The new Sun Ra webpage on
Bandcamp is an embarrassment of riches, with dozens of the bandleader's albums for streaming, downloading and ordering physical product. The first album on the list is My Brother the Wind Part One, recorded in 1969, released the following year, and containing some of Sun Ra's earliest experiments with the
Moog Synthesizer. This is a small band recording with only Ra, John Gilmore on drums and tenor saxophone, Marshall Allen on alto saxophone, piccolo and oboe, Danny Davis on alto saxophone, alto clarinet and drums and Gershon Kingsley programming the Moog itself. The recording is fascinating, running the gamut from electronic experimentation to free jazz and everything in-between. "My Brother the Wind" is a spacey performance with Ra probing the textures and possibilities of the instrument. Things get stronger in "Intergalactic II" with squalls of saxophone placed against Ra's kneading of electronic notes and chords. He has a unique conception of the instrument, taking it in a vastly different direction than progressive rock groups like ELP and King Crimson or composers like Wendy Carlos. The fractured electronic bells and chimes of "From Nature's God" are framed by Allen's piccolo getting a light and airy sound with subtle percussion from Gilmore. This would lead into the sprawling track "The Code Of Interdependence" which begins with Ra exploring the nature of the instrument, trying different approaches pushing it into electronic overdrive. Subtle percussion focuses the experiment, while reed swirl around the performance. The music gets progressively wilder as the group locks into a groove and the reeds are able to make solid statements over the keyboards and drums. Ra holds a massive sustain note that pierces your brain and then goes to town improvising against his own tone, blasting out sounds of future video games as Gilmore thrashes the drums. This is where the original album ends, but this expanded edition adds almost thirty more minutes of music, beginning with two takes of "The Perfect Man" with slick keyboards and saxophone and a functional drum beat. These are compact and well contained performances, but the real treat is the nearly eighteen minute version of "Space Probe" which stands with "Atlantis" and "The Magic City" as one of Ra's most exciting long form works. He's got the machine working for him now, bending it to his will and blasting off laser sounds into the cosmos. The other musicians stand down and he is able to get a wide range of fantastic textures and color from the instrument, and seems giddy at the possibilities, building massive swathes of sound from the patches available on the synthesizer. This is a fascinating and at times astonishing album. Sun Ra takes the Moog and creates thoroughly original music that is extraordinary and completely his own.
My Brother The Wind, Vol. 1 - Bandcamp
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