HutchFan

More Allen Toussaint:

Next up: David Friedman - Winter Love, April Joy (East Wind/Inner City, rec. 1975)

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Now spinning: "Did You See Harold Vick?"

Flora Purim - Open Your Eyes (Milestone, 1976) featuring some stunning electric bass playing by Alphonso Johnson A desert-island disc for me too.

Probably my favorite recording of Mahler's Eighth Symphony.

I just ordered a copy of this LP, based on a recommendation from @jazzcorner.

Disc 1 - Lieder by Brahms

GLORIOUS "big band"/pre-HIP Mozart.

BBS, I completely agree with you it's easier than ever to explore the less popular byways of jazz. Without a doubt, that's true. The internet has been a game changer in terms of making music available. Nearly all of the financial and availability constraints that were there in past decades are gone. So, YES, it's a great time to be a jazz listener. On the other hand, that's not what I'm talking about. I'm talking about value assessments that happen at a cultural level. How do we determine -- as a culture -- what is important & what has currency? For example, which artists are part of the canon? Who made the canon? Who has been excluded and why? Is it even good to think in terms of "canon"? What deserves to be re-assessed and why? . . . All of this is part of a wider discussion than the individual exploration thing. My 2 cents.

Disc 1

This commentary makes all sorts of sense to me. Especially as someone who, like Rab, was NOT there at the time and has come to the entire body of 1960s jazz retrospectively. I think the historiography of jazz -- which is in a continuous state of evolution, and apart from the evolution of the music itself -- is an important piece of the puzzle for understanding why some artists are ignored by critics, historians, and other cultural "taste makers." Think about an artist like Ahmad Jamal. When I first was digging into jazz in the 1980s, authors would go out of their way to denigrate him as a mere "cocktail pianist." In short, his most important attribute was the influence he exerted on (the "far more important" artist) Miles Davis. But the critical narrative around Jamal has changed dramatically since the 1980s. This is due to all sorts of factors. But, in essence, his body of work hasn't changed but people's perceptions of his body of work have changed. You could say the same thing about many artists. Their perceived value varies depending on circumstances that have nothing to do with their art itself. It has more to do with the values of the people making judgments about it.

Now playing: Giovanni Hidalgo - Time Shifter (TropiJazz/Sony, 1996)

Wish I could've been there for that!

One of Mal's finest hours. For me, it's a desert-island disc.

Excellent!

That's a fantastic record, imo.

Now playing: Rusty Bryant - Soul Liberation (Prestige, 1970) as heard on Bryant's Legends of Acid Jazz CD Tremendous. Oh yeah!

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