My Brother the Wind is actually more a companion piece to Night of the Purple Moon than its
Vol. 2 namesake.
My Brother the Wind, Vol. 2 is split between
Ra's solo Moog workouts and full
Arkestra proceedings, while My Brother the Wind shares the same lineup as Night of the Purple Moon, with
Marshall Allen's alto, piccolo, and flute substituting for
Stafford James' electric bass.
Ra plays two mini-Moogs instead of mini-Moog and Rocksichord, with
Danny Davis on alto and clarinet and
John Gilmore on drums. But while the focus on Night of the Purple Moon was on composed numbers, My Brother the Wind is a much freer session. The title cut is just
Ra on his two mini-Moogs and
Gilmore on drums. One Moog has a bass-type setting, while the other sounds something like whistling white noise (wind?). "Intergalaxtic II" is a full freakout session, with both altos going crazy in the right channel,
Gilmore's drums in the left channel, and the mini-Moogs in the center. "To Nature's God" is just
Ra and
Gilmore again. "The Code of Interdependence" has
Ra really putting the Moogs through their paces, although
Gilmore also gets some tenor space (with
Danny Davis moving to the drums, presumably). If you're into the "out" side of
Sun Ra, and like his singular and unorthodox Moog playing, try to find a copy of My Brother the Wind. [This release was remastered and co-produced by
Michael D. Anderson (of the Sun Ra Music Archive) and
Irwin Chusid under the auspices of Sun Ra LLC, the heirs of the late music legend. Original session tapes were used when available and sound quality should surpass all previous CD/digital editions.] ~ Sean Westergaard