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Brother From Another Planet
How does a guy who jammed and recorded with Miles Davis, John Coltrane, and the Sun Ra Arkestra end up blowing notes into a seashell? By deciding it's right where he wants to be.

Cover Story

How does a guy who jammed and recorded with Miles Davis, John Coltrane, and the Sun Ra Arkestra end up blowing notes into a seashell? By deciding it's right where he wants to be.

Photographs by Darrow Montgomery

Some concert--the place is nearly empty. Self-proclaimed musical pioneer Brother Ah stands at the center of the stage inside downtown's First Congregational Church, backed by his Sound Awareness Ensemble. A few dozen loners and a smattering of couples dot the wooden church pews, making the cavernous hall look more desolate than it usually does. Brother Ah, having played a number on the flute and then another on a harmonica, grabs a white conch shell speckled yellow with ocean tartar and blurts out a series of brassy phrases a la Louis Armstrong.

He uses his hand as a mute and pegs his notes without the benefit of actual keys, maintaining the sweet, round tone of a classical trumpet. On the table behind him lie several pieces--just a fraction--of his exotic instrument collection, which look as though they should be encased in a vitrine at the Smithsonian: nut-adorned rattlers, animal-horn woodwinds, and several types of hand-carved wooden flutes. Ah learned to play one of those flutes, a stretch of gutted Japanese bamboo painted red, from legendary jazz gypsy Don Cherry on midnight strolls through Central Park in the early '60s.... Continued

Issue of Feb. 4 - 10, 2000

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