Independent label Omni Sound has announced a new album, My Words Are Music: A Celebration of Sun Ra’s Poetry, due on August 25, 2023. The impending collection compiles written words strung together by the late jazz luminary delivered by an assortment of artists who personally picked their favorite poems to recite. 

All poetry appears courtesy of the Estate of Sun Ra. The artist notably passed away in 1993 at the age of 79. Despite the bandleader’s demise, the Sun Ra Arkestra has continued under the leadership of Marshall Allen, who, along with Knoel Scott and Tara Middleton, contributed to the sprawling set of 23 compositions. 

Also lending his voice to the mix is the spoken word elder, Abiodun Oweyole of The Last Poets. Added contributions come from rapper and singer-songwriter Saul Williams, jazz experimentalist Melanie Charles, Anthony Joseph, Mahogany L. Browne, Carl Hancock Rux, L’Rain, Tunde Adibempe, Zakia Sewell, Jive Poetic, and the aforementioned members of the Arkestra: Allen, Scott and Middleton. 

My Words Are Music embellishes electronic interludes composed and played by Allen. The previously talked-about contributors whisper new life into Ra’s scripture. “Prepare for the journey,” he writes in his poem, titled “The Cosmic Age,” “You have a rendezvous / With the living wisdom.” 

Pre-order My Words Are Music: A Celebration of Sun Ra’s Poetry.