Rabshakeh

He'll break. Give him a week or two on that schedule and he'll break.

Szwed has a long passage on Sun Ra's use of afrocentric freemasonic / protestant books and pamphlets. He also links it back to the prevalence of freemasonry in the American south in the first half of the 20th century, including in the African American parts of Birmingham in Alabama. Again, it is interesting to find that Anthony Braxton refers to some of the same books that Szwed says inspired Sun Ra in his interviews with Graham Lock.

I was thinking that specifically in relation to the poem on the second side. Some of the same imagery from it then recurs in the poem on the opening track of Fanfare for the Warriors, which I think is by Malachi Favors. I was a kid when Nas and Wu Tang were in their original pomp, and spent a lot of time as a teenager obsessing over what the 5% references meant, and this has the same "feel" as you say. Query the Hebrew too - it looks like someone who does not know Hebrew has tried to transliterate the English name "Cain" back into Hebrew, without knowing the original spelling and using a non-final letter for the last letter by mistake. Then again, it could be anything.

I'd avoided them until now, because I thought they were a bit Pitchfork. Stupid prejudgement to make, which will be corrected.

I don't know Neuringer at all. I will definitely check this out. Thank you.

I find that equally billed group leader dates seem to reduce a record's profile dramatically, and Beresford has a real taste for them.

New York for me. Atlantis, Heliocentric, Vol. 1 and Other Planes of There are three of my favourite records of all time. The Chicago stuff less so. My first experience of them was that they were just so normal (although I've come to see how unique they were since then - and certainly they were). Anyway: NYC Sun Ra or Philadelphia Sun Ra?

Idle lunch time thought: does anyone know whether the cover of Levels and Degrees of Light is intended to carry a specific meaning? It looks very clearly symbolic, including the rather unlikely looking Hebrew script, the ankh and the white marking on the hill. I am surprised that the internet does not seem to carry any theorising regarding its meaning. Also, does anyone know what happened to the poet David Moore who reads the poem "Bird Song"? From Google, I see that there was a poet named Daniel Moore who has worked with both Threadgill and Mitchell. Is there any relationship between the two?

Thanks. So uncompromising that you can't even google it. I will check it out.

Got it. Just got a share in the distribution profits. I will check that one out too. Thanks!

I hadn't seen that bandcamp page. So many words. I'm actually very impressed by it. I see from Bandcamp that he has a lot of other records out, mostly in group format. If anyone has any they've enjoyed, please let me know.

Patrick Shiroishi - Resting In The Heart of a Green Shade (2021) More solo saxophone. I'm enjoying this one a lot.

Andrew Bernstein - An Exploded View of Time (Hausu Mountain, 2018)

Oh my god.

It's not far from me: perfect distance for getting kids to sleep in a pram, having a coffee and accidentally buying a record (who could have foreseen?), and then heading home in time for the afternoon session. I also wanted to buy The Wire this week for the Pat Thomas I/V. OTO has a new bookshelf that is the chief draw for me at the moment. It is really an incredible selection. I have no idea whether it will keep up the pace, but I don't know of any bookshop of any genre that can keep up with it at the moment.

Thanks. I have that Brice duo on my list to check out, and will have a look at the Polish one too. On the AS / IA front, the only crossover is that the people on social media whom I used to see enthusiastically endorsing AS records are now enthusiastically endorsing IA records. I don't think they share much musical ground, but possibly they share an audience.

The New Gary Burton Quarter - Guided Tour (Mack Avenue, 2013) Right up there with Burton's best.

Am I missing something? Is this an affectionate nickname?

You're charitable. I have an elaborate theory involving the Illuminati going on which I think better explains it.

Dizzy Reece - Asia Minor (New Jazz, 1962).

I feel like the polish has come off Astral Spirits' operation recently. I'm not sure why (lower marketing budget? oversaturation? getting squeezed out by International Anthem?), but the releases don't seem to be making the splash online and in the press that they once were. I assume there's been no dip in quality. By the way, has anyone encountered anything stellar recently? I'm in the mood for something new, but nothing has caught my eye. It feels a bit like everything got released last year, and this year artists are having a breather. Then again, I may have just blinked at the wrong time.

Not really a response to the above, but I am an original running order completist. There's nothing that enrages me more than a CD reissue that alters the order or adds bonus tracks or alternative takes in the middle. I know I'm not alone in this.

Creative Arts Ensemble - One Step Out (Nimbus West, 1981) A great record, probably one of my favourite non-Tapscott UGMAAs, that I was pleased to find at Cafe OTO. But when I took it home I was surprised to find it is a double LP re-release. Literally 8-9 minutes of music for each side of vinyl. What's the logic?

No lie. She just did this again.