Headpress blurb for this book » Composer, bandleader, pianist, poet and philosopher, Sun Ra is one of the most colourful and enduring of musical legacies, transcending time, place and cultural genres. From the mid 1950s until his death in 1993, Sun Ra led "The Arkestra", an ensemble with an ever-changing line-up and name which sometimes numbered as many as thirty musicians living and playing together under the despotic tutelage of Sun Ra himself. Their music touched upon the entire history of jazz, from ragtime to swing, bebop to free jazz,while the band also pioneered the use of new forms, including electronic music, space music and free improvisation. But Sun Ra's legendary status was earned as much for his eccentricities as for his unique artistic vision. Claiming to be from Saturn, he developed and propagated a mystifying sci-fi mythology which he weaved into both the music and Dadaist performances of The Arkestra (performances which inspired artists as diverse as George Clinton and MC5). His ideas are still the cause of much debate and controversy, the poetry and prose Sun Ra left behind only deepening the ambiguities around his work and ideas.

Sea Urchin says » This book - edited and signed by John Sinclair - collects together for the first time interviews with Sun Ra, the people that knew him, and his contemporaries, alongside illuminating essays and conversational pieces regarding his prolific musical output, mystique, philosophy, fans and much more.

It's All Good: A John Sinclair Reader is een bloemlezing van John Sinclair's artikelen en gedichten van de afgelopen 40 jaar. Het boek bevat teksten over o.a. Sun Ra, Jack Kerouac, Iggy Pop, en John Lennon. Daarnaast belicht het boek Sinclairs periode als manager van The MC5, voorzitter van The White Panther Party, en producer van het Ann Arbor Blues & Jazz Festival.

Facsimile uitgave van Sinclairs "Suite for John Coltrane", die in 1967 door de Detroit Artists' Workshop Press is uitgegeven. Heruitgegeven in een oplage van 500.

Na de rellen in Detroit van 1967 ontwikkelde de White Panther Party zich uit de Detroit Artists' Workshop, een collectief onder de leiding van John en Leni Sinclair dat zijn creativiteit radicaal wijdde aan "a total assault on the culture". Politiek, muziek, psychedelica, en kunst werden tot een revolutionaire beweging gesmeed met The MC5's rock en Gary Grimshaws grafische vormgeving als bekendste exponenten. De White Panther Party nam qua organisatie en naamgeving de Black Panther Party als voorbeeld en ontwikkelde zich tot een vitaal onderdeel van de counter-culture.
Nadat John Sinclair in 1969 door een undercover agent van de FBI in de val was gelokt en tot negeneneenhalf tot tien jaar cel was veroordeeld wegens het bezit van twee joints, bundelde zijn vrouw zijn "street writings" en "prison writings" tot GUITAR ARMY. Het 366 pagina's tellende, mooi vormgegeven en gedrukt boek is een waar document van de counter-culture in het algemeen en van de White Panther Party in het bijzonder.

Verkrijgbaar via Sea Urchin zijn de gesigneerde en van een opdracht voorziene exemplaren van de originele eerste druk van John Sinclairs GUITAR ARMY uit 1972 (alle exemplaren in prima staat). GUITAR ARMY is samengesteld door Johns toenmalige vrouw Leni Sinclair, vormgegeven door Gary Grimshaw, en uitgegeven door Douglas Book Corporation, NYC.

PEYOTEMIND is een project dat van start ging tijdens het onderzoek dat voorafging aan de CD MUSIC IS REVOLUTION (The End Is Here #10). Een uit 1963 daterend schrift van John Sinclair werd gevonden in een doos papieren. Het bleek poëzie en een essay te bevatten die rechtstreeks geschreven waren onder de invloed van peyote. Dit werk is heruitgegeven door The End Is Here en werd de basis van het 33 minuten durende titelnummer van de CD PEYOTEMIND. Het boek en de CD kunnen apart besteld worden.

Uit het persbericht:

At the height of the sixties, John and Leni Sinclair were leaders of the counterculture movement in Michigan, organizers of radical social, political, and cultural endeavors primarily in the areas of music, poetry, graphic design, and community welfare projects.

During the 1960s and 1970s John Sinclair founded or was active in a variety of political and cultural groups including the Artists' Workshop in Detroit, the Rainbow Multi-Media Corporation, the White Panther Party and its offshoot, the Rainbow Peoples Party; and had ties to various national radical organizations. he was an organizer of the Ann Arbor Jazz and Blues Festival and concerts and managed several rock bands, most notably the MC5. He was arrested for passing marijuana cigarettes to an underVoorkant agent and was the subject of significant legal proceedings involving government surveillance and wiretapping. After 1979 Sinclair devoted most of his time to writing, music, journalism, hosting a radio program, and giving live performances of his poetry, generally with the accompaniment of a jazz or blues band. In 1990 Sinclair left Detroit for New Orleans.

JOHN SINCLAIR AND THE CULTURE OF THE SIXTIES was published by the Bentley Historical Library of the University of Michigan, and contains a.o. the essay Poetry is Revolution by Cary Loren, a Manifesto of the Artists' Workshop Society, and an audio CD with recordings of poetry readings at the Detroit Artists' Workshop from 1964 to 1966.

Re-print published by Bookbeat Gallery Press. First published by the Detroit Artist Workshop in 1965 in a limited edition of 500 copies. THIS IS OUR MUSIC is a visual, lyrical and high-impact poetry tract which contained the passionate seeds of John's early radical politics. THIS IS OUR MUSIC was an early manifesto of the 1960's, and remains a cornerstone to the movement and rhythms of the city of Detroit, and John's life-long love-affair with Out-poetics & Jazz, which has remained at the core of his vision.
The Bookbeat version is a facsimile edition limited to 500 copies.