I find it hard to say less than positive things as I know all the work that goes into writing a work like this. But I didn't like this book at all. It felt like a bit of an ego trip to me and I didn't come away from it enriched or excited about an art form in which I participate in both as a composer and a performer. Arcana, Forces in Motion and Experimental Music do a much better job than this. Sorry.

History, styles, and cultural and spiritual implications of the out jazz scene (primarily New York) are well documented in this 200 page text. If you are "going out" with your music, this is a valuable reference for recorded music and scholarly texts. Author is multiinstrumentalist and has a background in anthropology