is 2023′s So Many Other Realities Exist Simultaneously play the Queen in Wilmington, with Sage Francis and Mr. Dibbs.

Ex-Guided by Voices guitarist Tobin Sprout plays Johnny Brenda’s on Thursday, along with his new band Bevel Webb. Singer Lizz Wright works a liminal space between soul and jazz with a depth of feeling. Her new Shadow features Angelique Kidjo and MeShell Ndegeocello. She’s at World Cafe Live Thursday.

Cowboy Junkies, the veteran Canadian alt-country and folk band with Margo Timmins that features her brothers Michael and Peter that’s much loved for their version of Lou Reed’s “Sweet Jane” from 1988′s The Trinity Session play the Sellersvile Theater behind their 2023 album Such Ferocious Beauty.

On Friday, Marshall Allen’s first solo album New Dawn comes out on Mexican Summer / Week-End Records. That’s a big deal in part because the Sun Ra Arkestra leader is a centenarian — set to turn 101 in May — so that likely qualifies him as the oldest person to ever release a debut album.

Recorded at Rittenhouse Soundworks in Germantown not far from the Sun Ra house known as the Pharoah’s Den, New Dawn is a gorgeous 7 track rumination and free jazz exploration, made with the assistance of the Arkestra’s Knoel Scott and featuring a title track that’s a lovely bit of jazz balladry featuring Swedish “Buffalo Stance” singer Neneh Cherry. The indefatigable Allen will play with his Ghost Horizons project at Solar Myth on Monday, on a bill with Wolf Eyes.

On Friday, the Lumineers bring the WXPN-FM (88.5) Free at Noon 20th anniversary celebration to a crescendo at World Cafe Live. Later that night at the WCL, it’s busy.

» READ MORE: ‘It’s always a great vibe’: WXPN’s Free at Noon series turns 20

Folk-duo Native Harrow, whose sound blends 1970s Laurel Canyon vibes with British folk, are now residing back in Philadelphia after spending several years living in England and touring Europe. They’re playing in support of their fine new album Divided Kind.

Meanwhile, Black Buttafly, the soul and funk project of New Brunswick, N.J.-bred and Philadelphia based singer Kayla Childs has a local hit with “Everybody Needs Love.” She plays with her Electric Band upstairs at the Lounge at World Cafe Live on Friday.

The British funk band Cymande who were formed in the 1970s and have been sampled by hip-hop acts including De La Soul, EPMD and The Fugees, have just released in their first album in 10 years, Renascence. They play Ardmore Music Hall on Friday. Brooklyn alt-R&B duo Bathe open.

Scrappy Alabama songwriter Early James plays MilkBoy Philly on Friday, behind Medium Raw, his new album released on Dan Auerbach of the Black Keys’ Easy Eye Sound label. Like all Easy Eye release, its album cover was designed by Philly artist Perry Shall. It includes songs written with Auerbach and Pat McLaughlin as well as Bucks County troubadour Langhorne Slim. Philly songwriter Tim Hause has a record release show for his album Pre-Existing Conditions at MilkBoy on Saturday.

Washington D.C indie soul band, Oh He Dead, whose singer CJ Johnson is a dazzling vocalist have been playing shows in the Philly area with increasing frequency. On Friday, the band is at Arden Gild Hall in support of their impressive new Ugly, with the Sug Daniels Trio opening.

Panda Bear - the Baltimore-raised, Lisbon-based electronic musician and songwriter born Noah Lenox who went to high school in Chester County and is a member of experimental pop band Animal Collective plays Franklin Music Hall on Saturday. His 10th solo album, Sinister Grift, comes out Feb. 28. Chillwave star Toro Y Moi opens.

Mind blowing finger-style guitarist Yasmin Williams — who got her start playing Guitar Hero when she was 12 — also plays kora, banjo and bass. On her new album Acadia, her collaborators include folk singer Aoife O’Donovan, who she opened for and played with at the Annenberg Center in 2023, as well as Philadelphia saxophonist Immanuel Wilkins. On Sunday evening, Williams plays 118 North in Wayne.

Lauren Mayberry of the Scottish synth pop band Chvrches made her solo move with Vicious Creature, a collection that moves her closer to mainstream pop, with the help of producers like Tobias Jesso and Ethan Grushka. She’s at Union Transfer Monday.

That same evening, City Winery Philadelphia hosts MC Lyte, the pioneering rapper from Queens whose 1988 album Lyte As A Rock is considered he first full length rap album by a woman. (That’s an eye-opening stat taking into account that hip-hop was 15 years old by then.)

Scottish rock band Travis’ 1999 album The Man Who — inspired by British neurologist Oliver Sacks’ The Man Who Mistook His Wife For A Hat — has come to be considered a classic as it’s aged. Leader Fran Healy says that the group’s L.A. Times, recorded last year in Los Angeles is their most personal music since then. The quartet plays the Keswick Theatre in Glenside on its Raze The Bar tour on Tuesday.