A late-life interview with Sun Ra – one recorded in the studio of composer Charlie Morrow, who is wise enough to let Ra open up and speak his mind! There's no music at all on the record – which is great, as you get to hear the wisdom of Sun Ra in a very different way than when he's playing piano, or leading the Arkestra – speaking in a voice that's both full of the larger ideas that have always shown up in his writings, but with a quality that's surprisingly down to earth! That side of Ra isn't always that well documented – and the record is a great illustration of the charms that Ra could have when working at a very interpersonal level – still a man of concepts, but also a man of the people as well. (Jazz, Spoken Word) LP, Vinyl record album

A long-overdue follow-up to Ken's last Word Jazz album for Dot – done for Nordine's own Snail Records label nearly 20 years after the last one! The style here is less "jazz" and more atmospheric than before – very much in the mode of Nordine's Word Jazz syndicated radio show from the 80s and 90s. The vocal tricks and sense of humor's still nicely in place, and if anything the experimental style of the record is pushed even more than before. Backings include Howard Levy on keyboards and Paul Wertico on drums – and side one is a suite of tracks on "The Seasons", while side two features "Other Stuff". Individual titles include "The Swami", "Feet Of Clay", "Charlie Bingbang", "What's So Funny", "Summer Madness", "Getting Ready", and "Winter Sketch". LP, Vinyl record album

Kenneth Patchen, like Kenneth Rexroth, was one of the few poets who really understood what it meant to read and write in a jazz idiom – as you'll hear on this excellent set of beatnik jazz tracks! The album features Patchen reading in a great style – angular, cynical, really working the words of his poems perfectly over backings by the Alan Neil Quartet. The poems are set to music written by George Wallington, Charlie Parker, and others – and tracks include "There's A Place", "They Won't Let You In There", "Do I Not Deal With Angels", "Not Many Kingdoms Left", "The Lonesome Boy Blues", "As I Opened The Window", and "A Sight Is Little Altered". CD

Narrated by Jack Brickhouse, Bert Wilson, Charlie Grimm, Hal Totten, Lew Fonseca and others. LP, Vinyl record album