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 miniMoogs instead of miniMoog 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 miniMoogs 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 miniMoogs 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. ~ Sean Westergaard