The photo was taken by Ernest Withers, a Memphis photographer. I'm not sure what it's about. I have a book of his photographs, so I'll check tomorrow and see if there's some information in it.
I like the music of Bobby Bradford, John Carter, Richard Davis, and Andrew Cyrille very much, but Don Preston's extraneous and unnecessary piano and synthesizer pretty much ruin this record for me.
I don't want to get into any sort of anti-Ira Gitler mode on this thread. Obviously, ne meant a lot to many people here and I don't want to step on their feelings of loss.
I will make a comment on one statement you make: "One reason apparently was that Ira GItler had the monstrosity of not openly and immediately embracing the "new thing". There's a big difference between not embracing a certain type of music and writing angry diatribes against it.