One of the rare jazz players and soloists whose main instrument was the French horn, Robert Northern, aka Brother Ah, was among the busiest session musicians of the '50s and '60s. He worked and recorded with numerous jazz stars, among them Donald Byrd, John Coltrane, Gil Evans, Sun Ra, Gil Evans, McCoy Tyner, Rahsaan Roland Kirk, and the Jazz Composers Orchestra. Northern led some ensemble recordings as Brother Ah from the '70s into the '90s, including Sound Awareness (1974), Move Ever Onward (1975), Key to Nowhere (1983), Open Sky (1986), and Celebration! (1993). Some of these dates were released or reissued on CD, and Brother Ah can also be heard on recordings by Evans, Kirk, Ra, and others. After a yearlong battle with respiratory illness, Robert Northern died on May 31, 2020, at the age of 86. ~ Ron Wynn, Rovi