I don't know what there is to prove...he was a very competent player who had no compunctions about following the marketplace wherever it lead. Sometimes that was delightful, sometimes dreadful. But he always kept good bands and promoted from within. Not everybody ddid/does.
And he sold a buttload - not just a regular buttload, but a BIGASS buttload of records in his lifetime. People who didn't buy them then won't buy them now, and people who are suspicious of success won't be motivated. But I like the guy for what he was - a competent craftsman who had a knack for presentation and worked with that instead of resisting it. I like a good popular jazzmusic as well as a good challenging one. In a perfect world, you get both in the same place, but how long has this world been a perfect one?
And truthfully, I liked him best when he more or less just played the melody. Like Eddie Harris, he was very good at that (although unlike Eddie Harris, he didn't have fifty bajillion extra levers of gears to go to). I have some Herbie Mann records, and feel good about it!
But stuff like this, this is nice, simple, soulful music that shouldn't enrage anybody and please many for as long as it's on.
And oh yeah, Sonny Sharrock and Fathead in the same band. Live band. Hell yeah.
And oh HELL yeah - Bruno Carr. That's all anybody needs to know afaic, Bruno Carr. Pocket enough for both hands and your daddy's billfold, that's the pocket of Bruno Carr.