On the album, Murray is joined by saxophonists Roscoe Mitchell, Archie Shepp and Kenneth Terroade, trumpeter Lester Bowie, cornetist Clifford Thornton, trombonist Grachan Moncur III, vocalist Jeanne Lee, pianist Dave Burrell, bassist Alan Silva, and percussionists Malachi Favors, Earl Freeman, and Arthur Jones.

[2] The album was recorded as part of a marathon week-long BYG session which also produced Murray's Sunshine as well as albums by artists such as Archie Shepp (Yasmina, a Black Woman, Poem for Malcolm, and Blasé), the Art Ensemble Of Chicago (Message to Our Folks and Reese and the Smooth Ones), Grachan Moncur III (New Africa), Alan Silva (Luna Surface), Dave Burrell (Echo), Andrew Cyrille (What About?

"[2] Writing for Red Bull Music Academy, Britt Robson remarked: "'Suns of Africa,' performed by a 13-piece band, is notable for its restraint.

Multiple bells and percussion, then braided flute and wordless vocals, all work to provide a ceremonial ambiance well-suited for a big canvas...

The impact is like that of viewing an exquisitely woven expanse of African kente cloth for the first time: dazzling bold colors softly modulate in and out of attention, as the stripes of color seem to float in a rhythmically pulsing paradise... Homage to Africa... includes three dirges, and no drummer or composer in jazz puts as much delicate sweetness as well as muscular torque into dirges.