Italian journalist Mario Calvitti writes a long good review on the TEB book on AllAboutJazz web site at
This is a quick translation from Italian:
"One of the historical groups of the London underground scene of the late '60s, the Third Ear Band founded by percussionist Glen Sweeney is experiencing a moment of renewed interest. First Esoteric Recordings has reissued the three albums released by the group between 1969 and 1973, in remastered and expanded editions with plenty of unpublished material of extreme interest; now ReR Megacorp (independent record label well known for its activities in the field of avant-garde and committed music) is printing (only in English) a book about the group edited by the Italian freelance journalist Luca Chino Ferrari, their biggest fan and official biographer, and already author of their return on the scene between 1988 and 1992.
The book is not a real history of the band, but rather a collection of various materials (mainly a series of interviews with Sweeney, the band members and other characters that orbited around them) collected by the author in years of research and already largely present on the site ghettoraga.blogspot.com created by him and soon became an obligatory reference point for anyone looking for news or information about the group. Through the testimonies of the protagonists of that historical period we can reconstruct not only the history of the band and its members in all its incarnations, but also the musical scene of the time that saw them among the protagonists, with all the contour of esotericism and mysticism due to the interest in Eastern philosophies, which for Sweeney was a way of life and not just a fashion of the time. Just the figure of the percussionist (died in 2005) emerges strongly from the pages of the book, as was also expected since the band was a direct emanation of him. In addition to interviews in which he tells the story of the group, the book contains sections devoted to his writings, poems and various quotations that reveal the complex personality.
The book is completed by a photographic section, a complete discography, and a chronology of all the main events related to the band's life. Moreover, to the volume is attached a CD with some unreleased tracks recorded for what should have been the third album of the group, never published, containing a little less than half an hour of music.
Perhaps the rich and abundant material could be organized differently to be more accessible to those who are less familiar with the group, but the book is definitely a must for anyone interested in a first-hand testimony by those who lived that unique and unrepeatable period, and to (re) discover one of the most original groups that emerged from that scene."
no©2021 LucaChinoFerrari (unless you intend to make a profit. In which case, ask first).
