The Execution of Sun Ra: The Mysterious Tale of a Dark Body Sent to Earth to Usher in an Unprecedented Era of Cosmic Regeneration and Happiness (Volume II)

       The Execution of Sun Ra is a 6 x 9", 242-page paperback with b&w images by William Brower, Leon Collins, Yusef Jones, Lee Santa, Paula Stanley, Charles Steck, and Michael Wilderman. The cover illustration was done by Erica Fallin and the book design by Al Morrow. Author and cyberpunk theorist Kirby Malone provided editing. Kifah Foutah provided editorial assistance.        On May 22, 2014, a global community of committed fans celebrated the 100th anniversary of the birth of one of jazz music's most enduring and colorful enigmas. Drawing equally from the ancient mythological and the futuristic technomagical, Sun Ra declared an "official" end to time and invited the most courageous and creative of Earth's people to join him in constructing an alternative planetary destiny.        Ethnomusicologist Thomas Stanley's book is intended to bring Sun Ra's philosophy and message into classrooms, workplaces, homes, and hearts around the world. Titled in homage to a Sun Ra pun on the double meaning of the English word execute, Dr. Stanley's work offers less an exegesis of the copious legacy of the iconoclastic artist's unique cosmospeak than an active intellectual response to Sun Ra's thickly layered take on the condition and fate of intelligent life on Earth. Stanley, who has previously coauthored an oral history on rhythm and blues revolutionaries Parliament/Funkadelic, takes on Ra's kingdom with a well-sourced rhizomatic reading that interweaves discussions of topics ranging from clinical definitions of death, slave spirituality in the Antebellum South, and the potential ramifications of civilization-crippling coronal mass ejections with a thorough review of Sun Ra's signature ideas.       Stanley positions Sun Ra's work with live musical performance as history-altering participatory ritual in opposition to the somber atomic consequences of the Manhattan Project, launched, interestingly enough, at nearly the exact same time and place as Ra's prime creative vessel - his Arkestra. Greg Tate wrote the foreword. There are two appendices including the first published transcript of Stanley's October 1990 interview with Sun Ra and several transcriptions of similar previously unpublished material. There's also a recommended playlist of Sun Ra music to enhance your reading pleasure.