Kelan Phil Cohran & Legacy African Skies

Kelan Phil Cohran & Legacy's 1993 Album African Skies on 180g LP: Sourced from the Original DAT Recording, Mastered and Cut by Josh Bonati with Audio Restoration by Michael Graves, and Pressed by Fidelity Record Pressing

Stones Throw Records debuts the new imprint Listening Position with the long-awaited reissue of Kelan Phil Cohran & Legacy’s spiritual jazz masterpiece African Skies. A holy grail for jazz collectors, African Skies has been out of print since its initial pressing of 1000 vinyl copies in 2010. The thousands who’ve long sought their own copy will welcome this reissue as the definitive version of this profound recording. 

Listening Position is proud to present the first official reissue of this cosmic masterpiece. Originally recorded in 1993 for the Adler Planetarium in Chicago, African Skies stands as one of the few official releases outside of Cohran’s seminal work in the 1960s with The Sun Ra Arkestra and The Artistic Heritage Ensemble.

Cohran drew upon his research of the celestial, spiritual and ancestral throughout these compositions. Beguiling and gently psychedelic, the performances weave together themes of transcendence and the magnitude of the universal unknown. The instrumentation is entirely unique, with two double basses, two harps and a world of percussion laying the foundation for melodic explorations of cornet, voice and the Frankiphone – Cohran’s hand-built, ethereal-sounding electrified Kalimba.

Kelan Phil Cohran was a member of the pioneering afro-futurist Sun Ra Arkestra and appears on several of their most acclaimed recordings. He released several albums of his own compositions in the 1960s with his band The Artistic Heritage Ensemble, including a revelatory tribute to Malcom X – a well-known collectible for jazz aficionados. Cohran was a mentor to artists such as Earth, Wind & Fire, Chaka Khan and The Hypnotic Brass Ensemble, a Chicago-based brass band whose members included 8 of his sons.

This edition – sourced from the original DAT recording – is mastered and cut by Josh Bonati, with audio restoration by Michael Graves. The 180g vinyl is housed in a laminated Stoughton tip-on gatefold jacket with restored cover art, newly unearthed photos from the Cohran family, and original program notes from the Adler Planetarium. Pressed by Fidelity Record Pressing.