It is strange that Max's Live in Tokyo isn't recognized as a "classic of the 1970s" on par with say, Mingus' Changes One and Changes Two. I'm sure that the fact that it was released on Denon didn't help. Even so, you'd think that, over time, jazz fans would get hip to it.
I know that it's regarded as an all-time classic on this forum. But elsewhere no one seems to talk about it much.
Of course, I'm coming at it from the perspective of someone who wasn't listening to jazz at the time it was released. (Since I was just a kid in the 70s, I only came to it retrospectively.) Did the record -- and Max's Quartet (in general) -- make a big splash at the time? Were they recognized as "important" relative to other bands? I know that Max was acknowledged as a bebop pioneer. But did folks talk about this band as something special?
Yes!