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Yeah, I have little interest in the book to be honest. The few reviews I've read aren't particularly inspiring.

Teodross Avery “My Generation” Impulse cd

James McMurtry: South Texas Lawman

Agreed that Sun Ra is not spiritual jazz, and agreed that his popularity was held back by the fact that his work on famous labels Impulse and ESP is so much less accessible than other periods of his work like Lanquidity or the Chicago years as exemplified by Jazz in Silhouette, or the current edition of his band

I love that record. ❤️ It's one of Sir Roland's finest, imo.

All very good and valid points regarding the increased popularity of Sun Ra. I think that the major factor in Sun Ra's increased "popularity" has been the increased availability of his music on CDs and records. 30 years ago it was extremely hard, with a few exceptions, to find any Sun Ra records or CDs. But, beginning with the Evidence CD reissues in the 1990s, a slow trickle of Sun Ra releases has turned into an avalanche whereby presently almost his entire prodigious musical output is readily available in one form or another. And in much improved sound quality, thanks to improved technology. Of course, availability of music does not always equal sales and popularity. But, in Sun Ra's case, the increased availability of his music has resulted in a kind of Sun Ra renaissance in the past 10 years due to some of the factors noted by Rabshakeh. However, I am not sure I would put any of Sun Ra's music in the "spiritual jazz" category and tie the increased interest in his music to an increased interest in spiritual jazz. Sun Ra's more "mainstream" albums, like Liquidity, will always have a bigger mass appeal than his more cacophonic "out there" albums. That will always be the case since avant- garde jazz in general appeals to a much smaller demographic. I think that, in Sun Ra's case, people who were curious about Sun Ra's mystique and aura, were finally able to listen to the music due to its ready availability and they liked what they heard. I always say that there is not one Sun Ra but many Sun Ras. Part of his genius was the ability to always move forward and transform his music. There are as many Sun Ra styles as Sun Ra albums. And it only makes sese that more people will be attracted to his more "mainstream" style. But I do not relate those albums to spiritual jazz and do not think that his increased popularity is a result of the spiritual jazz crowd suddenly "discovering" Sun Ra. I may be wrong of course, but it is a very interesting conversation to have about the Sun Ra "phenomena" of the past decade.

Novak String Quartet No.1, Op.22 - Novak Quartet Novak String Quartet No.2, Op.35 - Janacek Quartet

#1 reminded me of Sonny Cox on Argo but at first sight there's no 6 minute track on those albums... Still, I hear Chicago/Argo, not Europe

By the way, the bonus sounds as 70s soft rock to me, the kind of music I could hear in those distant times.

The book is just an endless stream of JC Moses was a pimp and Bertha Hope was on heroin, Frank Haynes, too, and George Brown was on crack and violent and Barbara Donald was on Pepsi, and ... I am sure a lot of it is accurate and some of it is not (e.g. the findagrave memorial on Frank Haynes reads a bit different from the speculation in Simmons' book)... In the case of Barbara Donald, her life would have been so different if Simmons could have managed his addictions to much more serious substances than Pepsi better when their kids were little... So I felt he wasn't in a position to be judgemental... Even though, yes, softdrinks are more dangerous than the industry wants you to believe...

“Roy Hargrove with the Tenors of Our Time” Verve cd 298×300 7.62 KB

CD compiles music originally released on two Mainstream LPs: - Woman Talk: Live at The Village Gate (1966) - "Live" & Wailing (1968)

King Gizzard and the Lizard Wizard - Willoughby's Beach

“Lee Wiley Sings Rogers and Hart” Audiophile cd 300×292 5.8 KB The 1940 Music Box and the 1943 Schirmer recordings. Many greats on board including Brad Gowans, Eddie Condon, Ernie Caceras, George Wettling, Joe Bushkin, Max Kaminsky and Bud Freeman.

Enjoyed the set, but feeling clueless as usual: 1. Alto with organ. Sonny Stitt? 2. Sprightly guitar and gruff tenor. Feels like a vintage 50's recording. Al Casey? Willis Jackson? 3. Jazz Messengers? Relatively few editions of the JM had a bone, but the drummer sure feels like Blakey. 4. I'm dissuaded from a Horace Silver guess by the unusual front line - Alto Tenor and Bari with no brass. 5. Clarinet and guitar featured. Maybe Ken Peplowski with Howard Alden? 6. I have no idea who does the Buena Vista Swing. Or do I? There was a Cuban group called Buena Vista Social Club, I think. But would they sing in English? 7. Guitar duo with some country elements. Chester and Lester? (Chet Atkins and Les Paul) Tune is familiar ... Jambalaya? 8. Jumpin' tune. Charles Mingus? 9. Booker Ervin? 10. Sax duo. Kinda ECM feel, and Dave Liebman was the first name that jumped to mind, but it's not one of his ECMs that I know of. 11. Continuing the mood, but just one sax and piano trio. Jan Garbarek? 12. Township feel. I'll go with Abdullah Ibrahim. 13. The willingness to maintain, as opposed to develop or migrate, a groove indicates a pop sensibility. The groove builds tension nicely. The instrumentation doesn't fit some of the explorers in this realm that I thought of like Bad Plus, EST or Medeski Martin and Wood, or even Sea Level. WIth low confidence, I'll guess Bill Frisell (having just backspaced out John Scofield).